Rebel Olympic Dreams On Hold, For Now

OXFORD, Miss. – Lifetimes of dreaming and training were put on hold when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo had been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the globe. The IOC announced Monday morning that the Games would begin with Opening Ceremonies nearly one year to the day of its original schedule on July 23, 2021, now giving a specific target for athletes around the world – including several Rebel greats who have had Tokyo circled on their calendar for four years.

In its history, Ole Miss has sent 15 of its athletes to the Olympic Games, including two who have gone multiple times in Mahesh Bhupathi (men's tennis doubles, India; 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) and Brittney Reese (women's long jump, Team USA: 2008, 2012, 2016). In 2016, Ole Miss sent its largest ever delegation to the Games with seven representatives across four countries and four different sports. Ole Miss recently strengthened its Olympic ties further with the hiring of head volleyball coach Kayla Banwarth, who played on Team USA's bronze medal team in Rio in 2016.

Reese, a two-time medalist and the 2012 gold medalist in the long jump, was in the midst of intense training for the upcoming outdoor track season, hoping to start peaking around the time of the U.S. Olympic Trials. The seven-time World Championship gold medalist had run in a couple 60-meter dash events at indoor meets in January to work on her speed, but was ramping up to try and make her fourth Olympic team in a crucial outdoor season.

"The virus has affected things like my training," Reese said. "I don't have access to a weight room anymore, so now I am building a workout gym in my garage until things return back to normal. I am able to still practice, but with the uncertainty of if I will have a track season despite the Olympics being postponed is still up in the air."

Reese stands as one of the greatest women's long jumpers in American history, winning 12 total U.S. titles and standing No. 3 all-time on the U.S. list and No. 11 worldwide at her career-best leap of 7.31m (23-11.75) from the 2016 Olympic Trials. Reese was recently named Track & Field News' No. 1 U.S. Women's Athlete of the 2010s, as well as No. 4 on the worldwide decade list. If she is able to make the U.S. Olympic team again next summer, she would become just the 17th American woman to make at least four Olympiads in track & field – a list that includes Ole Miss track & field head coach Connie Price-Smith.

"At this time, I am basically doing what I can do to try to stay in the best shape I possibly can," Reese said. "I am looking forward to Tokyo 2021 as the delay gives me more time to prepare."

It was more of the same for Oxford native and Olympic bronze medalist pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, who is currently at the height of his career – literally. Kendricks is coming off the best season in American men's pole vault history, eclipsing the U.S. outdoor record to win his record sixth consecutive national title at 6.06m (19-10.50) before taking down the indoor record back in February at 6.01m (19-08.50).

Kendricks won the 2019 World Championships gold medal in thrilling fashion, out-dueling 20-year-old phenom and eventual world record holder Mondo Duplantis for his second straight World Championship title. Only Kendricks and former world record holder Sergey Bubka have ever repeated as World Champion in the men's pole vault.

With Tokyo on hold, though, Kendricks is trying to take the optimistic route of how big a spectacle the 2021 Olympics could be once sport returns to the world.

"I'm not going to cry because the Olympics were delayed for one year. I'm going to look at it a different way," Kendricks told the Oxford Eagle last week. "The next Olympics, the fifth-year Olympics, will be the most touted, the most popular, the most sought-after Olympics ever in its lifespan. Because it will be the Olympics (that was) delayed by a global unification event where everybody was talking about everybody all at once. It will be the one that everybody was in the vacuum of, waiting for the next year. All sports will come back with a clamor, hopefully, next year."

Kendricks was also able to find positives as it correlates to the 2020 collegiate seasons being cancelled due to the outbreak.

"The best possible thing that could have happened after they canceled the NCAA sporting events this year is move the Olympics," Kendricks said. "A huge portion of our Olympic team comes from the NCAA, and those guys and girls being strong and ready to compete is incumbent on their ability to run in college. Honestly, it's a good thing, considering what already happened."

While both Reese and Kendricks have put their hopes of qualifying on hold for the moment, it's a different situation for Ali Weisz. A two-time All-American as part of the Ole Miss rifle program, Weisz was one of a small number of athletes to have already punched their ticket to Tokyo, qualifying as part of Team USA after a thrilling performance at Part II of the Olympic Trials back on Feb. 9.

Weisz has received some good news, however, as USA Shooting has notified her that the 2020 team will remain the Olympic team in 2021.

"They're super supportive and behind us all the way and with us into our next year of training," Weisz said.

Weisz was a graduate assistant coach at Memphis this past season and had plans to move to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Shooting Center. However, the pandemic has thrown a wrench into those plans as she will stay put in Memphis for the time being, closing out her final semester in graduate school with online classes.

Weisz and USA Shooting had seen the writing on the wall early, as the ISSF World Cup in India and Olympic Test Event in Tokyo were both cancelled prior to the Olympics postponement. That relayed into added anxiety for Weisz, who worried that an Olympics postponement would mean a reselection process for Team USA.

"Initially I was grateful that they decided to postpone them instead of cancelling them entirely. Then I wondered if USA Shooting was going to reselect," Weisz said. "So that initial period I had gratefulness it wasn't cancelled, but fear of having to requalify for the team next year. It was definitely a bigger sense of relief knowing we did not have to requalify, and now we can really dedicate our time this next year to further our skills and everything so we're even more ready to come out in 2021."

While she waits for training centers to open back up so she can keep her shooting skills sharp, Weisz is trying to remind herself that there are bigger things at play than sport.

"I'm sure everyone feels pretty similarly, and it's disappointing because we really did want to compete this summer and our training was ready to peak at the Olympics," Weisz said. "But it came down to what was best for humanity all around the world and it was probably the right decision to make. My heart goes out to all the athletes around the world really who are struggling through it and trying to make it work. Maintaining silver linings are our best options right now."

"Goals don't change. Dreams don't go away just because something else came up. I think that's a big part of being an elite athlete in going for these types of goals is you have to be adaptable," Weisz concluded.

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