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My first reminiscence of the Olympics was watching Eric Heiden in the course of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. We didn’t watch a lot TV in the home once I was rising up, however I believe my mother had a little bit of a crush on Eric, so every time he skated it was on full blast. I knew nothing about velocity skating, however by the point he received his fifth gold medal I used to be launched to the Olympic spirit.
That preliminary publicity to the Olympics grew to become an obsession whereas watching the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Rising up in Colorado, downhill ski racing was my sport of selection in the course of the winter months. Watching racers like Invoice Johnson, Debbie Armstrong, Christin Cooper, and Phil and Steve Mahre win medals implanted a imaginative and prescient in my head of standing on the Olympic podium myself someday. The issue was I wasn’t that nice of a ski racer!
In the summertime of 1984, my household and I have been up wind browsing at Harvey Hole reservoir like we frequently did on weekends. All of a sudden my dad began packing up the automotive sooner than regular. I used to be a bit confused as we usually stayed till darkish, however evidently, he needed to get again residence to look at a man named Alexi Grewal, who lived simply up the valley from us in Glenwood Springs, race the Olympic highway race in Los Angeles.
We had a small black and white TV that plugged into the cigarette lighter of our Jeep Wagoneer and was in some way in a position to get the channel tuned in. My dad’s plan was to look at as we drove residence within the automotive after which watch the ultimate on TV at residence. The one downside was that as we began driving, we misplaced reception and realized we have been too removed from residence to have the ability to watch the ultimate, so we circled to the place we final had reception and watched from the facet of the highway.
I didn’t know something about bike racing on the time, however watching Alexi Grewal beat Steve Bauer in an exhilarating dash end for the gold medal despatched a shiver up my backbone. I don’t know why, as I didn’t actually have a highway bike, however that imaginative and prescient of standing on the Olympic podium was much more clear in my head.
There’s a lengthy story of how I transferred my focus from soccer, baseball, and snowboarding into biking, however I’ll save that for an additional day.
I made the transition from junior to senior racing in 1990. I used to be shortly in a position to adapt to the longer and more durable races and it was clear that my objective was to make the 1992 Olympic group for Barcelona. In my thoughts this could be the primary of many as after 1992, the Olympics could be open to professionals. Let’s simply say that issues didn’t go in accordance with plan…
In 1992, I wound up not making the group for Barcelona.
In 1996 I had an episode of RVST (re-entrant supraventricular tachycardia) in the course of the trials and didn’t make the group for Atlanta.
In 2000, I used to be driving terribly and had no likelihood in any respect to make the group for Sydney.
In 2004, I used to be getting older however had not too long ago switched groups to Staff CSC and felt reborn on the bike after just a few years of poor outcomes and low confidence. I don’t know what it was, however abruptly, I used to be glad and driving nicely once more. The qualification standards for the Olympic group have been fairly sophisticated, however the first race of the yr the place you possibly can qualify for a spot for the upcoming video games in Athens was Paris-Good.
I wound up ending third that yr in Paris-Good which put my title within the combine for the Olympic highway race. I knew that there have been much more qualification races left on the calendar and quite a lot of guys from the USA have been driving nicely, so I didn’t give that a lot thought to it.
Because the season went on, the dream of taking part within the Olympics began to grow to be actual as my title was nonetheless on the checklist of 5 riders who met the qualification standards for the highway race, however with all of the politics that generally play a component in closing choice, I wouldn’t say that I used to be assured in making the group.
When the decision lastly got here that I might be representing Staff USA within the highway race it was one of many proudest days of my life. After lacking the chance to symbolize my nation within the earlier three Olympic Video games, I used to be lastly going to be an Olympian!
I knew that my possibilities to medal within the highway race could be fairly slim, so I deliberate to soak in each expertise that being on the Olympics provides to the fullest. I figured that each one I might come residence with is a cool monitor go well with and a few nice recollections, however then my cellphone rang…
My coronary heart sank as I figured that I used to be about to learn that by a “coaches’ resolution” I had been faraway from the group choice. I neglect who it was from USA Biking who referred to as, however as an alternative of being faraway from the group, I used to be knowledgeable that I might even be one in every of two riders taking part within the time trial occasion!
It’s one other lengthy story for an additional time between the time this name occurred and stepping onto the Olympic podium in Athens, however imagine me, the sensation is even higher than you possibly can think about.
Staff USA is stacked this yr with nice cyclists in many various disciplines and I’m actually wanting ahead to watching as many occasions as I can and cheering them on. I do know that each rider on the Olympics has their very own distinctive story about how they acquired up to now, however my recommendation to all of them is similar: get pleasure from each second of it.
Good luck to all of the athletes taking part in Paris! Convey residence some {hardware}, however the tracksuit is fairly cool as nicely.