Watching the Summer Olympics in Paris will be bittersweet for Samantha Schultz. The Colorado Springs Olympian competed in the women’s pentathlon during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. She didn’t win a medal, but it was still a special season of life.
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it’s real, like I have impostor syndrome,” Schultz said. “But I look back at all those years and the time I dedicated. It doesn’t happen over night and I wasn’t some crazy stellar athlete in high school.
I just put my head down and worked really hard. It gives me motivation that I can get through anything with enough persistence.” In a perfect world Schultz would be in Paris right now, preparing to compete again, but her body told her otherwise.
Nowadays, she teaches Pilates and yoga around the Pikes Peak region and also does personal training. “I’ve never been on the other side of being an Olympian while watching the Summer Olympics,” she said. “At times it’s hard.
I did want to keep competing, but for my body and health I had to move in a different direction.” Schultz will be on hand during the Downtown Summer Fest on Saturday to sign autographs and talk about her time in Tokyo. The free event at the U.
S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum celebrates the Summer Olympics. The day will begin with the Rocky Mountain 5K and 1K Sasquatch Shuffle for kids, followed by a torch-lighting ceremony.
Local officials, dignitaries an.