I live in beautiful Treasure Valley, Idaho. The local news here in the valley is, well, loyal to its residents... obsessively loyal and almost annoyingly persistent about telling and retelling every story that has anything to do with locals. This is very trying come football season, when Boise State is the only thing you ever hear about (I'm a Gator girl).
But this past week something has happened that has made me very happy my local news station is so unrelenting. This week, Kristin Armstrong won a coveted gold medal in Beijing, thrilling our whole nation, and, seeing how I’m going to be hearing about this wonderful event for the next few months, I figured I might as well write something about it.
It’s really impossible to not immediately like Kristin Armstrong. She worked as a swimming instructor at the YMCA for years, and is now the ambassador of Boise, Idaho’s YMCA. It seems whenever she gets a chance to speak she talks about how she wants to give back to the community.
One of the first things I heard her say after winning her medal this Olympics was that it was for everyone back home, not just her. But if her giving spirit didn’t win you over, her impressive career, which spans two decades and multiple sports, probably would.
As a teenager Kristin Armstrong was a world class swimmer and actually a junior Olympian. She soon became an impressive tri-athlete, completing an Ironman in 1999, and a promising career lay in front of her. She was training for the 2004 Olympics when, in 2001, she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both of her hips.
This was when many athletes would have retired, but the ever-determined Armstrong did not. She decided to take up cycling, and it wasn’t long before she was entering races. Soon she was considered a top US rider.
In 2004 Armstrong competed at the Athens Olympics, in 2005 won a world bronze medal, in 2006 won the world championship, and in 2007 won the silver at the world championship. She had become one of our nation’s most decorated cyclists. All of that really meant nothing a few days ago though as she competed for her first Olympic medal.
It was her last chance to win at the Olympics. She had not placed in her first competition, and so it was down to the road cycling individual time trial. At 35, Armstrong knew that it was her last opportunity.
As she hit the half-way point, she was four seconds behind the leader, and it was all downhill to the finish line. Could she do it? Could she come from behind? Yes, and more, she would finish 24.29 seconds ahead of her closest competition!
As she dismounted her bike, the emotion just seemed to wash over her whole body. On the medal podium, as she received her gold and listened as our nation’s anthem was played, it was obvious that she was soaking in the pure wonder of the experience.
She became only the second American woman to win an Olympic cycling gold, and this is a fact I will never forget (given how many times I have been reminded by my television). Every time I flicked on the news today, I was met with the local reporters talking about the celebration being planned for Kristin Armstrong when she arrived home.
I can’t count on all my fingers and toes how many times I’ve heard a report on her in the past few days. But for once, all of the local hoopla is totally OK with me. In fact, I’m actually enjoying it. I couldn’t be happier for Kristin Armstrong, my fellow Idahoan.
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