Every Four Years, the Emotions Stir
Rams have been represented at every Summer Games since 1972
Mike Brohard
Their competition days are behind them, but they can’t deny the emotions. Couldn’t hide from them if they tried.
Nor would they desire to do so.
Every four years the Olympic Games return and each time Janay (DeLoach) Soukup and Amy Van Dyken are immediately taken back. Not necessarily just to their medal performances, but the entire spectacle of the event. From the Opening Ceremonies to the final medal, there was so much to bring back with them other than the hardware.
“I absolutely still get the emotions. What I think about most is the excitement,” Soukup said from her home in Fort Collins. “First and foremost because I’m not an athlete anymore, but then when I do think about my experience with the Olympics, I think about how it was more about adrenaline and preparation. It was a buildup to a very exclusive event. I like to think of it as a rollercoaster ride. You start building and building an entire season up to a point. Seeing the Olympics come on every four years, it’s about the excitement and see who the people are, all the memories which were mostly good for me.”
Colorado State athletes have made Olympic rosters for years, the 2024 Paris Games being no different. Mostafa Hassan (shot put, Egypt) and Lauren Gale (sprints, Canada) return after being on hand at the 2021 Tokyo Games (delayed a year by covid), while Gian Clavell (basketball, Puerto Rico) is making his first appearance. Colorado State has been represented at every Summer Games since 1972.
While the Opening Ceremonies will be held July 26, competition begins July 24.
Rams have combined to win seven gold medals, one silver and two bronze medals. Glenn Morris won decathlon gold in 1936; the other six gold medals belonging to Amy Van Dyken.
She will be in Paris calling the swimming preliminary heats for NBC, which impacts her emotional connection, but even if she were home watching on the couch, what she feels wouldn’t be lessened.
“It’s pride. My heart starts beating faster when these kids start making the team,” Van Dyken said. “Obviously, because I cover the Olympics and work for NBC, it’s a bit different for me, but it’s excitement, it’s nerves. I’m so excited for all these athletes to have the experiences I had in the Olympic Village and meeting all the athletes from different countries.”
Naturally, both remember the success they had in the Olympics. In the 2012 London Games, Soukup won bronze for in the long jump for the USA, the same year Becky Hammon earned the same medal in basketball while competing for Russia. Soukup would return in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2012, Soukup was coming off a silver medal at the indoor world championships in Istanbul. She’d been on the big stage in her sport, but the Olympics takes it to a different level. Everybody remembers the Games. And it’s not just one sport. It’s the best in the world from a multitude of pursuits.
Obviously, because I cover the Olympics and work for NBC, it’s a bit different for me, but it’s excitement, it’s nerves. I’m so excited for all these athletes to have the experiences I had in the Olympic Village and meeting all the athletes from different countries.Amy Van Dyken
Seeing it firsthand is inescapable. Having a base on hand helped settle her.
“The atmosphere. I remember meeting all the athletes and knowing they were the best athletes in the world at the end of the day,” she said. “The village was loaded with people who were oftentimes better than me in whatever sport they were in. I met Serena Williams and Kobe Bryant … I met all of these famous people who had already exceeded my athletic career. I also remember my family being there and knowing that I had support even though I wasn’t in my home environment, that my people were there, the people who believed in me, trusted in me and had my back that entire time, that safety net. Those are the things I think about outside the track competition.”
The athlete village was a huge part for Van Dyken as well. Strolling through, she would see the flags of the different countries. And if you knew somebody in one of the houses, you could just pop right in and say hello to whoever you knew. It was competition and camaraderie, rivalries and mutual respect.
As a swimmer, Van Dyken had the opportunity to attend the Olympics in her own country (1996, Atlanta) and on foreign soil against a heated rival (2000, Sydney).
There is nothing like excelling at home. In Atlanta, she immediately became America’s original golden girl, the first American woman to win four swimming golds in a single Games (50-meter freestyle, 100 butterfly, 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays). She came back four years later and collected two more golds in the relays.
“They were both very different, the reason being the Atlanta Olympics were the first time since 1984 where we hosted an international competition at home. Just for that, it was really neat,” Van Dyken said. “It was cool to hear them announce so and so from the United States of America and the crowd went crazy to opposed to a couple of golf claps and maybe you get a boo. The place went absolutely nuts. They didn’t care who you are and what you’re doing. You could have been a timer. Sydney was neat because they have a different season schedule, so it was their winter. Their hospitality was wonderful, but my favorite competition ever in life was the Atlanta Olympics.
“We joined forced with Australia in ‘96. Everybody hated the Chinese because they got popped for drugs. In Sydney, they started calling us out and we were like, ‘I thought we were friends?’ Now we know we’re not friends. Some of their swimmers like Cate Campbell have come out and opened their mouths, and our team does not do that. We just like to show them in the pool, and that’s what’s going to happen this year. It’s a fun rivalry.”
Home or actually there, the Olympics remain a must-see for both of them. Not just the sport they competed in, but all of them. At this point in her life, it’s also family time for Soukup, who has three young children, all of whom know about mom’s achievements.
Now an occupational therapist at Northern Colorado Long Term Acute Hospital, she and her husband, Patrick, and their three children – Nola, 6; Rocky, 4; and Voome, 2, will watch. And they will cheer for the Stars and Stripes.
“They ask me questions, Nola especially when the hurdles come on and they’ve seen a video of me hurdling and also long jumping,” Soukup said. “She’ll see it and say, ‘is that you mom?’ They get down in their little blocks and run up and down the hallway. They do long jump and I give them tidbits and they have competitions. They think it’s neat to watch track and field with me because mommy still gets excited.
“Even in the World Championships in the men’s throws, the shot put, those competitions were close with Joe Kovacs and Ryan Crouser. Those were such exciting events, and me and my husband are both screaming.”
They also cheer for who they know, no matter the country. And they will root for Rams, no matter the sport. Soukup knows Hassan well, and immediately sent him a congratulatory text when he qualified again. She knows of Gale and will support her fully in her races.
Van Dyken knows most of the up-and-coming USA swimmers, having covered college swimming for the ACC Network. Who she also looks for is fellow Rams.
“I find them more than anybody. And I say to my husband (Tom), where are all your CU people? Sit down,” she joked. “That rivalry goes on during the Olympics. It’s fun to pick out the Rams. That’s our family. It’s been my family since I went to school there and it hasn’t changed at all.”
Nor has the emotional pull of the Games. To be an Olympic athlete is to be part of an exclusive fraternity, memories which are happily welcomed when they come flooding back.
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