Member News

July 6, 2007

Former World Medalist Brian Olson Makes a Comeback

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – With just over a year to go until the 2008 Olympic Games, four-time National Champion Brian Olson (Longmont, Colo.) recently announced his plans to come out of retirement in a quest to win his first Olympic medal in Beijing.

“I think one of the biggest reasons I decided I wanted to come back was obviously to try and win an Olympic medal after being so close so many times,” said Olson, a 1997 World medalist.  “I had a successful career, but that’s the one thing that’s eluded me.”

Olson, who was on the 1996, 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Teams, will be trying to qualify for his fourth U.S. Olympic Team after dominating the division for the better part of a decade.

“I wanted to see how my body would react after taking time off.  That was one of the biggest issues was whether my body could hack it, but it’s kinda like riding a bike.  You do it for so long that the technique is always there, but now you need to work on timing more than anything and just overall stamina,” Olson said.  “There were some decisions prior to the last Olympics [in 2004] that I didn’t make properly, but I’m more educated now so I think my training’s going to be a lot better.”

Since 2004, Olson has been working for 24 Hour Fitness where he is now runs a team of personal trainers at the Highland Gardens Club in Colorado.

“Because of the job I feel like my body’s in great shape, I just need to work on getting back into judo shape,” Olson said.

Olson plans on training with clubs throughout Colorado, including the USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center where he trained for nearly 10 years, and will return to competition in the fall.

“It’s really exciting to have Brian back in the mix as one of the athletes in the hunt next year,” said USA Judo Director of Athlete Performance Eddie Liddie (Colorado Springs, Colo.)  “He’s been very close to medaling in the past and if he returns to form I believe he has a shot at a medal in Beijing.”