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Stumbleupondayton's olympic connections
Fountain, Wignall latest Olympians to live here
Related: Fountain, Wignall carrying area's tradition to Beijing
Dayton's Olympic Connections
More coverage of the Beijing Olympics
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Dayton's population slide over the past decade has been well documented. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report, the city — for the second year in a row — ranks sixth among the nation's large metropolitan areas in percentage of population decline.
And yet over the past couple of years, the Dayton area has picked up two new residents every town would be proud to call its own:
Hyleas Fountain came here from Harrisburg, Pa., by way of the University of Georgia.
Maurice Wignall is from Kingston, Jamaica, was schooled at George Mason University and then lived for a while in Maryland before moving here.
The two now live just a couple of miles apart — Fountain in Kettering, Wignall in Washington Twp. — and both are on their way to Beijing.
They are the Dayton area's newest Olympians.
Fountain won the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials five weeks ago. Over the two-day, seven-event competition — a grueling test that includes the 100-meter hurdles, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, javelin throw, high jump and 800 meters — she scored 6,667 points, the highest mark in the world this year.
Wignall will compete in the 110 hurdles for Jamaica. It will be his second straight Olympics. In Athens in 2004, he finished fourth, just missing the bronze medal when Cuban hurdler Anier Garcia lunged at the finish line and edged him by 1/100th of a second.
The 27-year-old Fountain and 32-year-old Wignall join a select fraternity in the Dayton area.
At least 41 other Olympic athletes have had the distinction of calling this area home. There have been basketball players, hockey players, swimmers, divers, a snowboarder and a sailor. There's been a fencer, a cyclist, judo and taekwondo athletes and many who competed in track and field.
As a group, they've won 33 medals, including 10 gold.
While the accomplishments of Fountain and Wignall put them in select company and set them apart from most of the rest of us, they are also very much a part of this community.
Wignall is the husband of Janelle Atkinson Wignall — herself a two-time Olympic swimmer from Jamaica and now the assistant swim coach at Wright State. The couple has a 1-year-old son, Maxwell.
They've bought a home on Wright Brothers Court, and before the Games Wignall did the bulk of his training at Centerville High School, where Elks personnel rolled out the red carpet.
Before the Olympic Trials, Fountain worked in the garden department at The Home Depot off Wilmington Pike. Joelene Erby, Fountain's mother, said that after the games her daughter is going to buy a home in Dayton because she likes it here.
Trained by Central State women's coach Lynn Smith, she did the bulk of her pre-games workouts at Fairmont High School, where people also were generous, Central State and the University of Cincinnati.
Fountain stands a good chance of winning a medal at the Beijing Games — which open Friday, Aug. 8 — because the field is wide open. Sweden's Carolina Kluft — the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and the 2003, 2005 and 2007 world champ — has switched to the long jump and triple jump this Olympiad.
"I've been dreaming about being an Olympian for a long time, but now that I've achieved that goal I want something more," Fountain said. "My dream now is to have a gold medal hanging around my neck."
A four-time NCAA champion at Georgia — where she competed two years after starting her collegiate career at Barton County Community College in Kansas — she credits Smith with guiding her to the greatest success in her career.
In turn, he sings her praises:
"She is one of the best athletes I've ever worked with. She's just a beast when she trains. She just loves to work. I knew if we could get her healthy, she'd be fine ... and that's the way it's worked out."
In Beijing, personal coaches must take a back seat to their Olympic team counterparts, so Smith will have to work with Fountain from afar.
"We'll figure out some kind of hand signals," he laughed.
"And I'll be looking for them," assured Fountain.
As for Wignall, his event, as he puts it, "is stacked." The field includes Cuban world-record holder Dayton Robles and Liu Xiang, the 110 hurdles gold medal winner in Athens and the most beloved sportsman China has had.
While basketball star Yao Ming is more popular in the West, Xiang is the headliner at home, and an Olympic victory by him at these games would be China's most cherished medal.
Wignall strained the quad muscle in his left leg two days before the Jamaican Olympic Trials in late June. He still did well enough to make the team and has been on the road — competing in Greece, Spain and Switzerland — to help ready himself for Beijing.
He returned to the Dayton area for just two days last week and now he won't see his wife again until mid-August when she goes to China.
They're leaving their son in the States because of the strain there will be jostling through crowds every day at the games. And then there are the concerns about the heat and the city's notoriously dirty air.
"As adults we can better deal with the environment, but it could be pretty tough on someone so young," he said.
Wignall's biggest concern may well be the food:
"If the stuff is labeled, fine, but if not, I'm not going to eat it. ... They tend to eat stuff we consider pets."
As for the air pollution that has so plagued Beijing, Wignall said he's not worried because his fellow competitors will be exposed to it, too: "And our event's a sprint, so we won't be as affected by it as would endurance runners and other athletes out in it for long periods of time."
Fountain certainly will be tested. The heptathlon runs two full days. But she's never performed better than she has lately. At the trials, she broke her personal-best marks in five of the seven events and, in winning the 100-meter hurdles, she broke the 10-year-old U.S. record held by fabled heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Wignall admits he was more on target at the 2004 games than he is now. And yet he doesn't lack confidence.
"Being a double Olympian shows you have longevity and persistence," he said. "I have experience and knowledge and know what to expect.
"But I also know things are different now. At the 2004 games, I wasn't married. I didn't have others counting on me. I had a single focus. It was all about competing. All I thought about was beating people.
"Four years later I have a lot more on my plate. I'm a husband, a father, a home owner. That can steal some of your focus. ... But it also adds a lot more, too. It's made my life a lot fuller. Now I have real roots."
And — like so many other Olympians over the years — they're sunk deeply into the Dayton area.
