There will be plenty of Olympic athletes with local connections to cheer for when the Summer Games begin this week (Aug. 3-21).
The U.S. women’s soccer team got to Brazil days ago because their first match kicks off Wednesday, a couple of days before the Opening Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. Team USA features six players from the Portland Thorns and Seattle Reign pro soccer teams.
The majority of the more than 75 Northwest Olympians bound for Rio are track and field athletes. Two-time Olympian Matthew Centrowitz of Portland wanted to race one last time in Eugene on Friday before he catches a flight to Brazil later this week.
Matthew Centrowitz: “Training has been going extremely well, definitely farther ahead than I was in 2012. Definitely feeling confident going into Rio.”
Centrowitz is on a mission to medal in Rio in the 1500 meters. At his first Olympics in London four years ago he finished in that excruciating fourth place, just a hair's breadth out of medal position.
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