After Extra Year, Sophia Herzog Ready to Enjoy Last Paralympics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sophia Herzog\u2019s<\/strong> plan didn\u2019t involve the Arkansas River. It didn\u2019t involve a pandemic puppy or an extra year of putting her post-swimming career on hold.<\/p>\n

But there the 2016 Paralympic silver medalist was in the spring of 2020 anyway. She\u2019d just finished her degree in business communications in the fall of 2019, studying remotely with DeVry University from her home in Colorado. She was ready for one more go at the Paralympics, then the process of starting a career at age 23.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. But a year later, Herzog is ready for her final run at the Paralympics in Tokyo, a journey with some unfinished business and an imperative, given all that the last year has been, to enjoy the journey.<\/p>\n

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Sophia Herzog<\/p><\/div>\n
Herzog labored over the decision to soldier on. She\u2019d won a silver medal in the S6 100 breaststroke in Rio to go with sixth place in the 200 individual medley. She won a pair of golds at the 2017 World Championships<\/a> and finaled in three events, the highest finish a fourth place in the 100 breast, at Worlds in 2019.<\/p>\n
The 2020 Tokyo Paralympics was going to be Herzog\u2019s final Games. But whether or not she\u2019d stick it out to 2021 took time to decide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave myself a little bit of time to figure out if I was going to go for this extra year,\u201d Herzog said in July, after Paralympic Trials<\/a>. \u201cIt got a little uncomfortable when Tokyo\u2019s population didn\u2019t want to have the Games, so there was still talks of it not happening. If they were going to postpone it again, if this whole year was going to be that I put off this retirement for nothing, so just mentally preparing myself to go for another year was hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plan for 2020 had been to devote the whole year to the Paralympics \u2013 a singular, post-graduate focus, then time to revel in whatever she accomplished in Tokyo before finding the next step. Herzog is approaching 2021 the same way, though the suspended animation of her career is uncomfortable at times. In free moments during the spring of 2020, for instance, when she could have been applying for jobs, she had to stop herself, since her summer was a little too booked for job interviews.<\/p>\n
Instead, she\u2019s resolved to take the year for herself, with time after Tokyo to spend with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Odie.<\/p>\n
Odie played a role in Herzog\u2019s fitness routine<\/a>. With pools shut down in the spring of 2020, the ability to take the rambunctious black lab, adopted in June 2020, out on long walks or bike rides was valuable cross training, mentally and physically.<\/p>\n
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A post shared by Sophia Herzog (@sophiaherzog)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n