CSU Duo Has Olympic Aspirations Postponed
Ward, Gale ready to delay trial efforts one year
Mike Brohard
As with most aspects of her life at the moment, Maddie Ward is trying to find the silver lining.
The Olympics happen every four years, with athletes marking dates on the calendar. This February, after waiting four years for another chance, Colorado State junior swimmer Maddie Ward hit the qualifying time for the US Olympic Swimming Trials in June in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Now the moment she’s been waiting for will be put on hold.
The pressure was mounting. USA Swimming was the first major organization to call for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games to be postponed until 2021, with the country’s track governing body seconding the motion. Canada became the first country to say it would not send athletes if the Games are held.
Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee officially announced the Games' postponement until 2021.
Leaving Ward to find a positive spin.
“In a way, I’m trying to think of it on the bright side,” Ward said from her home in California, where she’s quarantining like most folks. “I’ve been hearing it’s going to be postponed until next year, so then when my senior meet comes I won’t be as sad, because I know I’ll have trials to look forward to. I’m trying to look at it that way, where I get to extend my college swimming career and extra six months, which is kinda awesome in my eyes.
“Of course it’s under weird, scary circumstances, but I think it’s what’s best for everyone in this situation.”
CSU sophomore Lauren Gale, fresh of repeating as the 400-meter indoor champion at the Mountain West indoor meet, is approaching life as if nothing has changed, even though everything around her is a reminder it has.
A track trials qualifier for Canada in the 400 meters, she is working out in the basement of her parent’s house in Colorado Springs, getting over to the Discovery Canyon High School track when the weather permits. She has received workout plans from CSU assistant coach J.J. Riese, as well as strength and conditioning coach Adam Parsons.
“I’m switching workouts around. The Springs is crazy with weather. When I have access to the track, I go, but I always have access to the gym.
“I might have three back-to-back tempo days, then three sprint days back-to-back. I’m trying to get in as much as I can. My coach is sending me workouts, and so is my lifting coach, and he said to feel free to switch workouts around as the weather dictates.”
It’s more than what Ward has at her disposal. Pools are closed, and the one in her backyard is the typical kidney-shaped family pool, designed more for relaxation than 50-meter sprint sessions and underwater work.
At least her dog is happy.
“I’ve been taking my dog on a lot of walks. I don’t run, because I have arthritis, so running is not my best option,” Ward said. “I’ve been trying to do a lot of body-weight stuff, some yoga. There are membership places which are doing online classes, so I’ve been trying to follow those to keep mobility up. I think mobility is the main thing for swimmers to keep up during this time.
“It’s just day by day, always finding something new to improve upon. I guess it’s good for my dog, because she gets many walks a day now. She’s probably loving it. Everything is out of our control, so it’s control what you can, which is moving every day or just getting outside as much as you can, six feet apart from other people.”
It’s very hard. There’s no words to describe it. It sucks, and it’s hard. I know a lot of us have been working for this, me included. Everything happens for a reason, and life throws stuff at you, so you just have to be prepared at all times. If this is what it throws at me today, I just have to keep training and hopefully make it this summer or next summer and see how it goes.CSU Track & Field Athlete Lauren Gale
If Canada had still held the trials, Gale figures she’d be prepared, if maybe not fully. What she is really lacking, she said, is having her teammates around her to push her, and she them. A home gym isn’t the same, but it will do. Not having teammates around can’t be replicated, however.
Understanding the why of the moment helps, but it doesn’t absolve all of the emotions.
“It’s very hard. There’s no words to describe it,” Gale said. “It sucks, and it’s hard. I know a lot of us have been working for this, me included. Everything happens for a reason, and life throws stuff at you, so you just have to be prepared at all times. If this is what it throws at me today, I just have to keep training and hopefully make it this summer or next summer and see how it goes.”
So Gale will keep training, even if the weather mixes up the workouts. And she’ll head to the track when she can. In California, the Ward’s dog will continue to get exercise, and Ward will wait for an all-clear, when access to the pool can help her refine her breaststroke technique and start to build back up her endurance.
They won’t be heading to Fort Collins any time soon, but their life as athletes and a spot at the Olympic Trials will continue to push them to find ways to keep in form.
Even in difficult times, it beats the alternative.
“Honestly, yes, because if I didn’t have a workout plan, I’d be sitting on the couch watching Netflix doing nothing,” Gale said. “It’s nice to have plans, not knowing what for sure what’s coming, but staying prepared.”
Which, for now, has become the new norm.