Three Titans vie for Olympic gold: Butts-Townsend, Lyles, IsLey to represent city and country in Japan | Alexandria Times

By Katherine Hapgood | khapgood@alextimes.com

Three T.C. Williams Excessive College graduates will compete on the world stage this month on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Video games.

Tynita Butts-Townsend, class of 2009, will vie for a medal within the excessive bounce. Noah Lyles, class of 2016, will contend on the monitor within the 200 meters, which he gained in the course of the trials remaining. Troy IsLey, class of 2017, will duke it out within the boxing ring as a middleweight.

Whereas all of them got here by way of Alexandria and are representing the U.S. on the highest stage of worldwide athletic competitors, all three athletes have vastly completely different tales of how they arrived on the Olympics.

Tynita Butts-Townsend: Unsigned and unbothered

For Butts-Townsend, making this 12 months’s Olympic staff was “nothing shy of a miracle,” she mentioned. Final 12 months was stuffed with challenges for Butts-Townsend. As a result of pandemic, her sponsor on the time, Puma, dropped her, she developed melancholy and gained 20 kilos. Butts-Townsend additionally didn’t have a spot to coach.

“I’ve been leaping fences, I’ve been sneaking onto tracks, and I haven’t had a constant place to excessive bounce since 2019,” Butts-Townsend mentioned.

Since 2019, Butts-Townsend has additionally suffered from arthritis in her left massive toe and in her left knee, as fallout from when she tore her ACL on the finish of her school profession. Even with all these challenges, she’s “in the perfect form of [her] life” going into the Olympics, she mentioned.

The challenges didn’t cease there for Butts-Townsend. Her qualification for the Olympic monitor and discipline staff is surrounded by controversy because of the convoluted guidelines and laws round Olympic athletes.

Through the trials, she positioned 14th and didn’t make the excessive bounce remaining. Nevertheless, for the reason that second and third place excessive jumpers within the trials didn’t have the Olympic customary, 1.96 meters, they didn’t qualify for the staff.

Primarily based on USATF official Olympic qualifying guidelines and the Worldwide Olympic Committee, when rivals qualify for the Olympic video games however would not have the Olympic customary, the following athletes in line for the staff qualify by advantage of their World Athletics World Rating place.

There have been two excessive bounce positions to be stuffed, so the American girls excessive jumpers ranked one and two have been provided spots on the staff. ButtsTownsend is the second ranked American girl excessive jumper and is ranked twenty first on the 2019 World Athletics World Rankings. As a result of circumstances of the delayed Olympiad and the lack to qualify in the course of the traditional season, the qualification interval for monitor and discipline was from June 30, 2019 to April 4, 2020 — the unique qualifying interval for the 2020 Olympics — and from Dec. 1, 2020 to June 29, 2021. The extra qualification time period was added because of the pandemic.

Butts-Townsend’s excessive leaping journey has been tumultuous in some ways. Her profession at East Carolina College ended with a second-place end on the 2014 NCAA Out of doors Championships – and a torn ACL. On the time, Nike was scouting her, however then dropped her after the damage, Butts-Townsend mentioned.

She has competed within the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Trials, and was third on the 2019 U.S. Nationwide meet, with a 1.92-meter bounce. For essentially the most half, Butts-Townsend has run unattached to any main sponsors. She was signed for a part of 2019 and 2020 by Puma, however she is going to compete unsigned on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Due to these uncommon circumstances, Butts-Townsend has confronted backlash for her place on the staff.

“At this level, it’s grow to be a smear marketing campaign, and persons are fairly upset about my choice,” Butts-Townsend mentioned.

The “smear marketing campaign” and “folks antagonizing [her on social media],” resulted in Butts-Townsend leaving social media in the intervening time to “shield [her] peace and give attention to [her pre-Olympic] coaching,” she mentioned.

Via all of the controversy, she nonetheless has the assist of her household and buddies – and her highschool monitor and discipline coach, Jim Garner.

As a monitor and discipline athlete at T.C. Williams, now renamed Alexandria Metropolis Excessive College, Butts-Townsend was educated by Coach Garner, the gap coach.

“If it wasn’t for him, I don’t assume I might’ve had the profession efficiency that I did in highschool,” Butts-Townsend mentioned.

All through her time at T.C. Williams, Butts-Townsend grew shut with Garner.

“He’s mainly like a dad to me. … He believed in me when different folks didn’t,” she mentioned.

The 2 proceed to be in contact once in a while and even had an emotional FaceTime name in latest weeks “the place we shed a few tears,” Butts-Townsend mentioned. With the Olympics nearing, Butts-Townsend plans to take part in a single final competitors, on July 18 on the Olympic Coaching Middle in California, to “work off the cobwebs and get again within the groove of issues,” she mentioned. However, additionally, she hopes to attain the Olympic customary of 1.96 meters to cease a number of the discuss in regards to the controversy of her place on the staff and refocus the dialog on her precise athletic skill.

“I simply need to shut it down. I simply need to shut them up,” Butts-Townsend mentioned.

Noah Lyles: Alexandria’s golden boy

After narrowly lacking {qualifications} for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Lyles, a runner who has sprinted into the nationwide highlight in recent times, certified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Lyles has run the quickest 200-meter time of 2021, at 19.74 seconds, in accordance with World Athletics.

He’s additionally gained gold within the outside 200-meter on the 2014 Junior Olympics, when he was 16 years previous, gained gold within the 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay on the 2019 World Championships. Lyles additionally broke the 300-meter indoor world file in 2017, clocking in at 21.87 seconds.

Based on certainly one of his highschool monitor and discipline coaches, Michael Hughes, Lyles has all the time wished to be an Olympian.

“I doubt Noah has modified his [Olympic] dream since he was 12 years previous,” Hughes mentioned.

Lyles has been a standout monitor athlete since he began attending Alexandria Metropolis Public Faculties as an eighth grader in 2011. A few weeks after Lyles began operating in eighth grade, Hughes “knew he was particular.”

As gifted as Lyles was in highschool, Hughes, as a former school monitor and discipline coach, knew that put on and tear from highschool monitor would “come again to hang-out [Lyles]” if he meant on persevering with on as a school and even skilled athlete. Hughes mentioned he formulated a particular coaching plan for Lyles and his brother, Josephus Lyles, to attenuate burnout.

Hughes was cautious to not enter Lyles in too many races despite the fact that “no matter [race] he entered he would take the factors in,” Hughes mentioned, “[It’s] tempting whenever you get somebody with that form of expertise to go to each race within the nation and run them till they get damage.” However the T.C. Williams teaching employees was targeted on the potential longevity for Lyles’ monitor and discipline profession.

Hughes talks to Lyles “periodically,” and Lyles sometimes comes again to the highschool yearly to speak to the monitor and discipline staff, take photos and signal autographs.

“He’s actually a youngsters’ hero,” Hughes mentioned.

Troy IsLey: Alexandria Boxing Membership’s legacy

After a troublesome loss on the Olympic Trials in December 2019, IsLey can lastly say he’s an Olympian after qualifying in the course of the Olympic Trials in June 2021.

“I used to be devastated two years in the past after I misplaced on the trials, and I believed my Olympic dream was over with and I believed I wasn’t going to be an Olympian,” IsLey mentioned.

IsLey has been boxing since across the age of 10, and now, at 22, he is among the first American skilled boxers heading to the Olympics. A few of his profession highlights embrace successful gold on the 2014 Nationwide Junior Olympics, successful gold on the 2016 and 2017 Elite Nationwide Championships, and coming in third on the 2017 Elite World Championships and the 2019 Pan American Video games.

IsLey’s roots return to the Alexandria Boxing Membership, which operates out of the Charles Houston Recreation Middle and is the place his father urged that he begin boxing.

As he usually received in bother in school and was preventing steadily, his father’s suggestion was a technique to channel a few of his power, IsLey mentioned. Even from a younger age, boxing “simply felt pure” and the group “felt like a household,” he mentioned.

IsLey nonetheless packing containers for the Alexandria Boxing Membership and represents the membership and metropolis on the world stage: He wears the letters “ALX” proudly on his shorts.

“I’m grateful for the folks [in Alexandria] that assist me,” IsLey mentioned. His success can be a testomony that “an individual could make it out,” particularly with the encouragement of household and buddies, and the Alexandria Boxing Membership group, in accordance with IsLey.

“I need to present the youngsters that in case you stick to one thing, undergo the ups and downs, don’t stop, one thing constructive is certainly going to return out of it,” IsLey mentioned.

Butts-Townsend will compete within the qualifying spherical of the excessive bounce on Aug. 5, and the excessive bounce remaining is on Aug. 7. Lyles will compete in spherical one of many 200 meters on Aug. 3, with the semifinals later that day and the ultimate on Aug. 4. IsLey will compete in qualifying rounds beginning on July 25, with the quarterfinals beginning on Aug. 1 and the semifinals beginning on Aug. 5. The ultimate middleweight boxing match takes place Aug. 7.