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ALUMNI ATHLETE
ONE MORE YEAR
With Tokyo Olympics postponed, Steele Johnson grateful for more time
CH A R L E S JIS CH KE (M BA’0 8)
S
kateboarding isn’t necessarily a standard part of an Olympic diver’s exercise
routine, but when Purdue’s Burke Aquatic
Center closed down in the spring due to
COVID-19, silver medalist Steele Johnson
(LA’19) got creative with his workout. His
normal training schedule involves five
or six hours a day, much of it at the pool. He spent four
months out of the water at the start of the pandemic, the
longest he’s ever gone without entering the water since he
started diving at age 7.
“I’m really focused on managing my physical health,” says
the 6’1” athlete. “I love skateboarding. My wife and I would
go skateboarding to get some cardio. We did body weight
workouts as much as we could. Initially, we were limited
by the four walls of our apartment until the weather got
warmer and we could spend more time outside.”
One challenge with at-home workouts: competitive diving requires maintaining muscle strength in certain areas
of the body. Many basic strength-building exercises that
don’t require equipment, such as push-ups and pull-ups,
build muscle mass in the wrong locations for a diver. And
it’s virtually impossible to replicate diving formations.
“I couldn’t practice flips because I didn’t want to go
through the floor, and we have low ceilings,” Johnson says.
“Plus, there’s people who live right below us, and you want
to be respectful.”
PUR D U E A LU MN I . O RG
Though Johnson was initially disappointed that the
Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed until 2021 — they
were originally scheduled to start on July 24, 2020 — he recognizes the postponement as an opportunity for one more
year of preparation, training, and healing.
“I’ve had two foot surgeries leading up to this Olympics,
and it’s been a little bit of a struggle getting back into the
sport,” Johnson says. “Now I have a whole year for my foot
to heal and be fully recovered. Right now, I feel the strongest
I have ever felt. A year from now, I will be even stronger.”
Taking a break from the water also reignited Johnson’s
passion for the sport. He’s still maintained contact with
the coaches and teammates with whom he’s formed friendships outside of the pool, and once he resumed training
in July, he found he was having more fun and was able to
let go of mistakes more easily. With the Olympics merely
postponed and not canceled, Johnson remains focused on
growing in some way every day to better himself for the
international stage. Still, he can’t help but show gratitude
for the extra time he’s been given.
“I’ve been active in this sport for 16 years,” he says. “It was
time to have a break from the water to rekindle my love for
the sport and let my body recover. Taking a break is hard,
but when it’s forced, it gives you an opportunity to step
away from the pool and be at home with your family and
remind you why you love to do what you do.”
—KAT BRAZ (LA’01, MS LA’19)
DID YOU KNOW?
Since the opening of the
first modern Olympic
Games in 1896, the international sports competition has only been
canceled three times:
once during World War I
(1916) and twice during
World War II (1940, 1944).
FA L L 2020
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