With Tokyo Olympics postponed, Steele Johnson grateful for more time

Skateboarding isn’t necessarily a standard part of an Olympic diver’s exercise routine, but when Purdue’s Burke Aquatic Center closed down in the spring due to COVID-19, silver medalist Steele Johnson (LA’19) got creative with his workout. His normal training schedule involves five or six hours a day, much of it at the pool. He spent four months out of the water at the start of the pandemic, the longest he’s ever gone without entering the water since he started diving at age 7.

“I’m really focused on managing my physical health,” says the 6’1” athlete. “I love skateboarding. My wife and I would go skateboarding to get some cardio. We did body weight workouts as much as we could. Initially, we were limited by the four walls of our apartment until the weather got warmer and we could spend more time outside.”

One challenge with at-home workouts: competitive diving requires maintaining muscle strength in certain areas of the body. Many basic strength-building exercises that don’t require equipment, such as push-ups and pull-ups, build muscle mass in the wrong locations for a diver. And it’s virtually impossible to replicate diving formations.  

“I couldn’t practice flips because I didn’t want to go through the floor, and we have low ceilings,” Johnson says. “Plus, there’s people who live right below us, and you want to be respectful.”

Though Johnson was initially disappointed that the  Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed until 2021 — they were originally scheduled to start on July 24, 2020 — he recognizes the postponement as an opportunity for one more year of preparation, training, and healing.

“I’ve had two foot surgeries leading up to this Olympics, and it’s been a little bit of a struggle getting back into the sport,” Johnson says. “Now I have a whole year for my foot to heal and be fully recovered. Right now, I feel the strongest I have ever felt. A year from now, I will be even stronger.”

Taking a break from the water also reignited Johnson’s passion for the sport. He’s still maintained contact with the coaches and teammates with whom he’s formed friendships outside of the pool, and once he resumed training in July, he found he was having more fun and was able to let go of mistakes more easily. With the Olympics merely postponed and not canceled, Johnson remains focused on growing in some way every day to better himself for the international stage. Still, he can’t help but show gratitude for the extra time he’s been given.  

“I’ve been active in this sport for 16 years,” he says. “It was time to have a break from the water to rekindle my love for the sport and let my body recover. Taking a break is hard, but when it’s forced, it gives you an opportunity to step away from the pool and be at home with your family and remind you why you love to do what you do.”