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Justin Reiter

U.S. Olympic snowboarding hopeful lives out of his truck (video)

By Nick ZaccardiOct 15, 2013, 2:13 PM EDT
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Justin Reiter is training for the Olympics by sleeping in a Toyota Tundra.

“In the back is the bedroom and lounge, all inclusive,” he told KSL-5TV in Salt Lake City as he gave a tour of his truck. “A lot of people would probably go nuts over this, but I think the longer that you live with less you realize the less that you actually need.

“For the first two weeks, I stayed in the Walmart parking lot, but it was not quiet.”

Reiter, 32, has been the best U.S. Alpine snowboarder the last two World Cup seasons after being the top-ranked man not to make the 2010 U.S. Olympic team. He said reconstructive surgery for a degenerative patella ended his 2010 Olympic hopes.

He competes in a snowboard discipline that’s not as well known as halfpipe, but it’s been a part of the Olympic program just as long (since 1998).

Photos: Shaun White’s custom-built snowboard training site across the world

The only American man to win an Olympic medal in Alpine snowboarding was Chris Klug, who took bronze in 2002 after receiving a liver transplant two years earlier.

Alpine snowboarding is probably best remembered for what happened at the 1998 Olympics, where Ross Rebagliati of Canada won gold, tested positive for marijuana, briefly lost his gold then got it back on appeal.

If Reiter makes the Olympics, he’ll have a chance at multiple medals. A second Alpine snowboarding discipline has been added for the Sochi Olympics — parallel slalom to join parallel giant slalom.

“Is it a big deal? Hell yeah,” he said of making it to Sochi. “Yeah, it is a very big deal. Any Olympics is a big deal.”

Trouble rides a fast horse! Headed home!

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U.S. Olympic snowboard hopeful breaks neck in training crash

Noah Lyles takes next step to stardom as youngest U.S. 100m champion in 34 years

By Nick ZaccardiJun 22, 2018, 8:43 PM EDT
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He won a gold medal with Michael Phelps, then he lived in his car Greenland handball Greenland seizes sports moment as Iceland plays in World Cup Molly Huddle wins 10,000m at USATF Outdoors for 27th national title

Incredible, Noah Lyles.

Lyles, wearing red “The Incredibles” socks, won the U.S. 100m title in 9.88 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year, at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Des Moines on Friday night.

Lyles overtook Ronnie Baker in the final strides to win by .02 and become the youngest man to take the sprint crown since Sam Graddy in 1984. Nationals were held a week before Olympic Trials won by Carl Lewis in 1984. Essentially, Lyles is the youngest U.S. 100m champ since Lewis in 1981.

What’s more incredible is that Lyles is primarily a 200m runner, having finished fourth in that event at the 2016 Olympic Trials as an 18-year-old. Lyles is joint fastest in the world in the 200m this year and has not lost an outdoor 200m since the trials (he missed 2017 Nationals, and thus 2017 Words, with a hamstring tear).

“I wanted to prove myself as a 100m runner,” Lyles, who turned pro after Olympic Trials and skipped NCAA track, told Lewis Johnson on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA. “I’ve kind of been cheatin’ on my 200m. It’s time to go back to my baby.”

NCAA champion Aleia Hobbs won the women’s 100m in 10.91 seconds, beating Ashley Henderson by .05 and Olympian Jenna Prandini by .07.

Hobbs, 22, was seventh in her senior nationals debut last year. She entered Des Moines with the four fastest times among Americans this year, ranked No. 3 in the world behind Marie-Josée Ta Lou of Cote d’Ivoire and Nigerian Blessing Okagbare-Ighotegunor.

The U.S.’ established 100m stars — world gold and silver medalists Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman and world champion Tori Bowie — are not racing at nationals. This is the only year in the four-year cycle without an Olympics or world outdoor championships.

USATF Outdoors continue Saturday on NBC (4-6 p.m. ET) and NBC Sports Gold (11 a.m.-6 p.m.), highlighted by 400m, 1500m and 100m hurdles finals.

USATF Outdoors: TV Schedule | Results | Women’s Preview | Men’s Preview

Earlier Friday, Olympic champion Christian Taylor fouled and passed out of the triple jump after three jumps, shortly after finishing fifth in his 400m semifinal to miss Saturday’s final by one spot.

Olympian Zach Ziemek became the first man other than Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee to win the U.S. decathlon title since 2010. Ziemek, who finished third, third and second the last three years, scored 8,294 points to win by 275 over Solomon Simmons.

Favorites Kendall Ellis, Courtney Okolo and Shakima Wimbley advanced to Saturday’s women’s 400m final. Olympic silver medalist Allyson Felix and 2017 World champion Phyllis Francis chose not to race the 400m in Des Moines. Eighteen-year-old pro Sydney McLaughlin, fastest in the world this year in the 400m hurdles, entered the 400m but scratched before Thursday’s first round after feeling tightness in her quad in warm-up.

World bronze medalist Ajee’ Wilson and Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy highlighted the qualifiers into Sunday’s 800m finals.

MORE: Lyles, Norman, green teens at Olympic Trials, now stars at USATF Champs

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He won a gold medal with Michael Phelps, then he lived in his car

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By Nick ZaccardiJun 22, 2018, 5:12 PM EDT
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More: Olympics

Noah Lyles takes next step to stardom as youngest U.S. 100m champion in 34 years Greenland handball Greenland seizes sports moment as Iceland plays in World Cup Molly Huddle wins 10,000m at USATF Outdoors for 27th national title

Klete Keller, a five-time Olympic medalist who anchored the U.S. 4x200m freestyle relay to gold (holding off Ian Thorpe) at the 2004 Athens Games, went into “a deep depression” after a 2014 divorce and said he lived in his car for almost one year, according to USA Swimming.

“I was paying child support for my kids and couldn’t afford a place, so I lived in my car for almost a year,” Keller, a 36-year-old who retired after his third Olympics in 2008, said, according to USA Swimming. “I had a Ford Fusion at the time, so at 6-foot-6, it was challenging to make the room to sleep. But I made it work.”

Keller, who has three kids, was jobless and homeless.

“He alternated parking at one of the two Wal-Marts in his area and at rest stops and kept his gym membership active so he had somewhere to shower and workout,” according to the story.

In a spring 2014 interview, Keller said he was bitter toward his swimming career and didn’t know where three of his Olympic medals were located.

“It’s not right, but I still probably hold some bitterness toward myself mostly, but also a little bit toward my sport because I let myself get too deep into it,” Keller said then. “I’m still not quite over that, unfortunately, but I’m working on it. I do love the sport. I’m just a little disappointed overall.”

The effects of leaving swimming spread through his life.

“After swimming, I thought I had to find the same title or level of success in my work — no matter what I was doing or how much I didn’t enjoy it – to feel that same success that I did in swimming,” Keller said, according to USA Swimming. “In swimming, you have to be selfish to a large degree to be successful, but when you are a husband and father, you have to be more selfless — and I wasn’t. As I look back now, I wasn’t a very good husband.”

Now, Keller is back on his feet, having moved to Colorado Springs, working in residential real estate and accruing airline miles on his credit card to fund trips to see his children, according to USA Swimming.

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