A nice day Friday weather-wise for what most of the Springfield community would agree is a nice man.
A homecoming celebration of sorts was held for Ryan Held, one of the U.S. Olympic Swimming gold medal winners at the Rio Games, including a motorcade from Springfield Fire Station 8 to Sacred Heart Griffin West Campus, where he signed hundreds of autographs prior to the Cyclones football game.
“It’s amazing. The people of Springfield are so kind and just supportive and loving of me,” says Held. “It’s just so awesome — all the signs and the encouragement that they showed for me me. I never would have thought in a million years all this would be here just for me to welcome me home.”
Held says he still can’t believe he made the Olympics so soon.
“I thought maybe 2020 I had a chance. It could happen, the Olympics could be a reality. But, no, never 2016 right here,” says Held.
Held’s former Cyclone teammate Graham Cross felt the same way.
“When he won the YMCA nationals, I really started to get interested,” says Cross. “I had known that even though in high school, we had a great training regimen, I knew the [North Carolina] State coaches were going to be able to take him from this piece of talent and mold him into an elite-level sprinter.”
As much pride as you feel for Held and his accomplishments, Cyclones swim coach “Doc” Stegeman feels more.
“Just to be able to help him along this process, I’m very proud, very excited for him,” says Stegeman. “We gave him a good start, but boy, he had to do an awful lot of work to carry it forward.”
Mayor Jim Langfelder and Governor Bruce Rauner honored Held Friday. Rauner declared it “Ryan Held Day” in Illinois. The festivities continue Saturday afternoon at 12:30 at the Kerasotes YMCA.
