Back in June we were all sooooo excited when we heard that Taylor made the Paralympic Team, but then so broken hearted for her when a day later they called to say there was a mistake and she wasn't on the team. There was quite an uproar of angry people that something like that could happen at this level. But Taylor kept training in hopes that she would still make it since she was a first alternate. About a week later she got another call saying she had a direct invitation from the international Paralympic committee. We are all so proud of how Taylor was able to deal with all this adversary and are so excited to watch her compete.
Taylor had multiple interviews from different papers and even BYU-Idaho interviewed her on their radio station. I think Taylor was afraid to get her hopes up until she finally got her USA gear!
Taylor and Coach Cruz
Kym Crosby & Taylor
It was pretty exciting to see he walk into the National Stadium with the USA team.
Taylor and her friend Joel Gomez...He is also a T13 but runs the long distance races.
I made both of these graphics to help share he competition times and where to watch on social media!
Her first heat of T13 100 meter dash was on Monday August 30th. It was pretty exciting to finally get to watch her. We had to make a last minute change to watch it at Gerald and Wanda's because they had faster internet and we could only see it on online. The TV wasn't broadcasting the preliminary heats.
I was able to get screenshots from the video on my phone and I made this collage to share! She looked so cute and good in her race even though she didn't make the finals!
Part of the fun of this whole experience was getting to meet my new friend from Japan, Reiko Isa. She knew Jeff Walker when he served his mission in Japan. Her husband was Jeff's first bishop and they both helped Jeff a lot when he was so homesick after just arriving there. Jeff told her about Taylor and she messaged me when she saw my posts about Taylor. She was so kind to send me videos or anything she could find there about Taylor.
She had me send a message to Taylor so she could add it to this site in Japanese. She even showed me Taylor's name in Japanese plus other words. She would stay up late in the night chatting with me about our lives and especially Taylor. One night she was up till two in the morning. I told her about Uncle John being there and she said she had already met him which was cool. Japan is 15 hours ahead of us.
Sept 2nd Taylor ran the 400m preliminary heat at 6:20 in the morning our time. Scott and I got up so we could watch her. I was surprised how rainy it was. She looked good but didn't make the finals. Every day it was still crazy for me to think that Taylor was so far away in Japan, I can't imagine how her parents must have felt.
Reiko Isa sharing me views from Japan...
It was fun to watch her on the map and to get an idea of where she was. I even text Debbie McCune and they tried to take Taylor out to dinner but she wasn't allowed to leave the village because of Covid. She said they lived only minutes away for the national stadium. My new friend also invited me several times to visit them in Japan with Taylor so she can site-see since she never was able to during the Paralympics.
It was pretty cool she got to go the opening and closing ceremonies...what an amazing experience.
We are so proud of you Taylor!! She got back home September 6th.
No comments:
Post a Comment