Gymnast David Durante planned on retiring after the 2004 Olympics — until coaches left him off a team he believed he deserved to make.
Sorely disappointed but determined to pursue his dream for four more years, the New Jersey native moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs from Stanford, his alma mater, where he had been training and coaching.
“I felt like I owed it to myself to give it one more shot, and moving here was the only logical place financially,” said Durante, who was 24 years old at the time. “Living in a dorm, I feel a little like I’m in college again, but it’s great. One more year and it will have been worth it.”
Durante won the all-around at this year’s U.S. Championships and has positioned himself as a leader of the U.S. team heading toward the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“The Olympic Training Center has really given me the ideal location to train for the Olympics,” Durante said. “Being a post-collegiate athlete, there aren’t too many places that make it financially viable for an athlete in gymnastics. You can come and train and focus completely on your sport, not have to worry about the financial aspects, and have top-level coaching and staff and other things that aren’t available to you anywhere else in the country. Or in the world, for that matter.
“It just makes for an ideal location for any athlete.”
Tour the Olympic Training Center with David Durante: , then click on “Behind the Team” and “Episode 9.”
