With 100 days to go until the Paris Olympic Games, the Chicago area is likely to send several athletes with local ties to France this summer.
Two athletes from the area have qualified, with several more expected before the games begin in late July.
Rhythmic gymnast Evita Griskenas was one of the first Americans to make Team USA. The Orland Park native will be the only American sent to France to compete in her sport.
Griskenas is making a return to the Olympics after previously competing in Tokyo in 2021.
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"On one hand, it feels relieving," Griskenas said. "It also feels enlightening because it gives me a continued sense of direction of what I’m doing [and] where I’m going."
Griskenas, who turned 23 in December, accomplished all of this while going to college full-time. She is a senior at Columbia University in New York City, and is scheduled to graduate in May.
With college in New York, home in Orland Park and her gym in Deerfield, life is very busy.
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"I schedule things basically by the minute," Griskenas said.
Griskenas reflects on the work it took to make the Tokyo games, through injuries, pandemic protocols and an altered Olympic schedule that pushed the games into 2021.
At the closing ceremonies in Japan, she said she had a realization that she wasn't done with this sport.
"I remember seeing the French flag come up and looking at it and just going, 'I have to stay, I have to stay,'" Griskenas said. "I’m staying, that's it. I didn’t know how at the time. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I just knew that I had to. I had more in me."
Though she did not earn a medal in Tokyo, she said she competes to challenge herself and bring art to her audience.
"I love creating," Griskenas said. "I love making things seamless and look effortless. I love the preparation for it, like I love doing ballet that sense of control, self-control that’s really important."
Self-control is also crucial to Team USA sailor Maggie Shea.
Shea grew up in Wilmette and now lives in Chicago. With her sailing partner Stephanie Roble, she qualified for Paris in the 49er-FX event.
"Sailing is special because the challenge is different every day," Shea said.
Now 34, Shea grew up in a sailing family. She said her grandfather's sailboat on Lake Michigan was a gathering place during her childhood summers.
"We really celebrated every part of it," Shea said. "The boat work part, the deliveries, the racing, the not racing, the being together, the community. And it was an incredible introduction to this whole world of sailing, so I felt really blessed to share that with my grandpa and my family."
She continues that sailing legacy in competition all over the world, and now two Olympic games, though all of it happens on a boat very different from her grandfather's. The 49er is about 15 feet long, and built for speed.
"It's a very unstable platform designed to go really fast," Shea said.
Shea and Roble finished fast enough in Mallorca this month to make Team USA again, and they both learned from their first Olympic games in 2021.
"The Olympics has some special dust on it as an event," Shea said. "Everyone is in overdrive, you yourself are in overdrive."
Though almost all the Olympic events will be in Paris, sailing events will be held in Marseille, along the country's southern coast. Shea and Roble are familiar with that area, and enjoy sailing there.
"Marseille is epic," Shea said. "It's really good. The sailing is incredible."
Griskenas and Shea will likely be joined by several other athletes with Chicago area ties in Paris. Olympic trials are being held almost every week between now and the start of the games on July 26.
Swimmers Ryan Murphy, Leah Hayes, Olivia Smoliga and Ryan Held are just some of the contenders in swimming. BMX Racer Felicia Stancil, who is from Lake Villa, is likely to qualify later this year.
In Track and Field, triple jumper Tori Franklin, steeplechase runner Courtney Frerichs and pole vaulter Sandi Morris will all look to qualify at the US Track and Field Olympic Trials this summer.
