Athletes with Md. ties play for many nations
Competitors who have lived in state represent Canada, Colombia, Nigeria and more
Olympic spirit runs deep in the Powell family.
Mike Powell, an American long jumper, set the world record in that event at the world championships in Tokyo in 1991 and won silver medals in the long jump in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. His former girlfriend, Rosey Edeh, qualified for three Olympics in the hurdles.
Now their daughter Micha Powell will try to add to the family legacy as a member of Canada’s track and field team.
Powell, who will be a junior at Maryland in the fall, will run in the 1,600-meter relay at the Rio de Janeiro Games. Powell is not the only Terp representing another country in the Olympics.
Basketball forward Ekene Ibekwe, who in 2004 became the first freshman to lead the men’s team in blocks since Joe Smith in 1994, will help anchor Nigeria’s bid for a medal. Thea LaFond, a Silver Spring resident who graduated last year, will participate in the triple jump for the Commonwealth of Dominica, which sent a two-member team. Nataly Arias, a defender on the women’s soccer team from 2004 to 2008, will play for Colombia.
Maryland isn’t the only state institution to produce athletes who have made it to Rio.
Former Navy gymnast Peter Lombard will represent Guam in mountain biking, while plebe Regine Tugade will run in the 100 meters for the same south Pacific island nation. Ana Bogdanovski, a 2015 graduate of Johns Hopkins who was the flag bearer for her parents’ native Macedonia, will compete in the 200-meter freestyle. Denis Kudla, who trained at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, became the program’s first Olympian, representing the United States in men’s singles.
Cleopatra Borel, who won an NCAA indoor championship in the shot put, qualified for her fourth games and will compete in the same event for Trinidad & Tobago. Baltimore resident and Roland Park graduate Toni-Ann Williams, who just wrapped up her sophomore year at California, is Jamaica’s first female Olympic gymnast.
Powell — who was born in Montreal and raised in Montreal and Toronto by Edeh — acknowledged the roots that have blossomed into the opportunity before her.
“It really does feel surreal,” Powell wrote in an email from Rio. “If you told me four years ago that I was going to make it to the 2016 Olympics, I would have thought you were crazy! But over the past year, I willed it to happen through positive thinking and a great support team. To represent Canada at the Olympics is a great privilege that I don’t take lightly. I worked really hard to get here, and I want to make Canada and my family proud. Being named on the team also means that I’m now able to carry on a legacy within my family.”
Lombard, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1998, grew up in Annapolis, attending Bates Middle and Annapolis High. But after graduating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he specialized in ophthalmology, he returned to Guam to open Lombard Health Eye Clinic in Sinajana.
Lombard, who began to participate in triathlons after his gymnastics career ended, migrated to cycling and eventually captured the 2016 Guam National MTB championship in February.
“It’s unbelievable to be in Rio representing Guam,” Lombard wrote in an email. “I’m honored to help show the world a little of our Guam’s island spirit and pride. Like many other small countries, our level of competitiveness may not be on par with the world’s best, but our drive is the same and our courage is the same. We have to continue challenging ourselves to compete up to the next level.”
One of five athletes representing Guam, Lombard is joined by Tugade, who was born the year Lombard graduated from Navy. Tugade, who holds her country’s top performances in the 100, 200, 400 and long and triple jumps and is missing out on her plebe summer to partake in the games, said that transitioning from her island nation to the academy and getting selected for the Olympics has been a bewildering experience.
“To have such a great senior season and to get the chance to compete internationally, to get an opportunity to attend the Naval Academy, then to be selected to compete in the Olympics, it’s just incredible,” she said. “Ever since I first started track and field [at age 12], since I found out I was good at it, I’ve wanted to go to the Olympics. To have it become a reality as soon as now is amazing.”
Powell, the sprinter who broke the Maryland record in the 400 during the 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons, is feeling equally good. Despite the burden of being known as Mike Powell’s daughter, Micha Powell credited Terps coach Andrew Valmon with recruiting her from Canada and helping build her sense of identity.
“Andrew Valmon knew it was important for me to distinguish myself as a 400m athlete in the States and not just be known as Mike Powell’s daughter,” she wrote. “Therefore, although his success in the sport is undeniable, my dad knew he had to let me lay out my own path in the sport. He hasn’t given me tips on dealing with the Olympics mostly because he knows that if I was really worried, I would have sought for advice, but he lets me do my own thing because he trusts in my abilities to perform.”
Despite being a member of Canada’s Nike-sponsored team, Powell said she wears the gold Under Armour spikes she used this past spring as a little reminder of her college years. How she will perform on sports’ grandest stage is something she isn’t worried about.
“It’s always tough when you’re in an individual sport to believe in yourself 24/7, but the goal is always the same, to better my last time and learn something new from every race,” Powell wrote. “I’ve always been an optimistic person so instead of beating myself up over a race or thinking I can’t run a fast time, I always try to remember what brought me to that moment.