Facing the unknown
Hopefuls try to piece together workout regimens while awaiting fate of Games
As the clock ticks toward the Tokyo Olympics while training venues stand idle and qualifying events are postponed because of the new coronavirus pandemic, Houston-area athletes are working to stay in world-class condition while questioning if the Games should go on as scheduled.
Houston-area gymnast Colin Van Wicklen was one of the first athletes to suggest a delay in the Tokyo Games, and USA Gymnastics on Friday said it would survey its national team members on whether they favor a delay and, if so, for how long.
“It is unrealistic to expect athletes to prepare mentally and physically when we are not allowed to train or keep up our daily routine,” Van Wicklen said. “Athlete and public safety should mean more than medals and money.”
While he was on three NCAA title teams at Oklahoma and was a member of the USA Gymnastics world championships team in 2018, Van Wicklen, 24, of Magnolia is not among the more wellknown members of the national team.
So the attention that resulted from his comments, followed by USA Gymnastics’ decision to survey athletes, capped off a remarkable week for him.
“It shows how much the Olympics means to us,” he said Friday. “Athletes around the world dedicate their lives to making their dreams come true, and what everybody wants is a fair show and a fair opportunity.”
Van Wicklen’s mother was a longtime employee of Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in northwest Houston, and he made his first visit to the gym when he was two days old.
He returned last year to Norman to train at the University of Oklahoma, but the school closed its athletics facilities in the midst of the spread of COVID-19.
Without a place to train, Van Wicklen drove to Houston with his espresso machine and his Huskies, Baloo and Luna, but minutes after arriving, learned that Cypress Academy also had been closed.
He trained for two days last week at EnRich Gymnastics in Richmond, but that venue also was closed Tuesday. He headed back that night to Norman, Okla., where he is now training with three other former OU gymnasts at a gym owned by 1984 gold medalist Bart Conner.
The uncertainty and the interruption in routine, he said, has been wearing on all Olympic hopefuls.
“It’s physically and mentally draining,” Van Wicklen said. “When you dream of going to the
Olympics, you dream of being in the best shape of your lives heading into national championships and Olympic trials. It’s a storybook ending, and that’s not what we have right now.”
His dogs, he said, have provided a welcome release.
“I can’t imagine doing this without them,” he said. “Being able to take them on walks and runs to find joy outside gymnastics has been great for my mental state. If I start getting anxious, I grab the leashes and we take off.”
Also left without a training site were Houston boxers Darius Fulgham and Ginny Fuchs, who were training at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Fulgham said boxers already had been knocked for a loop by the postponement of an Olympic qualifying event in Argentina, and then they were told they would be unable to use the training center’s workout areas.
“It’s the uncertainty,” he said. This is like a curveball that you have to adjust to.”
Fulgham returned to Houston and, with his longtime gym shut down, is training in a garage gym.
Since his long-term boxing future is as a professional, Fulgham hopes the Games can take place as scheduled beginning July 24.
“I want the Olympics to continue,” he said in a text message. “It was said that it still will. I believe in the world’s public health care system that they will get things back in order soon.”
Fuchs, meanwhile, opted to work out while camping in Colorado with three friends, including Mikaela Mayer, a 2016 U.S. Olympic team member who is 12-0 as a professional.
“We were told that we could stay in our dorm rooms (at the training center), and the cafeteria and the sports medicine centers are still open,” Fuchs said. “But we decided to go camping and train outdoors.
“This has to be the best idea during this crisis. Nature is at its most interesting right now, and there’s no reason to be locked up. We can do what we need to do outdoors.”
Unlike Fulgham, Fuchs, 32, expects the Tokyo Games to be delayed.
“The increase in the number of cases shows how bad this really is,” she said. “I don’t think the IOC will have any choice but to postpone for at least a couple of months.”
Three Olympic hopefuls from the Woodlands Diving Academy also lost pool access when the Conroe school district closed its natatorium in Shenandoah.
2016 Olympic team member Kassidy Cook spent the week training in Midland along with others who were scheduled to compete at a World Cup meet in Tokyo that has been postponed.
“I’m obviously a little upset about the uncertainty, but it is out of my control,” she said. “I’m trying to stay in the present and focus on what I can control — my health and my training.”
2000 gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and Maria Coburn, a three-time world junior medalist on springboard from Round Rock, are working at the Woodlands team’s dryland training gym while awaiting developments.
In fencing, 2012 Olympic medalists Kelley and Courtney Hurley have been joined by most of the men’s and women’s épée national team at Alliance Fencing Academy in the Spring Branch area, where they’re working with national team coach Andrey Geva.
“We’re kind of like a small island in the ocean of coronavirus disaster,” Geva said.
Another island is weightlifting coach Tim Swords’ garage gymnasium in League City, where 2016 bronze medalist Sarah Robles trained before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and continues to train for Tokyo.
The Houston area’s two most decorated Olympians, meanwhile, have considerably different training situations.
While gymnast Simone Biles continues to work at her family’s World Gymnastics Centre in Montgomery County, swimmer and two-time 2016 gold medalist Simone Manuel has been working at a private club pool in the San Francisco Bay Area since Stanford closed its athletics facilities.
Despite the upheaval, Manual said in a Twitter post that she is more concerned with the state of the world’s health than her own routine.
“This situation is impacting everyone: jobs, kids having proper education, missing experiences (proms, NCAAs, graduation), missing meals, altered routines, etc.,” Manuel wrote.
“Everyone is going through it, but what is most important is that we all come together to protect each other and the ones we love. Putting my faith and trust in God’s plan!”
And, as a frazzled week came to a close, she added a piece of practical advice.
“If you’re stressing, try to take a deep breath and clear your head,” she said. “Mental health is so important right now.”