Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ Local athletes are keeping their fingers crossed on whether a Tokyo Olympics takes place.
A’ja Wilson and Aces teammate Kelsey Plum head to the University of South Carolina this week for the Team USA training camp, a sign they are moving forward as if the Olympic Games will go on as scheduled.
Wilson, who recently had her statue unveiled at South Carolina, had her nerves calmed when Team USA and Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley told her to ignore speculation about the Olympics being in trouble.
“I was kind of worried,” Wilson said. “I’m going through with everything as if it’s going to happen.”
The speculation, however, hasn’t gone away as a worldwide surge in COVID-19 cases has put the Tokyo Games in question. Officials have insisted the Olympics will go on, but polling shows about 80 percent of the Japanese public is for cancellation or postponement, according to
the Japan Times.
With the Olympics scheduled to start July 23, time is running out to make a final decision given the logistics involved. The Olympics already were postponed from last summer.
If the Olympics are conducted, whether they would be with spectators also would need to be determined, as well as whether the athletes would be placed in a bubble setting.
The uncertainty has put the athletes, including those with local ties, in the position of having to train for the unknown.
“I definitely put my life on hold to train for the Olympics,” said swimmer Kasia Wasick, a UNLV volunteer assistant coach and three-time Olympian for the Polish women’s team. “I hope they’re going to have the Olympics and we can compete. … it’s not in my hands, so I just do my job. I train and I prepare my body to be in the best shape at the Olympics.”
Former NFL and UNLV quarterback Randall Cunningham is training four potential Olympians. That includes his daughter, Vashti, who has qualified for the Olympics in the high jump. Son Randall II, a two-time NCAA high jump champion at Southern California, is almost completely recovered from a broken tibia and hopes to qualify.
Randall Cunningham said he wasn’t concerned the Olympics would be delayed or canceled.
He built a training complex in his backyard that includes a weight room, training room, high jump tarp, beach volleyball court and threelane, 60-meter track.
“We have everything we need,” Randall Cunningham said.
Vashti, like her brother a Bishop Gorman High School graduate, made the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as an 18-year-old. She was the youngest American track and field athlete to qualify since 1980 and went on to finished 13th. Vashti is ranked fourth in the world.
“Vashti is stronger now than at any point in her past,” Randall Cunningham said.
Like Vashti Cunningham, Wasick has qualified to compete in the Olympics if they take place. The 28-year-old hasn’t ruled out competing in future Games no matter what happens this summer.
“I want to keep going,” said Wasick, an All-American at Southern California from 2013 to 2016. “I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life.”
The U.S. women’s basketball team has every reason to want to compete in the Games, having earned six consecutive gold medals while winning 49 games in a row.
“It’s the highest honor in basketball,” Wilson said of winning an Olympic gold medal. “I really want to be a part of the team and be a part of the moment.”