{"id":31928,"date":"2016-03-02T12:02:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T18:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=31928"},"modified":"2016-03-02T12:02:37","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T18:02:37","slug":"the-olympic-mom-of-colorado-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-olympic-mom-of-colorado-springs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympic Mom of Colorado Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caley Chelios<\/strong><\/p>\n

An especially tall third-grade girl stood beside the U.S. women\u2019s volleyball team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs one day in 2008. The little girl had always been embarrassed by her height but when she met the Olympians, a group of women that showed her the value in it, “she said \u2018I\u2019ll never be ashamed again,\u2019” said USOC coordinator Sherry Von Riesen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat moment was a turning point for that young girl,\u201d Von Riesen said. \u201cFrom that day forward, it empowered her and no one could ever take that away from her. Working with athletes, I get to see the power in what they can change every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The admiration is mutual. The elite athletes who reside at the training center may be surrounded by top-of-the-line equipment, nutritionists and performance trainers, but they get their inspiration from a woman they call “mom.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For 18 years, Von Riesen has been the unofficial Olympic mom. At 70, Von Riesen can be found tucked away in her office at the OTC with her blonde bun, glasses and sweet-but-witty demeanor, always ready to listen and care for the more than 100 athlete-residents coping with the stresses of fulfilling their Olympic hopes while also balancing personal matters.<\/p>\n

Von Riesen is a resident herself in the complex, so she\u2019s never more then a few quick steps away. She\u2019s no stranger to handling athletes of different ages and personalities from her own experience as a mother to her four kids.<\/p>\n

Her dedication and involvement to her son\u2019s gymnastics team when he was at High Country Gymnastics Academy in Colorado Springs, brought her into the gyms of the OTC, where she did marketing and fundraising for her son\u2019s team and met the parents of Olympic hopefuls. It wasn\u2019t long before OTC office staff and parents urged her to come work in the OTC offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my story is, I sold my house to to my kids and I ran away,\u201d Von Riesen said. \u201cI came down here about 15 years ago and started living on the complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von Riesen is never off the clock and when she\u2019s not at her desk or walking around the OTC facilities joking and laughing with her \u201ckids,\u201d she\u2019s planning community events for the athletes.<\/p>\n

Katie Uhlaendar, a 31-year-old skeleton racer, said she spent her fair share of time in Von Riesen\u2019s office when she trained in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSundays were the best,\u201d Uhlaendar said. \u201cWe would all just sit around for hours and talk about life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von Riesen pointed out \u201cthe little things\u201d she does for the athletes, such as turning the heat off in their rooms if they forget when they leave for competition, bringing food to them when they\u2019re sick, even sewing little buttons on their clothes and occasionally busting out the iron.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the mom stuff,\u201d Von Riesen said. \u201cThere\u2019s never a dull moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"sherry<\/p>\n

Through her experiences living at the OTC, Von Riesen said she has found certain athletes keep her on her toes. The pentathletes have \u201cmore energy,\u201d she said, and admit they like to tease her, though only in an effort to “make me stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what they say when they pick on me,\u201d she said, \u201cI always try to come back with something good.\u201d<\/p>\n

One high-energy pentathlete is Samantha Achterberg, a three-year resident at the OTC who spent her last six years training there. Achterberg said she admires Von Riesen for the \u201cbubbly and kind person\u201d she is, and how much she gives back to the OTC and many athletes that reside there.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Achterberg needed surgery that forced her to miss a lot of competitions, leaving her, she said, to feel sad and stressed as her teammates moved ahead of her in training. Achterberg said she credits Von Riesen for reminding her of how important the things are to cherish in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSherry is one tough cookie,\u201d Achterberg said. \u201cI think for most athletes, we are constantly competing with others and ourselves, which can be destructive mentally, and Sherry helps give us the confidence to trust ourselves in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Von Riesen called her job \u201cthe best in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really keep me young and keep me believing,\u201d Von Riesen said. \u201cThese athletes have a purpose. The Olympics can prove science wrong by believing in miracles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Sherry Von Riesen standing beside Olympic swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt. (Courtesy of Sherry Von Riesen)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Caley Chelios An especially tall third-grade girl stood beside the U.S. women\u2019s volleyball team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs one day in 2008. The little girl had always been embarrassed by her height but when she met the Olympians, a group of women that showed her the value in it, “she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":34007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,585],"tags":[1164,1720,993],"class_list":["post-31928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2016","tag-colorado-springs","tag-mom","tag-olympics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Olympic Mom of Colorado Springs - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-olympic-mom-of-colorado-springs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Olympic Mom of Colorado Springs - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Caley Chelios An especially tall third-grade girl stood beside the U.S. women\u2019s volleyball team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs one day in 2008. 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