August 2, 2016 at 4:59 p.m.
Hoosiers take aim at Rio
Rays of Insight
Who are you rooting for?
When it comes to the Olympics, the answer is obvious. We’re rooting for the athletes from Team USA.
But more specifically, who are you rooting for?
How about the Indiana athletes who will be competing in the summer games that begin later this week?
Twelve Hoosiers will represent the red, white and blue, the most famous of which is Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings. The group also includes five who will compete in the pool in either swimming or diving, four from the track and field team, one rower and one cyclist. Let’s take a look ...
Tamika Catchings
She and her teammates may be the surest thing, as the U.S. women’s basketball team has won gold at each of the last five Olympics. Their closest game four years ago was a 13-point victory over Australia in the semifinal round of the tournament.
At age 37, Catchings is headed to the Olympics for the fourth time. The 2011 WNBA MVP is slated to retire after the current season.
Diving
David Boudia, who went to Purdue University, is the class of the group, having won the gold medal in the 10-meter platform competition at the 2012 games in London. It marked the first gold medal by any U.S. diver since 2000, and this year he will try to become the first since Greg Louganis in 1988 to win back-to-back golds.
While Boudia leads the group, his fellow former Boilermaker Steele Johnson isn’t far behind. Johnson followed Boudia by winning NCAA titles in springboard and platform diving for Purdue in 2009.
In addition to competing against each other, Johnson and Boudia will team together in the 10-meter synchronized diving event, in which Boudia earned a bronze medal in London.
Amy Cozad, an Indianapolis native, will compete in the 10-meter synchronized event for the U.S. women. She finished ninth in that event at the 2015 World Championships, where she also posted the best effort by a U.S. woman since 2007 in the 10-meter platform by taking sixth.
Amanda Elmore
If Catchings isn’t the lock of the Indiana contingent, this Purdue graduate is.
In six career international competitions, her teams have finished first four times. That includes a win in the women’s eight in the World Rowing Cup earlier this year.
The U.S. has dominated the sport over the last decade, posting 10 straight wins in the World Championships and Olympics combined. Only two athletes return from the 2012 squad that won Olympic gold, but the team remains heavily favored for a three-peat.
Track and Field
Though Ashley Spencer and Amber Campbell both qualified for the Olympics with career-best efforts, this group is the least likely of the Hoosiers to earn a medal.
Spencer was the runner-up at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400-meter hurdles in which her time was more than a half second slower than the winner of the bronze medal in 2012. Campbell’s toss that won her the Olympic trials in the hammer throw was three meters shorter than the distance that claimed the 2012 bronze.
Felisha Johnson’s toss to finish third in the trials in the shot put was just short of a career best. It was three meters shy of the bronze-medal distance from 2012.
John Nunn, 38, Evansville, is the oldest Indiana athlete in the Olympics. He finished 42nd in the 2012 games in the 50-kilometer racewalk and was 37th and 46 in the world championships in 2015 and 2013 respectively.
Cycling
Four years ago, Chloe Dygert was focused on hoops. But after gaining some success in cycling in 2012 and then tearing her ACL on the basketball court a year later, her priorities changed.
She won both the junior road race and time trial at the 2015 World Championships and has since been added to the U.S. pursuit team, which won the world championship last year by more than four seconds.
Swimming
Evansville’s Lilly King’s Olympic-qualifying time of 1 minute, 5.2 seconds, in the 100-meter breaststroke is the fastest by any woman in the world this season by more than a second. The Indiana University swimmer will also compete in the 200-meter breaststroke in Rio after having set new American records in both events at the 2016 NCAA National Championships.
Her road to a medal is much more difficult in the 200, in which her fastest long-course time this season ranks her 16th in the world.
Blake Pieroni, also of IU, was sixth in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic Trials to qualify him as a member of the 4x100 relay team, though there’s no guarantee he’ll actually swim the event. That will depend heavily on what his splits look like and whether Michael Phelps, who did not participate in the event at the trials, decides to take part.
When it comes to the Olympics, the answer is obvious. We’re rooting for the athletes from Team USA.
But more specifically, who are you rooting for?
How about the Indiana athletes who will be competing in the summer games that begin later this week?
Twelve Hoosiers will represent the red, white and blue, the most famous of which is Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings. The group also includes five who will compete in the pool in either swimming or diving, four from the track and field team, one rower and one cyclist. Let’s take a look ...
Tamika Catchings
She and her teammates may be the surest thing, as the U.S. women’s basketball team has won gold at each of the last five Olympics. Their closest game four years ago was a 13-point victory over Australia in the semifinal round of the tournament.
At age 37, Catchings is headed to the Olympics for the fourth time. The 2011 WNBA MVP is slated to retire after the current season.
Diving
David Boudia, who went to Purdue University, is the class of the group, having won the gold medal in the 10-meter platform competition at the 2012 games in London. It marked the first gold medal by any U.S. diver since 2000, and this year he will try to become the first since Greg Louganis in 1988 to win back-to-back golds.
While Boudia leads the group, his fellow former Boilermaker Steele Johnson isn’t far behind. Johnson followed Boudia by winning NCAA titles in springboard and platform diving for Purdue in 2009.
In addition to competing against each other, Johnson and Boudia will team together in the 10-meter synchronized diving event, in which Boudia earned a bronze medal in London.
Amy Cozad, an Indianapolis native, will compete in the 10-meter synchronized event for the U.S. women. She finished ninth in that event at the 2015 World Championships, where she also posted the best effort by a U.S. woman since 2007 in the 10-meter platform by taking sixth.
Amanda Elmore
If Catchings isn’t the lock of the Indiana contingent, this Purdue graduate is.
In six career international competitions, her teams have finished first four times. That includes a win in the women’s eight in the World Rowing Cup earlier this year.
The U.S. has dominated the sport over the last decade, posting 10 straight wins in the World Championships and Olympics combined. Only two athletes return from the 2012 squad that won Olympic gold, but the team remains heavily favored for a three-peat.
Track and Field
Though Ashley Spencer and Amber Campbell both qualified for the Olympics with career-best efforts, this group is the least likely of the Hoosiers to earn a medal.
Spencer was the runner-up at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 400-meter hurdles in which her time was more than a half second slower than the winner of the bronze medal in 2012. Campbell’s toss that won her the Olympic trials in the hammer throw was three meters shorter than the distance that claimed the 2012 bronze.
Felisha Johnson’s toss to finish third in the trials in the shot put was just short of a career best. It was three meters shy of the bronze-medal distance from 2012.
John Nunn, 38, Evansville, is the oldest Indiana athlete in the Olympics. He finished 42nd in the 2012 games in the 50-kilometer racewalk and was 37th and 46 in the world championships in 2015 and 2013 respectively.
Cycling
Four years ago, Chloe Dygert was focused on hoops. But after gaining some success in cycling in 2012 and then tearing her ACL on the basketball court a year later, her priorities changed.
She won both the junior road race and time trial at the 2015 World Championships and has since been added to the U.S. pursuit team, which won the world championship last year by more than four seconds.
Swimming
Evansville’s Lilly King’s Olympic-qualifying time of 1 minute, 5.2 seconds, in the 100-meter breaststroke is the fastest by any woman in the world this season by more than a second. The Indiana University swimmer will also compete in the 200-meter breaststroke in Rio after having set new American records in both events at the 2016 NCAA National Championships.
Her road to a medal is much more difficult in the 200, in which her fastest long-course time this season ranks her 16th in the world.
Blake Pieroni, also of IU, was sixth in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic Trials to qualify him as a member of the 4x100 relay team, though there’s no guarantee he’ll actually swim the event. That will depend heavily on what his splits look like and whether Michael Phelps, who did not participate in the event at the trials, decides to take part.
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