Olympic names with a familiar ring

On the night of Aug. 16, Brandon Reichel might set his alarm for a very early wake-up call. Then again, he might not go to sleep at all. Long after Reichel's Mankato neighbors have gone to bed, Ali Bernard will be wrestling in the Beijing Olympics on the other side of the world, and Reichel, her coach, knows he won't be able to wait until dawn to find out how she did.

The lights will come on early in Anoka, too, when hometown prodigy Jake Deitchler makes his Olympic debut as the youngest wrestler on the U.S. Greco-Roman team in 32 years. Coaches at the University of Minnesota will be tracking former Gophers Shani Marks in the triple jump, Lindsey Berg in women's volleyball and Nicole Branagh in beach volleyball. The riders Becky Holder teaches at Hugo's Carriage House Farm will follow her equestrian competition on TV and the Internet when the Summer Games begin on Friday.

Minnesota always produces an avalanche of snow-and-ice Olympians, loading U.S. Winter Games rosters with homegrown hockey players, curlers, skiers and speedskaters. The state typically incubates a smaller delegation of warm-weather warriors. This month, 10 athletes with Minnesota connections will step onto the Olympic stage in China, carried there by the coaching, donations, friendships and good wishes of their hometowns.

"I am extremely fired up for Ali," said Reichel, a painting contractor who has helped coach Bernard since she wrestled on the boys' team at New Ulm High School. "I'm really proud of her. The way she's handled herself, the hard work she's put in, she's earned this.

"I talked to her after the Olympic trials and told her nobody can ever take this away. You are representing the United States at the Olympics. I don't think it will even hit her until later."

Communities back wrestlers

The U.S. team for the 2006 Winter Olympics included 34 Minnesotans, 12 of whom earned medals in women's hockey and curling. The state's head count for the Summer Games usually hovers around eight to 12. By contrast, 175 of the 596 athletes the United States will send to Beijing come from California.

The Minnesota contingent also includes rowers Matt Schnobrich and Micah Boyd, who grew up in St. Paul and will pull together in the men's eight; distance runner Kara Goucher, a multiple Minnesota high school champ in cross-country and track who will run in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters; and Lynx guard Seimone Augustus, a member of the U.S. women's basketball team.

The richest local vein for summer Olympians has long been found in Minnesota's wrestling rooms. Deitchler continues a tradition of Greco-Roman wrestlers raised in the state; Minnesota has had at least one athlete compete in the Greco-Roman style in every Olympics since 1968. The Anoka teen scored one of the biggest upsets of the Olympic trials when he beat Harry Lester, a favorite to medal in Beijing, to earn the United States' sole berth at 145.5 pounds.

Since then, Deitchler -- who graduated early from Anoka High so he could prepare for the trials -- has become a national story. But his local roots remain deep and strong. Both his parents attended Park Rapids High School, and personal coach Brandon Paulson is an Anoka grad who won a silver medal in wrestling at the 1996 Olympics. Anoka has rallied around Deitchler, as more than 125 local businesses and individuals have contributed money to send his entire family to Beijing.

"It wasn't in the cards for us to take [Jake's two sisters],'' said Deitchler's father, Jason. "The coaches called us up and said, 'We'll do whatever we can to help.' The support we've gotten from so many people is really humbling.''

Bernard's family has gotten the same kind of lift from friends and neighbors in New Ulm, even before Ali became an Olympian. She wrestled in the local youth program, then for the boys' team at New Ulm High School, where some opponents refused to get on the mat with her.

But her coaches, teammates and their parents never questioned her. The mothers of four of Bernard's high school teammates even formed a fan club -- the Ali Cats -- and have traveled to many of her competitions around the country. Four of them will go to Beijing, where they will wear their Ali Cats T-shirts, which they have sold to raise money for the trip.

"We couldn't go to the Olympic trials, so we watched it on the Internet,'' said Kathy Koob, one of the founders of the Ali Cats. "Pretty soon, 20 people showed up at our house and huddled around the computer to watch it with us. We've watched Ali since she was a little girl, and we know how much she loves wrestling and the blood and sweat and tears she's put in. We're all cheering for her.''

Only one Minnesota native has won an individual gold medal in the Summer Olympics. Swimmer Tom Malchow of Mendota Heights won the 200-meter butterfly at the 2000 Sydney Games, four years after earning silver in the same event.

Possible medal winners

A handful of this year's group could climb the podium. Schnobrich and Boyd are newcomers to the men's eight, rowing's most prestigious boat; in 2004, the U.S. won its first gold medal in that event in 40 years. Canada holds the favorite's role this time, but Schnobrich, a graduate of St. Thomas Academy and St. John's University, and Boyd, an alumnus of St. Paul Central and Wisconsin, bring plenty of enthusiasm to their Olympic debut.

Both learned to row at clubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul before moving to the East Coast to pursue more serious training.

Goucher followed a similar path, and she, too, could medal in Beijing. The New York City native moved to Duluth with her family to be closer to her mother's relatives after her father was killed in a car accident.

Under her maiden name of Kara Wheeler, she helped Duluth East to four consecutive state cross-country team titles and won the Class AA individual championship in 1993. She and her husband, Adam Goucher, now live and train in Portland, Ore. Kara Goucher worked through years of injuries and disappointing results to emerge as one of the strongest female distance runners in the U.S., and in 2007, she became the first American woman to win a medal in the 10,000 meters at the world track and field championships.

Some of her relatives still live in Duluth, including sister Kelly Grgas-Wheeler, an assistant soccer coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

"I've wanted to be an Olympian for so long," Goucher said after making her first Olympic team. "This is the childhood dream."

She shares that not only with her fellow Minnesotans, but with millions of athletes all over the world. And non-athletes, too, who will be waking up under the moon's light to turn on their TVs and computers and share the culmination of Olympic journeys that traveled through their hometowns.

"Messages for Jake are on all the billboards around town, and I've had our state champs e-mail me to send money for the family's expenses,'' said Todd Springer, Deitchler's coach at Anoka High School. "He is a great representative. There couldn't be a better, more exciting thing for our community."