Jordan Larson remembers the little, white TV that was perched on a swivel in the kitchen, making it easy to keep an eye on things while cooking or eating. One summer during Larson’s childhood, the Olympics were on — Olympic gymnastics, to be more specific.
Four-time Olympian Jordan Larson joins the USA Volleyball Spring Training Camp at Open Gym Premier in Anaheim, Calif., on March 12.
“I was like, ‘I think I’m going to be a gymnast,'” Larson, now 37, said of her reaction to watching the Games play out on the small screen.
Nature disrupted those plans. Larson grew to be 6-foot-2, so when it came to her dreams to be the next Mary Lou Retton or Shannon Miller, she thought, “Maybe that’s not the thing.”
Still, a seed was planted. This month, some three decades after those formative memories at home, Larson is heading to Paris for her fourth Olympics as part of the U.S. volleyball team. She already has a full collection of medals — one gold, one silver, one bronze.
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“Just watching them achieve greatness at the highest level, it was so inspiring,” she said. “And I saw myself there, and I didn’t know what that was going to look like. But that was the first memory that I have of, ‘Wow, it’s a possibility. Now what does it look like to get there?'”
The Associated Press spoke to a handful of athletes about their early Olympic memories, and how those fueled a passion that propelled them to compete at the Olympics they used to only try to envision — in this case, the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Here are some of their stories:
Maggie Steffens, water polo
Water polo player Maggie Steffens didn’t have to turn on the TV to find her Olympic inspiration. Her older sister, Jessica, was a U.S. water polo player in 2008, when she won a silver medal. Four years later, the sisters were teammates in London.
Maggie remembers sitting in the stands during the 2008 final against The Netherlands — a loss for Jessica and her teammates.
“I was 15 at the time, and my dad looked down at me and he was, like, ‘Now it’s your turn.’ And I knew what he meant,” Maggie said. “We had both watched that. We felt so emotionally connected to my sister and to the team, and it was just exactly that little push, that stair-step to say, ‘OK, now go out there and do it.’ And I was lucky enough the next year to join my sister and play with her, and we ended up together in 2012.”
Maggie teamed with Jessica for the gold medal in 2012 and has gone on to become one of the greatest water polo players in history. The U.S. is the three-time defending Olympic champion, and Maggie is looking to extend the streak to four on this, her fourth Olympic team.
CJ Nickolas, taekwondo
CJ Nickolas, an African-American taekwondo athlete, said seeing another Black man, Terrence Jennings, win a bronze medal in the sport at the 2012 London Games sparked something inside him.
“That was the first Olympic memory that I have,” Nickolas said. “A young Black man going and medaling in the Olympics — I didn’t even know who he was prior to (that). Seeing that kind of woke me up, made me think, ‘I can do this.'”
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