‘I feel like my life is in limbo’: Iowa’s Olympic hopefuls react to postponement decision
Cody GoodwinThomas Gilman, a former Iowa Hawkeyes wrestler, was sitting at home when he heard the news.
Laulauga Tausaga, a senior thrower for the Iowa women’s track team, had just finished a workout when she found out.
Shelby Houlihan, a Sioux City East grad, didn’t learn until her phone started blowing up sometime Monday afternoon.
“I’ve not been very good about keeping up with the news,” Houlihan, a 2016 Olympian, told the Des Moines Register. “I started getting calls and texts and people were asking, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ I was like, ‘Wait, what?’
“I didn’t realize it was official, but honestly, I’m not surprised.”
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound informed USA TODAY Sports of the decision Monday afternoon.
The news quickly made its way to the United States’ Olympic hopefuls, including many athletes from Iowa.
Gilman is one of 11 wrestlers with Iowa ties who had already qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which were set for April 4-5 at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. The three-time NCAA All-American and 2017 world silver medalist was among the contenders to make the team.
The spread of COVID-19 forced USA Wrestling, the sport’s national governing body, to postpone the trials, which came a day after the NCAA announced the cancellation of its remaining winter and spring championships. All champions from the 2020 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, originally set for March 19-21, would have automatically qualified for the trials.
“I think the writing has been on the wall for a couple of days now,” Gilman said. “We had a town hall meeting with the (United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee). People are concerned. They’re worried about health and travel.
“I think the uncertainty is scaring people more than the actual virus.”
The other Iowa wrestlers who had qualified for the trials included:
- Iowa junior Spencer Lee;
- Iowa State redshirt freshman David Carr;
- former Hawkeye Sammy Brooks;
- former Cyclone wrestlers Kyven Gadson and Pat Downey;
- former Northern Iowa wrestler Joe Colon;
- Ballard graduate Rachel Watters;
- and current Hawkeye Wrestling Club women’s freestyle wrestlers Alli Ragan, Kayla Miracle and Forrest Molinari.
“It was kind of a waiting game for a while,” said Ragan, a two-time world silver medalist. “Now, it’s like, 'What am I supposed to do for this whole next year?' I feel like I am in limbo right now.
“But the one thing I can control is keeping a positive mindset. And knowing that it’s postponed and not canceled, I’m excited for another whole year to prepare and get better and become the best wrestler I can be.”
Tausaga, a 2019 NCAA champion discus thrower, learned the news less than two weeks after her senior track season ended abruptly. She was laying her track uniform out on her hotel bed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when her coaches told her to pack everything back up.
The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships had been canceled.
Still, Tausaga thought, the Olympics might occur. She turned her attention to the track and field Olympic Trials, set for June 19-28 in Eugene, Oregon. Like Gilman, she was a strong contender to make her team after finishing 12th at the 2019 world championships in Qatar.
But that hope evaporated Monday.
“It was heartbreaking,” Tausaga said. “The NCAA Championships were already taken away from us college athletes, then the one thing we were holding onto, the Olympics, was taken away, too.
“The seriousness of the situation is something we have to put into perspective, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less."
Four years ago, 17 athletes (and two coaches) with Iowa ties went to Rio de Janeiro, representing the U.S. as well as eight other countries. They competed in five total sports: track, swimming, gymnastics, wrestling and basketball.
In all, they combined to win seven medals, three of which were gold — Conor Dwyer, a former Iowa swimmer who was part of the men’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay; Gabby Douglas, who trained with Liang Chow in West Des Moines and helped the women’s gymnastics team win gold; and Ames native Harrison Barnes, who won gold with the men’s basketball team.
Houlihan was a 2016 Olympian in the 5,000-meter run and had her eyes trained on a medal-winning performance in Tokyo. She finished fourth in the 1,500-meter run at the 2019 world championships, ahead of Webster City native Jenny Simpson, who took eighth.
“I was really fired up for this year,” Houlihan said, “and ready to do some big things.”
Now training in Oregon, Houlihan is one of many Iowa track athletes who would’ve contended for this year’s Olympic Team. Among them: Simpson, Tausaga, former Iowa sprinter Brittany Brown, past Indian Hills sprinter Kenny Bednarik and Dowling grad Karissa Schweizer.
All of them are now tasked with training for another year before getting a chance to even make the roster.
“As a long-distance runner, you’re used to that solo training and the grind,” said Schweizer, an American record-holder who qualifier for the 2019 world championships in the 5,000-meter run. “We’ll go back to logging those miles, just by ourselves.
“On top of that, no gyms or anything are open, so I’ve gotten a lot of home gym equipment. I have it all set up in my bedroom. That’s definitely different, but we’re working through this the best way possible.”
The spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease, has forced businesses to close around the country. National and local leaders have asked for social distancing to combat the spread. Some have called for shelter-in-place orders.
That’s forced some athletes to get creative with their training regimens. Ragan and her Hawkeye Wrestling Club teammates, for example, spend some days working out in their Iowa City garage.
“This is a good opportunity to get creative with my training,” Gilman added. “I think it’s a good opportunity for a lot of people. They just may not know it yet. There’s so many things you can do at home to train. You just have to use your imagination.”
Most all the athletes that spoke with the Register agreed that postponing the Olympics was a good decision, even if it does also put the chance at a lifelong dream on delay.
“I’m pretty bummed out,” said Mark Perry, the Hawkeye Wrestling Club coach who was also a two-time NCAA wrestling champ for Iowa. “Since I came here, this is what we’ve been gearing toward. This spring and summer was going to be big for us.
“There’s a lot we don’t know, and we won’t know these answers for a while. Honestly, I’d rather see everybody quarantine up so we can get this thing out of here and then we can move forward.
“The 2021 Olympics aren’t that far away.”
Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.
Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal