A Pennsylvania grandmother put up an impressive showing at the US Olympics’ Team trials over the weekend when she finished in third place in a race walking event – more than 20 years after she first walked away from the grueling sport.
Michelle Rohl, 58, clinched third-place in the 20,000-kilometer race walking event in Springfield, Oregon on Saturday with a sharp time of 1:42:17.
The bronze medal caps off an astonishing return to the sport Rohl once retired from to homeschool her five children — who are now all grown, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
It also comes three months after her first grandchild was born.
“She’s an excited grandma,” her husband Michael Rohl told the newspaper leading up to the race. “We get pictures every day of our little grandson.”
Rohl’s competed in three Olympics already – 1992, 1996, and 2000 – with her top finish taking place in the 10K walk in 1996 when she finished 14th.
The four-time US champion in the 20K trained daily leading up the trials even as she suffered a concussion last year and ongoing knee aches, the Inquirer reported.
She reportedly busted her chin a few weeks ago after she tripped and fell during a race that led up to the Olympic trials on Saturday.
But the injury didn’t slow her down.
“I just said, ‘I have to stay on my feet and keep going forward,’” the new grandmother told the newspaper.
Rohl began her career as a distance runner in college before she switched to race walking because of Achilles tendon injuries.
Robyn Stevens, 41, got first place during the 20,000-meter race walk at the trials and Miranda Melville, 35, was awarded second place, according to the Register-Guard in Oregon.
None of the top three finishers hit the Olympic standard time of 1:29:20 though, according to the newspaper.
Going into the trial, Rohl told the Inquirer she didn’t expect to be an Olympian again, but was ready to bask in the moment regardless.
“My middle daughter was like, ‘Mom, you were a really good athlete. Then you had kids,’” Rohl said. “‘And then we all grew up, and you’re a great athlete again. I think we were the reason.’ Well, I wanted to. I was ready for a break, and I wanted that part of my life.”
