The room was electric with anticipation. On either side of her, Skyline High School runners were squished on chairs and couches, awaiting the men’s 1500-meter world final. Nina Beals, a current junior at Community and runner at Skyline, felt the nerves through the screen. Excitement was building.
Above, Hobbs Kessler — a former Community student and Skyline runner — took his place on the purple-colored track.
For the people in that room (and for track fans around the world), the next three and a half minutes were exhilarating. Everyone was on their feet. Everyone was screaming. Nobody expected what was to come.
On screen was the men’s 1500-meter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Of the ten men on the start line, three were from The United States. Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler ran the race together — placing first, third and fifth, respectively — and in the process, they each ran a new personal best.
“I had, like, this sort of patriotic pride that we got three people, three guys in this and one of them’s my son,” said Serena Kessler, Hobbs’ mom who coaches Skyline girls’ cross country. “There’s something about these three men wearing the same uniform. Even though they don’t run for the same sponsor and they don’t train together, there’s this sense of togetherness. Hobbs felt it too. It’s all he could think about. There’s three of us in this final and so that’s pretty special.”
Hobbs ran a time of 3:29.45, smashing his previous 1500 record by three seconds, landing fifth place on the world’s biggest stage.
The Skyline cross-country team was ecstatic. They watched it again. And again. And one more time for good measure.
“It was so cool to watch him in that race because, yeah, he’s an Olympian, but he’s also the guy who taught me how to do A-Skips,” Beals said. “It made Olympians feel like real people, and that’s pretty awesome.”
Sophomore Zoe Shuhman feels the same way, only about a different sport.
This summer, Shuhman and her club teammates got together to watch Abby Tamer and Team USA play field hockey at the Olympics. Girls of all ages were there watching a game where Abby scored two goals.
“It was so inspiring to see someone that I know, someone who’s coached me, playing at such a high level,” Schuhman said.
Abby is no stranger to that feeling. She remembers a watch party with her club teammates during the 2016 Olympics that opened the door to international field hockey for her. She doesn’t remember who they played, she doesn’t remember the score, but she does remember how much she looked up to them.
She wanted to be like the people on that team, she wanted to play in the Olympics, and she made it her mission to achieve that goal. It came, but it didn’t come easy.
For a year prior to the Paris games, the team spent a year in Charlotte, North Carolina. Every single one of them was dedicated to their Olympic journey.
After they fell short in their first opportunity to qualify at Continentals, the Eagles knew they had one more opportunity in India. Here, the top three teams would earn an Olympic bid.
This tournament was their last opportunity to qualify.
In the semifinal game against Japan, they trailed for the first time. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, they were down 1-0 with fifteen minutes left to play. Fortunately, they got a corner — a set-play scoring opportunity caused by a foul inside the scoring circle — and were able to execute on the direct shot.
With roughly six minutes left in the game, the U.S. earned another corner. They ran the same play, but this time the goalie made the initial save.
“It was a rebound,” Abby said. “The ball came out to me. I just shot it, and it went in. Then we were up one.”
And that was that. The team was able to hang on for the remaining six minutes of the game and officially qualified for the Paris Olympics in January. It was especially exciting since the U.S. didn’t qualify a team for the 2021 games.
And yet, there was much work left, the roster had to be significantly cut down and the main event was still months away.
Even though Abby scored the qualifying goal, her spot on the team wasn’t guaranteed — nobody’s was.
The teams were announced on June 10. Nine days prior, Abby broke her hand in a game against Great Britain. It was set to heal in time for the Paris games, but five weeks off training is not insignificant. Still, Abby made the roster and rejoined her team for the last week and a half of training in Dublin right before the games.
“That was a little bit nerve wracking to be like, ‘okay, the biggest tournament of my life, and I’m not training until a week and a half before it actually starts,’” Abby said. “Of course, I had done all the work the rest of the year, it was just the six weeks I hadn’t spent doing everything.”
In Paris, the U.S. team placed ninth, and Abby scored four goals. Her family was there to support her.
“I almost can’t put the experience into words,” said Keely Tamer, Abby’s mom, who coaches for Dexter High School and Pinnacle field hockey. “It’s so weird because we sat beside her for the whole year of what it was like to have the goal, before she even moved to Charlotte and took the opportunity. The reality is that it’s not easy to get there. Only 16 women get that opportunity, and I’m proud of her.”
Since returning home, Abby has had time to reflect on her role models.
“I was so in awe of them, and I’ve been thinking, ‘I don’t feel like the people I looked up to when I was younger,’” Abby said. “But objectively, our team is that for the younger girls. In the same way, the 2016 team was so inspiring for me, our team has got to be doing that for someone out there.”
In reality, that “someone” is more like a whole lot of someones, in field hockey and beyond. For Beals and the Skyline cross-country team, the Olympics taught them that with hard work and dedication, you can accomplish your dreams.
