The 2024 Summer Olympics are still going on, but for thousands of athletes dreaming of representing the US one day, the grind never stops – and many of them already have their sights set on the 2028 games.
One of those athletes is from nearby Oklahoma City, which is set to play its own role in the next Summer Olympics.
The 2028 games in Los Angeles are still four years away, but Augustus Cook is preparing like they’re next week.
“It hurts, it’s a hard sport,” Cook said. “But I love it.”
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Cook is a rower from Oklahoma City.
Six days a week, you’ll find him on the water at the Riversport course near downtown, putting in up to three sessions a day, not including his work in the gym and running for cardio.
It’s a grueling schedule built around one single objective.
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“Basically all guns to bear for 2028 is the goal, whatever that takes,” Cook said.
Cook started rowing when he was 11, joining a travel team after discovering the sport at summer camp.
He picked up a medal at US Nationals in 2017 and has finished 15th in the world at two world championships.
In the US Olympic trials for 2024, Cook trained without a full-time coach – and barely missed the cut.
“2024 would have been awesome, but with everything that happened, it was sort of like, you want to be hopeful but you’ve also got to be realistic,” Cook said.
Now he’s got someone pushing him – coach Sabrina Ameghino, an Olympian rower from Argentina.
He’s also driven to represent his hometown which is set to play its own role in 2028.
“It’s cool to get to see the Olympics come to Oklahoma City, we’ve got a lot of things that make this facility fantastic,” said Cook.
The 2028 LA Olympics committee is planning to hold the Canoe Slalom event on the whitewater course at the Riversport complex in OKC.
Cook doesn’t compete in that event – but is dreaming of being part of it just the same.
“Because hopefully if I’m in the 2028 games, I’ll get to watch the games here and then head out to LA to go do my race,” Cook said. “It’ll be fantastic.”
With his goal four years away, Cook is still pushing himself to exhaustion on the water daily. It’s the price he’s willing to pay to become one of the world’s best.
“I don’t want to be doing anything else, and part of the reason that I love it is that it is hard, and it’s challenging,” said Cook. “And that is something that I’ve always sought out.”
