Bay Area Olympians' training timetable put on pause

Bay Area Olympians’ training timetable put on pause

The cloud of uncertainty from COVID-19 has cast over the Summer Olympic Games. But there’s also a sense of relief with the postponement and the impact on Olympians' rigorous training regimen.

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Not long ago Bay Area Olympians were heading into the stretch run of their training regimens.

“I was on the right path, locked in,” says former Cal star – and Olympic gold-medalist – Ryan Murphy. “I was ready to go.”

But then, COVID-19 and a cloud of uncertainty cast over the Summer Games. Now there’s a sense of relief since there's been an official postponement

“Relief,” says Cal men’s swim coach Dave Durden. “Considering what’s going on and as it gets day by day here, it’s certainly not taking the trajectory of getting better. It’s getting worse. I think the athletes were feeling that as well.”

“It was nice that the IOC was able to get the info they needed to pull the trigger on that date,” add Murphy. “We need that. And now we’re gonna be going toward a 15-month training cycle to try to prepare for the Olympics.

That new time frame puts athletes like Murphy on a very sudden – and dramatic - “pause.”

“I’ve been eating things that I don’t usually let myself eat, I’ve been draining chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and then on the physical side just giving my body a break.”

Of course, it’s not just water sports that are shut out. Stanford grad Alex Massialas is a silver medal-winning fencer who can’t fence.

“Right now I don’t have access to any equipment. I can’t fence ‘cause the club is closed. That’s just the unfortunate reality of the situation now is, I don’t know when I will be in the club next. I don’t know when’s the next time I’ll be able to step on the strip and fence or practice or even compete for that matter.”

But Alex – and the entire Olympic community – understand what’s at stake. They’re doing the right thing – not just out of necessity, but out of moral responsibility.

“I view it as a pretty minor inconvenience compared to what the medical community is going through,” says Murphy. “I think that everyone in this time is making some sort of sacrifice, for me it would be naïve to think that my sacrifice was greater than theirs. Purely from a competitor standpoint, it’s tough because we were ready to rock, and we were gonna be really good this summer. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be good next summer.”

Massialas concurs.

“I was really excited to compete this summer in Tokyo, but the fact that it wasn’t canceled at all, it just means that my dream is still there, just a year later.”