They're in it for themselves. And their teammates, in some cases. Their coaches, their families and their friends, too.
But when you've been to an Olympics or two. Or three or more, in the case of Ann Arbor's Evan Bates, who'll be making his fourth trip — something no other American figure skater has ever done before — as part of Team USA's 223-athlete contingent for the 2022 Beijing Games, you realize it's even bigger than all that.
"The coolest thing, I think, is the opportunity to inspire," said Bates, 32, who is a strong contender for a medal in ice dancing after winning his third U.S. national title with longtime partner Madison Chock earlier this month. "And we all have that opportunity now as Olympians for the next generation of skaters or any athlete out there who's gonna be a future Olympian. They're out there, and they're watching. And I remember being that kid, watching the Games and dreaming of going to the Olympics."
So many of us do, really. Yet so few make it, which is why their stories carry so much weight every four years, as this global event takes center stage.
And in the case of Michigan's Winter Olympians, those stories run the gamut.
There's a dynamic hockey duo from the University of Michigan — Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson — getting the chance of a lifetime with the NHL taking a pass these Olympics. But there's also the determined star of the gold-medal U.S. women's team, Abby Roque, making history as the first Indigenous woman to play for Team USA, nearly a century after another hockey player from Sault Ste. Marie — Taffy Abel — served as the U.S. flagbearer at the very first Winter Olympics in 1924.
"A big thing for me is to try to show people that everybody can play," Roque said. "We want to make hockey more diverse."
There's also the 24-year-old snowboarder, Zoe Kalapos, who learned her first tricks on a hill her father made in their backyard in Beverly Hills, and the 40-year-old daredevil from the U.P., Nick Baumgartner, who is back for one more Olympic ride in snowboard cross.
There's even a Michigan Olympian making history with her name. We've watched Olympic athletes named Summer before, but never a Winter until now, as Gaylord's Winter Vinecki, 23, will try to land a medal in freestyle aerials, honoring the memory of her late father as well as the Olympic motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger.
"I always just live each day to the fullest," she says, "and not wait until tomorrow to do the things that I'm capable of doing today."
