Update on Indiana Athletes

I haven’t lived in Indiana for over 30 years, but the roots run deep. I’ve been featuring Purdue and Indiana athletes in this blog. There is a good article in the Indianapolis Star that gets reactions from various athletes impacted by the postponement of the Olympics.

Check out the article here.

Tokyo 2020 is still Tokyo 2020 but not in 2020

Quite expectedly, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been postponed. Exactly one year. I didn’t immediately post to this blog because I didn’t break the story so I didn’t think it would really increase my numbers.

Actually I would have posted, but work stuff was crazy for me around the same time and after a full day of sitting in the home office talking into my monitor, I really didn’t feel like rotating my chair 90 degrees from the work computer to my home computer and write more depressing news.

In all honesty, delaying a year does not change our ability or enthusiasm to go, and for that I am grateful. I do feel for the athletes who have been making so many sacrifices to prepare for THIS YEAR and now they have to re-think everything. There was an article in the New York Times about the impact. Steele Johnson, who I’ve highlighted before, was featured in the article.

Steele Johnson, a diver who won a silver medal for the United States at the 2016 Rio Games, woke up Tuesday morning to texts from friends saying they were so sorry that the Summer Olympics had been postponed. They knew how hard it had been for Johnson, 23, and his wife Hilary, to make ends meet as he pursued a gold medal in Tokyo.

When he read the news, Johnson said, he felt it in the pit of his stomach.

“We’ve had a very, very tough year financially,” he said. “I don’t know if I could keep up a lifestyle like this for another 12 to 15 months of just diving without getting a full-time job. It’s hard to think about making more sacrifices than we already have.”

On a lighter note, the Olympics is still being called Tokyo 2020, so I don’t have to change the name of this blog! 

Cycling update – COVID-19 woes, quarantine fitness, Chloé Dygert Owen dominance

Most, but not all cyclists quarantined on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi have been released after testing negative for COVID-19. However, a few teams remain and some of them are not happy. At all.

Nathan Peter Haas, who I’ve followed on Twitter for years, put together a pretty funny video, trying to make the best of it.

Credit to The Peloton Brief for this post.

In other cool news, Chloé Dygert Owen, featured here before, has won several gold medals in the Track Worlds, including a world record in the Individual Pursuit and the Women’s Team Pursuit.

Athlete spotlight – Chloé Dygert – women’s cycling

The current World Champion in the individual time trial is Indiana’s own Chloé Dygert. She grew up in Brownsburg and went to Marian College and she kicks ass. She’s also a Rio Olympics medalist at age 19 in team pursuit.

The US has two entries in the individual time trial.

You can follow her on Twitter, Instagram, or check out her website.

She is also married to Logan Owen, who is a professional rider on the EF Education First. He got his start in BMX, moved to cyclocross, and then moved to road racing. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

The women’s time trial runs over the same course as the men, but unfortunately only completes one lap instead of the two for the men.

She hopes to race track, road, and time trial at the 2020 Olympics.

source – https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/sport/olympic/road-cycling/individual-detail/

She hopes to race track, road, and time trial at the 2020 Olympics.