Back on the bars
Magnolia gymnast returns to alma mater for Olympic training.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rather than being a prime case of arrested development, hanging with his old college chums a couple of years after graduation, Colin Van Wicklen has a very good reason for spending his days at the University of Oklahoma gymnastics training center.
Van Wicklen, 23, of Magnolia, returned to his alma mater last fall to train for the 2020 Olympics alongside national team members and OU gymnasts Yul Moldauer and Allan Bauer andwork with his former college coach, Mark Williams.
He acknowledges the déjà vu nature of it all but said Oklahoma is the best place for him after postcollege stints at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and his longtime home gym, Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in northwest Houston.
“They’re phenomenal programs, but I had success in college and some of my best friends (are at Oklahoma),” Van Wicklen said. “So it almost doesn’t seem like work. It’s like you’re having fun in the gym while working hard with your best friends.”
“The hard part of being in Houston was that I was training with guys who were younger, and at Oklahoma, I can relate to everybody. It’s a great environment for me.”
VanWicklen hoped to compete for an all-around medal last year, but contracted a stomach virus the night before the event. He finished eighth butwas third on vault and high bar and was named to the team that competed at the 2018 world championships.
This year, he said he has worked on improving rings and parallel bars, which would increase his chances of making the four-member team that will compete in Tokyo. As many as two gymnasts also could be named to the team as individual event specialists.
“He has floor, vault and high
bar, and we’re trying to find that one other event to where he can be in the mix,” Williams said. “We’re hoping rings is there, and parallel bars is a lot better, too.
“He’d like to make it as an allarounder, but he does two pretty good vaults and he has high bar, so maybe that would help getting one of othe individual spots. He wants to have a fallback.”
Van Wicklen said he hopes to compete the same routines he will use Thursday and Saturday at the U.S. championships throughout the year leading up to the Olympic Games.
“Thisweek is going to be a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t and then have a full year toperfect things,” he said.
Two-time Olympian Sam Mikulak is among the favorites to win the all-around, which begins Thursday with a second performance Saturday. It would be his sixth, which would break the current record he shares with Blaine Wilson.