First-time U.S. Olympian Kevin McDowell (Geneva, Ill.) made history at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 men’s triathlon event Monday morning in Tokyo, earning the highest-ever finish by a U.S. man at the Olympic Games in sixth place.
“The support system around me has been incredible,” McDowell said. “I got an overwhelming amount of messages and letters sent from home, and I’ve been reading them this week. I read my last three today from both my parents, my sister and my grandparents. It meant the world to me to read those last ones and remember where I came from. Ten years ago, I was so sick. I didn’t know what would happen, but I was so passionate about this sport. To be up here being in contention at the Olympic Games, I’m living the dream right now. I I have to thank my coach, Nate Wilson. He took me on this year and really helped shape me as a person and put belief in what I could do.”
McDowell, a cancer survivor and graduate of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, clocked a time of 1 hour, 45 minutes, 54 seconds. His sixth-place finish is one better than four-time U.S. Olympian Hunter Kemper’s seventh-place showing at the Beijing 2008 Games.
“Hunter (Kemper) was definitely an inspiration to me through all of this. He’s one who took me under his wing when I had some really tough years returning after cancer,” McDowell said. “Between him and Andy Potts, two past U.S. Olympians, they’ve really taken me under their wing. Hunter was awesome throughout the early days when I was returning, and he’s always someone I looked up to.”
Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway won gold, his first Olympic medal, completing the 1,500-meter swim in Tokyo Bay, 40-kilometer draft-legal bike and 10-kilometer run in 1:45:04. Great Britain’s Alex Yee won silver, finishing in 1:45:15 and Hayden Wilde of New Zealand took the bronze in 1:45:24. The race was held at Tokyo’s Odaiba Marine Park, and athletes faced hot and humid conditions — with air temperatures in the low 80s Farenheit and water temperatures in the mid-80s.
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