Friday marks the official start of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. For three weeks, 554 athletes on Team U.S.A. will compete for Olympic medals, and 37 of those men and women started their journey right here in Texas.
“I remember walking into the arena to the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life of people yelling and cheering as they announced the U.S. Team,” Tom Lough said. “It was just an unbelievable experience for me. I can remember it to this day.”
Lough competed in the Modern Pentathlon in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. He recalls taking in the “experience of a lifetime” at the young age of 26. Lough and his two teammates finished fourth place, just one spot shy of earning an Olympic medal.
“It’s a combination of horse back riding over jumps, fencing, pistol shooting, swimming, and cross country running,” Lough said. “Anything can go wrong leading up to the competition but I was just honored to be there representing Team U.S.A.”
Lough, now 73 years old, plans to watch this years games from his home in Round Rock, Texas. His days competing at the Olympic level may be over, but Lough said he is proud to pass the baton to other Texans representing the United States this year in Rio.
“Texas is a pretty rugged place and there is a philosophy here where you want to be the best, and people will fight to be the best,” Randy Lipscher said. “Texas is an excellent place to become an Olympic athlete.”
Lipscher, a goalie for Team U.S.A. Field Hockey in the 1984 Olympics, recently helped jumpstart the Central Texas Chapter of the U.S. Olympian and Paralympian Association.
“We started this year,” Lipscher said. “We have approximately 70 Olympians in the Austin-San Antonio area. Many of them are gold medalists, silver medalists and bronze medalists, and others are folks who just competed in the games.”
The organization, whose motto is “Once an Olympian, always an Olympian; Never Former, Never Past”, aims to bring all past, present and future Texas Olympians together.
“For awhile, media reports were like ‘former Olympian so-and-so’ and we were like no that’s not right. Once an Olympian we are always an Olympian,” Lough said. “So that’s what we do now is say—I’m an Olympian—and that’s the way it is, and okay we’ll take it from there.”