Keeping Up With Our Athletes
As I write these words, the New York Athletic Club is enjoying a unique problem. Namely, attempting to stay abreast of all of its athletes who are challenging for places on the Olympic team that will compete in Paris. With such a depth of athletic prowess on the Club’s roster, across multiple sports, this should be no surprise. There are few clubs in the world that have the athletic pedigree of the New York Athletic Club, a fact evidenced by the 291 Olympic and five Paralympic medals that its members have claimed to this point in time.
Keeping up to date with what all of those athletes are doing on a year-round basis can be challenging, though also enlightening and inspiring. That becomes all the more so in an Olympic year, when major tournaments and trials come thick and fast, as athletes gather momentum in their metaphorical – and sometimes literal – races towards the Games. Mid-April this year offered a prime example, with the NY Open Judo Tournament, one of the premier judo tournaments in the world, taking place at the City House on April 13th, followed four days later by the NYAC’s 100 Days Out virtual event, featuring Paris 2024 boxer Omari Jones. (To watch the full 100 Days Out event, click here). This was followed, two days later, by the US Olympic Wrestling Trials in State College, PA, at which Club members Sarah Hildebrandt and Adam Coon fought their way onto Team USA. Just days after that, USA Fencing announced its full Olympic roster, with Kat Holmes being added to a list that already included Anne Cebula and Mitchell Saron. To say that it was a whirlwind of activity is an understatement. And it is still going.
With the addition of Hildebrandt, Coon and Holmes to Team USA, at the time of writing the NYAC could boast of 19 members having been selected to compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. By any measure, that is an impressive number, and this with many sports still having to hold their trials. In addition, some sports that have already selected athletes have the latitude to select still more, among them wrestling, rowing and triathlon. It is significant to note that sports such as swimming, judo, track and field and water polo – sports in which the NYAC presently has powerhouse teams – have yet to name any members to the Olympic team. That being the case, we may feel optimistic that the NYAC representation in Paris will be as robust as it was in Tokyo, where the Club had 56 Olympians and two Paralympians.
If one looks back to the early days of NYAC Olympic participation, it can be salient to note that, in the Paris Games of 1900, NYAC members claimed 22 medals; and, in the Paris Games of 1924, Club members returned home with 14 medals. Both tallies are remarkable and may be the envy of many countries. The question becomes, therefore, “Can the NYAC emulate those numbers in Paris in 2024?” At the last Olympic Games, in Tokyo in 2021, the Club’s athletes earned a stunning 20 medals, plus three from the Paralympic Games. We may become blasé about those kinds of numbers; but it is important to remember that they are beyond the reach of many nations. That said – and, hopefully, this comes to pass – if keeping up with the Club’s athletes’ qualifying tournaments is a challenge, it will be all the more so once they have fought their way onto the team for Paris and the real competition, that for Olympic medals, begins.
Check back frequently in the coming days and weeks as we introduce you to many of those NYAC athletes who have already earned selection.