Every four years — or in this Olympiad’s case, five — millions of fans around the world get juiced up about the Summer Olympics.
While for most fans, the interest is casual, for one Columbus family, it’s personal. Jamie and Jennifer Brinegar’s son Michael is competing for the United States in this year’s games in Tokyo.
The Brinegars have their front porch and back yard decorated in red, white and blue and have a picture of Michael on the step to their front porch. They are watching the dog that Michael, a redshirt junior at Indiana University, normally takes care of in his Bloomington apartment.
Make no mistake about it, Jamie and Jennifer would rather be in Tokyo this week watching Michael compete in person. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Japan’s no-fans order, they are left to watch his swimming races from 6,500 miles away in the comfort of their home on Columbus’ north side.
“It was so nice to be able to get to go to Omaha (for the Olympic Trials),” Jamie said Tuesday night while sitting beside their 40-by-20-foot backyard pool. “To not be able to go to Tokyo…”
At that point, Jamie got a little emotional. He was on edge in the days leading up to Michael’s first race on Tuesday morning, the 800-meter freestyle prelims.
USA Swimming had asked the parents of the Olympic qualifiers to limit contact with their kids while they were in Tokyo so that they could focus on their events.
Jennifer, who competed for the U.S. in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and is retiring in August as an assistant athletics director at IU, was a little more relaxed.
“For me, it was tougher than for Jennifer just because I like getting to talk to him the day before or the morning of,” Jamie said. “You get a really good feel for how he’s going to do, and since we just texted with him a few times, we really didn’t get that feel for how he was going to swim. Other than that, I was just hopeful and wound up because it’s the Olympics, the top of the pinnacle for what he wanted to do, and he was able to get there. I was much more wound up than Jennifer.”
Michael finished 17th out of 34 competitors in the 800 freestyle prelims. Only the top eight made it to Wednesday night’s final.
“Just not being able to see him and really talk to him, we texted him a little bit, but that’s not the same as talking,” Jamie said. “So we were really nervous because when we talked to him, we’d really get a feel for how he’s going to do, and we can’t get that feeling through text messages. We’d gotten reports that his workouts were going really well, so we were hopeful that something really good was going to happen.”
Michael’s time of 7 minutes, 53.00 seconds was his second-best in the event. He had gone 7:49.94 in last month’s Olympic Trials to claim the second and final qualifying spot for the U.S.
“He started out with a nice, long stroke, but the tempo of the stroke was just a little too slow, and he couldn’t get out of that low gear,” Jennifer said. “He said, ‘I always do better when I start out with a faster tempo and then switch to a lower, stronger gear. He said, “I couldn’t get out of it.’”
Michael was able to call his parents when he got back to Olympic Village about an hour-and-a-half after his race.
“He was down,” Jennifer said. “He wanted to do better. I realized after we hung up that it was his best time, other than the trials; it was his best ever prelim swim and it was his second-best ever time. So in reality, it wasn’t as bad. Sometimes, you have to put things in perspective.”
Jennifer said Michael is a picky eater, but is enjoying the food in Tokyo. Michael and the other swimmers did not, however, get to enjoy the opening ceremonies in person.
“They generally don’t go, because during the Opening Ceremonies, you’re on your feet for four to six hours, and the swimming started the next day,” Jamie said. “Some of them, Michael told us, put on their Opening Ceremony gear and took pictures, but they didn’t go.”
Michael has face-timed with his older brother Kevin, a former Columbus North and Denison University swimmer who now lives in Arlington, Virginia, a couple of times since arriving in Tokyo on July 11.
Jamie thinks having been able to talk to Michael on Tuesday will help relax the nerves of both father and son for Friday morning’s 1,500 freestyle prelims, which begin around 6:48 a.m. Eastern.
“It will be enjoyable,” Jamie said. “We hurt for him (Tuesday), but I think Friday will be a lot easier just because we were able to talk too him, and it’s the 1,500, which he loves a lot more than the 800.”
Jennifer agreed.
“I think Friday will be different,” she said. “I really feel like he’ll hopefully have a better race in the 1,500.”
The Brinegars, who grew up in Bloomington, expressed gratitude for all the support they’ve received from their hometown of the past 13 years. Jamie, who works in the mayor’s office, said many in city hall were decked out in red, white and blue on Monday.
Because of COVID concerns, Michael and the other swimmers will have to return home after the conclusion of the Olympic swimming program this weekend and will not be able to stay for the second week of the games.
Jamie and Jennifer are looking forward to watching Michael compete in person again, perhaps at an open water event in September in Las Vegas. They’d also like to go to Paris, site of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“I have some college friends that live just outside of Paris, so if, Lord willing, he’s able to make Paris, it would be nice because as long as there’s no pandemic, we’d be able to go,” said Jamie, who competed in track and field at Yale. “We’d have a place to stay and get to see someplace I’ve never been.”
