2008 No. 1 sports story: Aarik Wilson makes the Olympic team

First from Fallon ever to do so

Aarik Wilson wasn’t arrogant about his bold prediction of going to China last summer.

He was just overwhelmingly confident.



“We’re all planning on that. I told them actually last year to plan on going,” Wilson said in June about going to the Olympics. “I don't take anything for granted but at the same time, I put in the training and the work and that's what I believe will happen.”



So when he said that he was going to place in the top three of the U.S. Trials to qualify for the Olympics, he was serious. Two weeks later, he was right.



“As soon as I stepped and looked outside the pit I was 99 percent sure that I was on the team,” Wilson said after the U.S. Trials. “I was so focused on trying to make sure I did everything right and not get a foul. It went so fast that I left the ground, it was over and I was trying to see how far it was.”



The 2001 Churchill County High School grad, after missing the cut in 2004, won the U.S. Trials for the triple jump during the Fourth of July weekend to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing in August. Although he scratched and didn’t advance to the finals because of a leg injury, Wilson is the only Fallon athlete to reach this plateau. A leg injury suffered in May plagued the Fallon star in August, although he won the trials competing in pain.



But don’t count Wilson out four years from now when the Summer Games shift to London. After getting a glimpse of Olympic stardom, expect Wilson to be back in the spotlight as he will aim to qualify, again, and win the gold.



Behind the community’s support, Wilson was able to have his coach, Wayne Pate, on hand. Pate was not an official Olympic coach and couldn’t fly with Team USA. One month later, the city of Fallon honored Wilson with a proclamation and the Fallon youth competed in several Olympic events after the day started with a parade down Maine Street.



“We knew we wanted to do something special,” Mayor Ken Tedford Jr. said in September before Aarik Wilson Day. “We put that banner right away on the street. It’s such an honor to have Aarik, a hometown boy, going to the Olympics. When he got done and was coming home, we tried to do something for him. We got together in city hall and tossed up ideas.”



Wilson has once again put Fallon on the map, showing not only the country but also the world that a small Nevada community can produce golden athletes.