Litherland Triplets Embrace Brother Jay’s Moment At Swim Trials

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Jay Litherland (left) and Chase Kalisz celebrate after taking the top two spots, with Kalisz first, in the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.  (Getty Images)

Jay Litherland (left) and Chase Kalisz celebrate after taking the top two spots, with Kalisz first, in the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.  (Getty Images)

OMAHA, Neb. – Jay Litherland pulled himself out of the water and into a quick hug from one of his brothers. And then another hug, from his other brother.

Mick and Kevin Litherland had scampered onto the pool deck at CenturyLink Center with the same speed Jay showed over the final two laps of the 400-meter individual medley, the speed that allowed him to finish second Monday night in the first final of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming.

These are three brothers separated by a minute each at birth, three brothers whose lives in three countries have been 20 years of fraternal embrace, three brothers who chose to stay in the same bedroom for a couple months after their parents moved into a house with a bedroom for each.

“It was kind of hard to move out,” Jay said, “and it felt really weird when we did. We’ve never really split up.”

No wonder the moment when Jay put himself into a position to be on the U.S. Olympic team was something the Litherland triplets could not wait to share.

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Omaha Punctuates Olympic Swimming Trials With Excitement Again

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The pizzazz of the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha (Getty Images)

The pizzazz of the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha (Getty Images)

 

OMAHA, Neb.  – When USA Swimming representatives came here in 2005 to assess the city’s bid to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials, they noticed that civic organizations had created a logo with a letter and a punctuation mark to encourage the feeling this city was an exciting place.

It was “O!”

When those USA Swimming officials spoke to the country’s elite coaches after awarding the that meet to Omaha, they got a reaction that effectively changed the punctuation.

The way the coaches saw the choice was “O?” as in “Huh? Where? What?”   After all, Omaha had no historic links to swimming, and few athletes from the area ever had reached the sport’s elite.

More than a decade later, as a third straight Omaha Olympic trials begins Sunday, the question mark is gone, and the exclamation points have multiplied exponentially.

FOR MY WHOLE TEAMUSA.ORG STORY, CLICK THIS LINK

 

On Russia doping ban, it's an Olympic family feud

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On Russia doping ban, it's an Olympic family feud

Is there really an internecine battle going on between the international federation that governs the flagship sport of the Olympics, track and field, and the International Olympic Committee, which governs the Olympics?

Or is that federation, the IAAF, just grandstanding?

Those are among the questions without answers – and there are many such questions – after the IOC once again expressed its support for the IAAF’s actions in the Russian doping mess but refused to accept the most symbolically significant of those actions.

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Will IOC back track federation's Solomonic decision to exclude Russia but allow some Russian athletes in Rio?

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Will IOC back track federation's Solomonic decision to exclude Russia but allow some Russian athletes in Rio?

A baker’s dozen thoughts about the international track and field federation council’s unanimous and quasi-Solomonic Friday decision to extend its ban on Russian athletes in that sport through the 2016 Olympics yet leave a path for some to compete in those Rio Summer Games:

1.  The ultimate resolution of this issue was always going to be up to the International Olympic Committee, even if the Olympic Charter leaves eligibility issues up to each sport’s international federation. 

2.  In a Tuesday meeting, the IOC will discuss “collective responsibility and individual justice.”  Translated, that means IOC President Thomas Bach must weigh how much he is willing to anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, a great financial friend of the Olympics, against the avalanche of criticism that would follow a IOC action to water down the international track federation (IAAF) ruling.

And more....

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