Archdeacon: A silver medal, but a golden performance

The 23-year-old Xenia Christian and Cedarville University grad who is missing her left leg and ankle due to a congenital birth defect was assisted from the water toward her waiting bike. She sat down next to it and quickly attached the prosthetic – she wears none when swimming – she’d use for the 12.1 miles of cycling ahead.

On the third lap of four on the bike course, she was passed by her staunch rival and good friend, Great Britain’s Lauren Steadman, who came into the Games as the world’s No 1 ranked paratriathlete. Norman was No. 3.

“Let’s go Gracie! Go Baby! Stay with her!” Robin Norman, Grace’s mom, yelled at the big video screen set up for a Watch Party that drew some three dozen fans to the Stevens Student Center on the Cedarville campus.

Trailing by 18 seconds after the biking portion, Norman again made a prosthetic switch – this time affixing a J-shaped, carbon fiber Cheetah Flex foot to her left leg—and set off on the 5K run (3.1) miles that is considered her specialty.

She had been a champion runner in high school and college and in Rio she had run down Steadman for the stunning victory. This time, though, the near 90-degree heat seemed to get to her and while she pulled away from the rest of the field, she never could catch the 28-year-old Brit.

Steadman won gold with a 1 hour, 4.43 seconds finish. Norman came in 41 seconds behind her and Brit Claire Cashmore, rated No. 2 in the world, finished 2 minutes and 9 seconds behind Norman to win the bronze medal.

Although she won silver in Tokyo, Norman quickly proved herself to be pure gold in Japan. As an NBC commentator there told Robin and her husband Tim over the airwaves: “You have a golden daughter.”

And that brings us to the way Norman finished the para triathlon.

On her final strides, she blew kisses to the few, but vocal onlookers in the otherwise COVID-restricted stands and then shook a triumphant fist to the heavens. And with a big smile, she opened both her arms wide to give full embrace to the moment as she crossed the finish line.

Instantly, she saw the exhausted Steadman seated a few feet away on the pavement. She ran to her, extended an arm of congratulations and then melted down next to her. They exchanged a few words and then Norman balled up her left hand and gave Steadman a soft, respectful fist bump.

It happened quickly, but the ripples of mutual respect, appreciation and camaraderie lingered long after.

And it showed she he had learned a valuable lesson from a June para triathlon in Leeds, England.

Since Rio, her daughter has had a big target on her back, Robin said:

“She was disappointed in Leeds because she finished third (behind Steadman ad Cashmore). As it turns out, it was probably the best thing that happened to her because she came to grips with something I think Simone Biles never came to grips with.

“That is: ‘If everybody’s expecting me to get gold, what happens if I don’t?’

“I remember Grace saying, ‘Maybe I should quit if I can’t get better that third.’

“We told her, ‘No, Grace. You can see at the Olympic Trials how excited so many people are to make the Games, even knowing they may never make it to the finals.’ Sometimes you lose sight what’s truly important.

“I think that changed her resolve. She decided, ‘I’m going to be happy and proud if I put out my very best. Then, where I land is where I land.’”

After her Tokyo finish, Norman told an NBC reporter: “I had a great race, start to finish. No regrets. I gave it my all. Of course I wanted to take gold, but for Lauren to win, I’m overjoyed. It was an incredible day.”

Asked about the fist bump, she explained: “We’ve raced for seven or eight years together and we’ve really grown to be close friends. I respect her so much. She’s a phenomenal athlete.

“It was amazing. Before the race she came up to me and said: ‘I just want to wish you good luck. Have fun out there.’ It meant the world to me.”

Back at Cedarville, her parents beamed.

“Grace and Steadman have been going back and forth for years,” said Tim, an engineering professor at Cedarville. “It could have been anybody’s race today and Lauren had a little more in the tank at the end in the heat.

“But watching Grace finish with a smile on her face and seeing them both chillin’ there at the end – seeing that fist bump, that camaraderie – that really warmed my heart. It was wonderful to see. We’re so proud of her.”

Hotel runs

The heat wasn’t the only thing Norman had to deal with in Tokyo.

Two days before the race, she was forced to leave the Olympic Village and move into a hotel as a precaution to a COVID-19 exposure.

“Five people in the U.S.’s triathlete group – two coaches, Grace and the blind team, Liz Baker (triathlete) and Jillian Elliott (guide) – had to leave the Village and go into quarantine,” Robin said. “Before they came to Japan, they had trained in Kona (Hawaii.) And on the plane from Kona to Honolulu some other passenger ended up testing positive for COVID.

“They were sitting close enough that they were put into quarantine. And now afterward, instead of flying home on Aug. 31, Grace will be held there until Sept. 5.

“She contacted us in one of her lowest moments before the race and we talked her through it.”

During these COVID times, athletes must be able to adjust Robin said.

That was never more evident than in Leeds.

“England as experiencing their high wave of COVID then, so if you came in from somewhere out of the country, you had to quarantine in your hotel when you arrived,” she said. “So while the Brits were training out on the course, Grace and Team USA were stuck in their hotel.

“Even though they actually had a hall monitor that would come up every now and then to make sure everybody was in their rooms, Grace came up with an inventive way to get runs in.

“The hallways were very long, but at the end of the them they’d set up a table filled with towels and toilet paper.

“Grace did a bunch of sprint sets in the hall carrying a roll of toilet paper. That way if the monitor did pop up, she could say, ‘I’m just going for john paper!’”

Another tango in Paris?

When Norman took the big lead in the opening swim, the excitement rippled through the Cedarville crowd that included everyone from her 86-year-old grandfather Roy Norman, an Air Force veteran from Indiana, to 6-month-old McKenna Kittle, the daughter of CU assistant track coach Max Kittle and his wife Sarah.

“She’s staying up way past her bedtime for Grace,” Max said of their smiling baby.

Over in Japan, fans were prohibited from the official venues though some people were able to take in the action on the wide open triathlon course.

When Robin and Tim originally planned to come to Tokyo, they booked an Airbnb and the people they were to stay with showed up Sunday morning carrying “Go Grace!” signs and cheering her. Their youngest son ran along the course cheering: “Grace Norman! USA!”

Afterward, Norman told her parents she heard them.

Her mom said she believes her daughter will hear the Olympic cheers again in three years when the Paralympic Games are held in Paris.

“Do I think Lauren and Grace will tango in Paris?” Robin said. “Yes, I do.”

That would be the Olympic rubber match between the two of them, but it will be hard pressed to top the Tokyo show when both women showed themselves to be golden.

Grace was right:

“It was an incredible day.”