Gabriele Anderson Grunewald: Fighter

September 9, 2023 Today the sixth running of the Brave Like Gabe 5k and Gabe’s life were celebrated. Among the family members, I met Gabe’s father, Kim Anderson, and brother Caleb Anderson, both physical therapists. The Anderson family is from Perham, Minnesota, a recreational paradise in Otter Tail County in the northern part of the

Amy Peterson Peck: : EXPERIENCING JOY BOTH FROM THE URBAN LIFE OF THE EAST SIDE OF ST PAUL TO A 1,000 MILK-COW DAIRY FARM IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

August 12, 2023 A five-time Olympian and three-time Olympic medalist, Amy Peterson Peck of St. Paul and Maplewood, is now the mother of four boys who lives on a large dairy farm in a scenic area of upstate New York called Schuylerville. Visiting the humble 2002 Olympic flag bearer recently, we were rewarded by meeting

PART 1 OF A 2-PART SERIES AMERICAN LEGION WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS FROM MINNESOTA: RICHFIELD IN 1943; EDINA IN 1983

June 26, 2023 In honor of Joe Ryan (a 2020 Olympian who won a game for the silver medal-winning American team) pitching the first complete game by a Twins’ pitcher in FIVE years, this story is the first part of a two-part article on Minnesota teams winning the American Legion World Series. Despite Minnesota’s colder

DAVE METZEN: A CONVERSATION WITH A SOUTH ST. PAUL ATHLETE AND EDUCATOR

March 15, 2023 “Be careful what you write,” are the light-hearted parting words of a chuckling Dave Metzen following a 90-minute conversation.  Dave has both a storied career in athletics, educational leadership, and community service and a potential career in storytelling.  An All-Conference tackle in football who found greater success in hockey, Dave spent his

EMMA LEE: ATHLETES WHO HAVE THE ABILITY TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE SEEM TO HAVE MORE SUCCESS

An Olympic Trials marathon qualifier who was an All-American in three sports and currently a postdoctoral fellow who clearly has had athletic and academic success, Emma Lee appreciates people who see the big picture. Born in 1991 and raised in St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, a neighborhood tucked into the northwest section of St. Paul near

TONY SCHILLER: CHASING PEOPLE I ADMIRED

Celebrating movement—and practicing it—has been a big part of Tony Schiller’s life as a triathlete and advocate for enjoying the outdoors and nature through exercise.  Born in 1958, the middle child of 11 children who grew up in the St. Paul central area, Tony remembers the neighborhood as “a haven of sports at the time.” 

DEBRA HUNTER: CLOQUET WILL ALWAYS BE HOME

Cloquet, Minnesota, will always be home to coach and 1979-83 University of Minnesota (U of M) point guard Debra Hunter while she also emphatically states she “was raised by a series of villages.”  The villages included the churches her father served as a pastor; people in the community of Cloquet, a city of 12,000 people

DANIEL HUMES: RUNNING AT A TIME OF CROSSROADS

The sport of running changed dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s with the construction and marketing of lightweight, supportive shoes through the founding of Nike (its predecessor was Blue Ribbon Sports) in 1964; the advent of synthetic surface running tracks starting in the 1968 Olympics; and the implementation of Title IX in 1972 which allowed

Bill Robertson: SUCCESSFUL SPORTS ADMINISTRATOR AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS REMEMBERS MAGICAL TIME ON HIGHLAND PARK PLAYGROUNDS

September 13, 2022 The Robertson family was a sports family. Bill, now 61 years old, recalls his mild-manner father, Norbert, was a three-sport athlete at the University of Minnesota (U of M) playing hockey, baseball, and football—under legendary coach Bernie Bierman—before his career was interrupted by WW II and then picking up the sports againBill Robertson: SUCCESSFUL SPORTS ADMINISTRATOR AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS REMEMBERS MAGICAL TIME ON HIGHLAND PARK PLAYGROUNDS”

GYMNASTICS AND THE STEEPLECHASE: MINNESOTA ATHLETES PROVE YOU NEED SOME OF THE SAME QUALITIES

To a casual viewer, it is still obvious that elite gymnastics requires flexibility, strength, explosiveness, speed, endurance, and hand-eye coordination. What we sometimes forget is the spatial awareness and mental toughness that is also essential to possess in the sport. Surprising to some sports fans is that most of these qualities are also attributes of

MINNESOTA ATHLETES AT THE OLYMPIC TRIALS

Minnesota athletes continue to compete at the Olympic Trials in swimming and as the track and field competition begins today in Eugene, Oregon. In swimming, Regan Smith (Lakeville) has qualified for 2 events, the 100-meter backstroke and 200-meter butterfly, with her best event, the 200-meter backstroke still to be decided. The low-key, levelheaded swimming star

OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS; GOPHERS AT NCAA TRACK & FIELD; USA WOMEN’S HOCKEY NATIONAL CAMP TEAM ROSTER SELECTED

Regan Smith (Lakeville) and Isabelle Stadden (Blaine) are among the most promising Minnesota swimmers trying out for the US Olympic team this week in Omaha, Nebraska. As of this time, Regan Smith qualified for the 100-meter butterfly semifinals. Both Regan and Isabelle will be competing for one of the two coveted qualifying spots in the

WRESTLERS WITH MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS AT OLYMPIC TRIALS THIS WEEK

Several wrestlers with a background in the sport in Minnesota high schools or colleges will be competing Friday and Saturday at Dickie’s Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, for the coveted spots on the US Olympic team. While this list is not comprehensive, here are most of the athletes Minnesotans may be interested in following. Two

MINNESOTA MARATHONERS IN ACTION

On Sunday, December 20th, several Minnesota runners competed at The Marathon Project race in Chandler, Arizona, with positive results. The women’s field especially had many recognizable names in the top 20 with Minnesota connections. Emma Bates (Elk River) led the elite group with a 4th-place finish with a time of 2:25:40–she had finished 7th in

THOUGHTS ON SID

By Joel Rippel, StarTribune sports writer and fact-checker and first editor of Patrick Mader‘s book on Minnesota athletes “I’m a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and have long been interested in sports statistics and sports history. I’m going to utilize numbers to put Sid Hartman’s remarkable life and career in perspective. There

PUTTING MINNESOTA FAST-PITCH SOFTBALL ON THE MAP

Villard, Minnesota, a town with a population of 250 citizens in Pope County; Alexandria, a popular travel destination for its lakes located 17 miles north of Villard; and St. Paul are on the USA Softball map because they are connected to star softball pitcher Joel Cooley. Following the footsteps of his father, Allen, Joel was

TARA LASZLO: THE DUTCH KNOW THE SPORT AND CHEER FOR ALL

Raised near Hillcrest Golf Course in the Greater East Side neighborhood of St. Paul, Tara Laszlo was on ice skates shortly after her second birthday. The oldest of three children, Tara then started figure skating lessons at age 5 at Aldrich Arena where she met future five-time Olympian speedskater Amy Peterson Peck, who also started

MINNESOTA’S ONLY FENCING OLYMPIAN

How about a brief article which is not public health related? We will try posting two or three articles per week that touch on a story about a Minnesota athlete. If you are starving for sports news, consider looking back on previous posts! Susie Scanlan of St. Paul (Central High School) was instrumental in the

WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS IN NORDIC SKIING AND SPEEDSKATING PLUS A WONDERFUL GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY OF WOMEN’S HOCKEY IN MINNESOTA

The Birkebeiner 50K nordic skate race had two Minnesota male athletes in the top 10: Ian Torchia (Rochester) was runner-up and a scant 1.6 seconds behind the winner while Kyle Baltrud (Eden Prairie) took 10th. Ageless Phil Rogosheske (St. Cloud) placed 3rd in the 75-79 age division. In the women’s division, 5-time Birkie champion and

MINNESOTA ATHLETES STAR AT NATIONAL CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS; OLYMPIC/PARALYMPIC VOLLEYBALL OFFICIALS AND SUCCESSFUL TRYOUT CANDIDATES

The state’s strong representation on championship curling teams continued at both the junior and senior levels for men and women last week. Taking the men’s senior championship in Spokane, Washington, was the 2018 gold medal-winning John Shuster (originally from Chisholm) rink–his 9th national title. Lead John Landsteiner (originally from Mapleton) and Third Chris Plys (Duluth)

TRIBUTES TO TWO COACHES, GOPHER SPORTS, AND ANALEE WEAVER

Analee Weaver (Stillwater) placed 14th in the National Foot Locker Championships in San Diego, CA, this weekend. Analee is a junior and claimed the Class 2A state title in cross country this fall with a time of 17:46.1, a nearly 7-second margin of victory. Another name familiar to the running community who placed at the

CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF TWO MINNESOTA ATHLETES FROM IMMIGRANT FAMILIES

The wonderful story and recent performances of gymnast Sunisa Lee of St. Paul has prompted me to think of other Minnesota athletes and their families who have had similar experiences in adapting to a new country and culture . Sunisa, a Hmong-American, won the the uneven bar and finished second to Simone Biles in the

MINNESOTA VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS ON NATIONAL TEAM; GRANDMA’S RACE THIS WEEKEND

Minnesota has impressive representation on the 25-player USA Volleyball Nations League (VNL) roster: Sarah Parsons (Eden Prairie), Tori Dixon (Burnsville), Lauren Gibbemeyer (St. Paul), and Paige Tapp (Stewartville) are on the team and all but Tapp are returning members. Sarah Parsons and Paige Tapp recently helped a professional team in Stuttgart claim the German league

MIAC COACHES WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE OLYMPICS AND OLYMPIC COACHES WHO ATTENDED MIAC; FINAL INSTALLMENT OF SIX PART SERIES

In a testament to the quality of athletes recruited to coach in the MIAC, there are a handful of MIAC coaches who are Olympians, and one Olympic coach was a graduate of a MIAC school. Roberto Sobalvarro (Owatonna), a graduate of Macalester, was the 2012 Olympic head women’s fencing coach. Seen below with another Olympian

BRAVE LIKE GABE 5K

We are going to interrupt our series on MIAC Olympians to address the Brave Like Gabe 5K race and mission. Gabriele Anderson Grunewald (Perham) and her husband Justin Grunewald started a race to raise funds with the mission of to “support rare cancer research and empower all cancer survivors through physical activity.” People in the

MIAC OLYMPIANS: ST. JOHN’S VS ST. THOMAS

Legendary football rivals in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), St. Thomas narrowly defeated a hard-charging St. John’s team 20-17 in a game at Target Field in September 2017. The announced attendance of 37,355 more than doubled the previous record for a crowd at a Division III football game. St. Thomas also appears to edge

RECENT APRIL RESULTS FOR THE MINNESOTA RUNNING AND WRESTLING COMMUNITIES

A posting before a series of columns on #MIAC athletes who became Olympians features many Minnesota athletes who performed will at the Get in Gear Race along the Mississippi River and Marine Corps US Open (wrestling) in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the premier 10K race, four Minnesota athletes finished between 4th and 7th within 23

SPRING SPORTS: THE VERSATILITY OF LIZ PODOMINICK AND FOUR MINNESOTA POSITION-PITCHER PLAYERS

Liz Podominick(Lakeville) was the 2003 Miss Minnesota Basketball award-winner. She also claimed 4 state high school track and field titles in shot put and two more in discus. The versatile athlete then competed in both sports at the University of Minnesota (U of M). Liz was a valued player off the bench when the Gophers’

LESSER-KNOWN MINNESOTA ATHLETES, BIG-TIME ACHIEVEMENTS, PART 3 OF 5

A 2013 AAU Sullivan Award finalist for the best amateur athlete in the United States, Joy Woog Garvey has many incredible athletic accomplishments in her lifetime. In the era before girls’ high school hockey, Joy played ice hockey for the Minnesota Thoroughbreds, the only high-caliber amateur hockey team available to girls in the state. Her

Minnesota Has a National Swimming Champion, New M Club Hall of Fame Members

Teen swimming sensation Regan Smith (Lakeville) tied with Kathleen Baker for the 200-meter backstroke national championship title in Irvine, California, in a time of 2:06.43. Regan qualified for the senior World Championships last year as a 15-year-old! Also having a strong meet was Lindsey Kozelsky (nee Horesji from Albert Lea, U of M) tied for

Cheers For Achievements, Historic Race!

Lots to cheer about . . . Congratulations to Hugh McCutcheon, head coach of the University of Minnesota (U of M) women’s volleyball team, on the announcement of being inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame. Several U of M athletes from Minnesota received Academic All-District awards: Lindsey Smits (Lakeville, track), Derek Wiebke (Kasson,

Duluth Races, More Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame Inductees

Several races were hosted in Duluth in conjunction with Grandma’s Marathon and many runners with Minnesota connections had notable achievements. Carrie Tollefson a recent Villanova University Hall of Fame inductee, won the women’s William Irvin 5K with a time of 18:21 while Team USA Minnesota runner Tyler Jermann placed an impressive 12th in the marathon.

Variety of Sports, More Achievements

Minnesota has remarkable representation with 5 athletes on the USA Volleyball roster: twin sisters Paige Tapp and Hannah Tapp of Stewartville; Sarah Wilhite of Eden Prairie; Tori Dixon from Burnsville; and Lauren Gibbemeyer, a Cretin-Derham Hall graduate from St. Paul. All are graduates of the University of Minnesota. Kevin Docherty, another Cretin-Derham Hall graduate from

Minnesota’s Sub-4-Minute Milers

Thanks to a response from Joe Winegardner, one of Karl John Mader’s (who witnessed numerous runners eclipse the 4-minute mark while competing in races in Boston and New York) cross country coaches, I did a little research on sub-4-minute milers from Minnesota. The first American to run under 4 minutes was Don Bowden (ran collegiately

Fall Series: This is the first of three posts on autumn sports and Minnesota athletes achieving recent success.

Andrew Stelter (Owatonna) plays on the defensive line for the University of Minnesota (U of M). He has been named a semifinalist for the 2017 William V. Campbell Trophy, an award given to an athlete who best demonstrates academic, community service, and on-field performance. Congratulations, Andrew! The U of M Gophers women’s cross country team

Part V of Summer Sports Series

A mix of notes about summer sports and competitions. . . In swimming, 15-year-old Regan Smith (Lakeville) set a junior world record of 2:07.19 in the 200-meter backstroke semifinals at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. She is the youngest member of the national team and finished 8th overall. Austin Athmann (Cold Spring) batted .268

Part III of Summer Minnesota Sports Series

A pair of international events are highlighted in the third summer posting: the Track and Field World Championships in London and the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Tampere, Finland. Thank you to John John M Harrington (Virginia), a member of the 1980 gold medal-winning hockey team; Kim Kostron Nyquist (St. Paul), a two-time Olympian speedskater

Winter Sports Series, Part 10: Biathlon, Precision and Speed

Biathlon, a sport wildly popular in Europe combining the power of skiing with the precision of shooting, has been in the sports news this month primarily because of the stunning performance of Lowell Bailey in winning the 20 km individual race at the world championships in Hochfilzen, Austria—a first for an American biathlete. The first

Winter Sports Series, Part 5: Minnesota, the State of Hockey for Women too!

Hearing an announcement that women’s hockey would be an Olympic sport debuting in 1998, 8th grader Jenny Potter (then Schmidgall), a superior swimmer at Edina High School, decided her love for physicality and the sport played on ice would be her route to the Olympics. Still not a Minnesota State High School League sport (the

Winter Sports Series, Part 4: Minnesota, Truly the State of Hockey

Today is Hockey Day in Minnesota, but the sport’s passionate fans believe that every winter day meets that description. Minnesota’s colder temperatures provide a wonderful resource that has been embraced by hundreds of thousands of the state’s inhabitants: ice. The slippery frozen surface has been the ideal play space for both youth and adults playing

The Weekend’s Non-Marathon Runs

While Dominic Ondoro’s record-setting Twin Cities Marathon time of 2:08:51 was capturing headlines, there were three other competitive runs in conjunction with the main event over the weekend: the 5K, 10K, and 10-mile distances. Minnesota athletes continued their strong tradition of successful distance running. Unattached runners at the U of M took five of the

Griak Invitational: Men’s Gold Division

Led by the strong running of Minnesota athletes Matthew Thomas Welch (Proctor) and Obsa Ali (Richfield) as they maneuvered to the top ten runners, the U of M Gopher men’s team captured 9th place in the prestigious Griak Invitational at Les Bolstad Golf Course on the St. Paul campus. This is the second consecutive strong

Minnesota Athletes in Professional Baseball; Women’s Gymnastics

With professional minor league baseball’s season winding down, here are some statistics about a few Minnesota athletes at this time. Austin Athman (Cold Spring, U of M) was drafted by the Detroit Tigers baseball organization in the 14th round and is batting .276 in the New York-Penn League. He has 12 extra base hits in

St. Paul, Minnesota has had very few Olympians in Boxing and Only One Known Athlete in Fencing

Widely known in the 1970s, Duane Bobick grew up in a family of 13 children in Bowlus, Minnesota, a small town located between St. Cloud and Little Falls. He was a superb athlete at Royalton High School and enlisted in the US Navy soon after graduating. With an 82-inch reach and a famed left jab,

Women’s Soccer Games Begin Today at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

Women’s soccer games begin today at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Two superb Minnesota athletes have had prominent roles as Olympians in the sport: Briana Scurry, a graduate of Anoka High School, and Manny Lagos, a St. Paul Academy graduate. Briana was an all-state athlete in basketball, soccer, and track and field. She

Minnesota Athletes at Rio (Summary)

Hassan Mead (Minneapolis South, University of Minnesota) placed 11th in the 5,000-meter run final. Stillwater High School and U of M graduate Ben Blankenship placed 8th in the 1,500-meter run final. Living in Arden Hills for a few years, badminton pairs player Paula Lynn Obanana and her playing partner did not place. Rugby was reintroduced

National Men’s Cross Country Championships–Open Division

With the start of the high school and college cross country season, here is some researched information on elite runners competing at the national level of an often overlooked race: the National Cross Country Championships. Past winners have included Frank Shorter, Jack Bachelor, Craig Virgin, and Alberto Salazar. But many Minnesota athletes have also made