One of the Olympic opening ceremony flag bearers trains in North Texas. Lindon Victor will carry the flag for his home in Grenada. He’s one of six Olympic athletes for the tiny Caribbean island nation. NBC 5’s Noelle Walker reports that his road to the games goes through Fort Worth.
Training time at the TCU track is set to the soundtrack of Bob Marley. It sets the vibe for the mental and physical work of getting to the Olympics.
"I feel like I've been really blessed since I moved to Fort Worth," Lindon Victor said. "I have what I like to call The Avengers. I have the best team!"
"I jokingly started calling it The Goon Squad one day and it stuck," Victor's coach Chris Huffins said. "The first rule about Goon Squad is you don't talk about Goon Squad!"
Huffins is a 2-time Olympian and Olympic bronze medal winner in the men's decathlon, the same event Victor will compete in Paris.
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"It creates a symmetry for us that most people don't have," Huffins said. "I think there are people who know us who don't believe that we haven't been working together for 20 years, 'cause it's been kinda like that from day one."
"I moved here to work with one of the best American decathletes," Victor said. "Since we've been here, we've been creating magic!"
Victor, who first came to Texas on a track scholarship at Texas A&M, will compete in the men's decathlon at the Olympic Games for the small Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which is sending 6 athletes to the Olympics.
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"I just have a whole team of people who have bought into my dream and bought into my goals, and I think once everybody's in alignment, success happens," Victor said. "We're all on the same mission, which is to win gold at the Paris Olympic Games."
"I mean why would we go there for any other reason other than the gold medal," Benny Vaughn said. Vaughn is Victor's life coach. "So that's our mindset. That's our focus on all of training that we do; all of the thought coaching that we do. It's one goal and we're all on the same page; gold medal performance."
Everything, including the Bob Marley soundtrack, is part of the formula for success. The gold medal winner of the Olympic decathlon, which is 10 events over 2 days, is widely considered to be the 'world's greatest athlete'.
"It takes mental toughness, physical toughness, athletic ability," Victor said of the decathlon. "It takes finding something deep within to be the world's greatest athlete, and I welcome the opportunity!"
Victor will be the flag bearer for Grenada's Olympic team during the opening ceremonies. Grenada was recently impacted by Hurricane Beryl. Victor is selling t-shirts to raise money for hurricane relief. You can find them here.
