Shane Wiskus' performance at the Tokyo Olympics inspired many in the Minnesota community. It meant even more to me. As a fellow gymnast who trained at the University of Minnesota, I represented Team USA at the Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000, succeeding on the world stage largely thanks to those grueling afternoons in Cooke Hall on the university campus — ones Wiskus knows well. I followed Wiskus' competition in Tokyo as a commentator for NBC, and it was a delight to watch another Minnesotan excel among the world's top athletes.

But Wiskus — though he was a Gopher long before becoming an Olympian — managed to succeed largely in spite of our university. After the athletics department and the seven members of the Board of Regents, who blindly followed athletic director Mark Coyle's lead, moved to eliminate the men's gymnastics, men's indoor track and field, and men's tennis programs, Wiskus was forced to prepare for the Games in Colorado for fear of having his training interrupted here.

One can certainly question whether the Olympic Games, NCAA titles, Big Ten championships and academic awards matter to Coyle, to university President Joan Gabel or to the Board of Regents. Leaders at the U first said the decision was about money. Then they made it about Title IX, until it became about both Title IX and money. It seems that Coyle had a goal to drop these sports and was determined to find a justification that could survive a vote by the Board of Regents. Expanding opportunity doesn't seem to matter to our leaders, either: The university used this chance to quietly cut women's roster spots as well.

Alumni leaders of the three sports have stepped forward with alternative funding models from the beginning. We've been ignored. We have asked to speak at the September Board of Regents meeting and to meet with Coyle to discuss alternative solutions, but we've been denied. In an e-mail I sent to Gabel last October, I quoted a line from her bio page that read: "[Gabel] leads the University's mission by honoring its legacy as a place of discovery and opportunity, while emphasizing solutions inspired by Minnesotans." With regard to cutting athletic opportunities at Minnesota, not one word of this sentence is true. Honoring its legacy? These three programs have collectively been at the university for more than 350 years. Gabel has been here for two. Solutions inspired by Minnesotans? Not a single Minnesotan was asked to be part of a solution that would avoid cutting these sports. That sentence no longer appears in Gabel's bio.

The athletics department stands to save $1.6 million out of an expected deficit of $45 million to $65 million by cutting these three sports. Are those savings enough to merit losing the next Gopher Olympian to a Big Ten rival? The U can be nimble. There are models for it to follow from Stanford, Brown, William & Mary, St. Thomas and other schools where university administrators reversed decisions to cut sports in light of alumni resistance, improved economic situations and plain good conscience. The University of Minnesota, which won't even consider the prospect, is a disappointing exception.

Like me, Wiskus was raised with one foot already on the university campus, told that if he worked hard enough he could become the Golden Gopher he dreamed of being. He was like all Minnesotans in that way: raised to believe in hard work and the opportunities his state was eager to offer him. Minnesotans have always faced challenges head-on — with the assurance that solutions benefiting the greater good can always be found. That's why this decision is so heartbreaking. It's not who we are as a state, and it does not align with the principles our state's flagship university is meant to represent.

In Tokyo, I watched Wiskus carry his equipment in a maroon Minnesota duffel bag from event to event, proudly toting the block "M." He seems to believe, like I still do, that the symbol we represented as athletes is one to continue fighting for. So let's persevere, and let's find a way to make sure no Minnesotan with the talent to become an Olympian is impeded by their leaders again.

John Roethlisberger is a University of Minnesota alumnus and a three-time Olympian.