As the final week of the London Olympics gets underway, many of the athletes with Central New York ties have completed their Olympic games. With the popular swimming events that featured Rochester's Ryan Lochte and Syracuse born Dana Vollmer, and the Triathlon that saw Cooperstown's Sarah Groff finish forth now in the books, much of the attention will now shift to track and field, where Tully's Lopez Lomong will compete in round one of the 5-thousand meter race on August 8th.
"I think he's ready," says Lomong's former Tully High School Coach Jim Paccia, "He's been seasoned over the last four years. In the first one he was a little boy with wide eyes, just going into a place he hasn't been before, but he's been there now."
"He's looking great," agrees Lomong's foster mother Barbara Rogers, who took him in after he spent much of his childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp, "He's real confident about his running, he's knows his competition pretty well. I think he's changed up his strategy somewhat. He's ready for this and I think he's going to leave it all out on the track."
While the swimming events in the aquatic center may be over, another Central New York athlete will be looking to swim his way to gold in the open water. Four-time swimming All-American Alex Meyer grew up in Ithaca and was a member of Ithaca's High School varsity team as a seventh grader. Meyer will be competing in the Open Water Finals on August 10th, looking for his first Olympic gold, after taking top honors in the 2010 Open Water World Championships and the 2011 U.S. Open Water National Championships.
Meanwhile, Cazenovia's Beezie Madden may have been eliminated from the individual equestrian competition at the London Games, but she's still in contention for a Team gold. Madden, along with her horse Coral Reef Via Volo, helped the U.S. Advance to Monday's final of the team show-jumping competition, tied for seventh place, but less than two rails out of the lead.
Cornell University graduate and track and field star Morgan Uceny will compete in round one of the 15-hundred meter race on Monday, with the semifinals slated for August 8th, and the finals on the 10th.
Shannon Taylor and Team U.S.A. Field Hockey, meanwhile, will look to get back on track after a tough 1-and-3 start to the Olympics. Taylor, a former Syracuse University star, is the top goal scorer for the United States, and score the only goal in a huge Olympic win over Argentina, the # 2 team in the world. The U.S. Will play Russia next on Monday morning.
