The celebrities are flying past Leah Crouse so quickly in the Olympic Village in Paris, she can’t keep up with them all. Thursday she saw famed gymnast Simone Biles and Spanish tennis stars Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal out and about. “The Olympic Village is like a college campus for the best athletes of the world,” said Crouse, a graduate of Cox High in Virginia Beach and defender on the United States Olympic women’s field hockey team.
“My teammates told me I walked by (seven-time swimming gold medalist) Katie Ledecky without noticing her. “There’s so much happening in the Village, you’ve got to keep a lookout.” Crouse’s focus will turn on Saturday to the field in Yves du Manoir Stadium.
It is one of the most famous of all athletic venues, known during the 1924 Olympics as the Stade Colombes. It was there British sprinters Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won their gold medals at the ’24 Olympics, made famous by the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire.” It is there Crouse will realize her Olympic dream when the USA opens against Argentina at 1:45 p.
m. EDT in pool play. “Our field is where the opening ceremony was held 100 years ago (with the future King Edward VIII of England in attendance) and it is just beautiful,” Crouse said.
“Being an Olympian is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a little kid, so finally being here is an incredible feeling.” The feeling is not hers alone. Her cheering section of about a dozen in Paris will include p.