Hunter Armstrong greets fans at YMCA
Hunter Armstrong shares a moment with his grandmother Karen Armstrong.
Hundreds of fans flocked to the Tuscarawas County YMCA in Dover recently to welcome home Olympian swimmer Hunter Armstrong of Dover.
Armstrong was introduced by his local swim coach Brenda Wherley, who has coached Armstrong, 23, since he began swimming at the YMCA at the age of 6. Armstrong swam for the Y’s Silver Streaks and for Dover High School.
“As you know, Hunter’s made quite a name for himself in swimming on the world stage,” Wherley said. “He is an eight-time world champion, plus an additional four silver medals and five bronze medals.”
Armstrong once held the world record in the 50-meter freestyle. In 2023 he was named the winner of the Jack Kelly Fair Play Award. The award is presented to an athlete, coach or official in recognition of an outstanding act of fair play and sportsmanship. He won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, and most recently, he won a silver and a gold medal in relay swims in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
In addition to feeling the love from the audience, Dover Mayor Shane Gunnoe presented a proclamation from the city declaring Aug. 17 Hunter Armstrong Day.
Armstrong was grateful.
“A big thank you to this community for coming out and supporting me and supporting me while I was away,” Armstrong said, adding he and his family appreciated the donations to a fundraiser to help get his family to Paris to watch the competitions.
“My last thank you is to the YMCA and the Silver Streaks, not only for helping me become the man that I am today, but for putting on this event, and all the businesses and just all of this community's support in helping this event come together,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong hasn’t had time to process what happened in Paris yet.
“Truly, it hasn't sunk in yet, so there's not too much I can talk about. It's sort of a blank. Just these last three years have been so different from the life that I grew up with, but I wouldn't want it any other way,” Armstrong said. “Just coming back home and seeing all of these people that you know were sending me letters and sending me texts, and I just felt your support from Paris, from Tokyo and every place that I've been, and so I'm really grateful that I can come back and give this to you all today.”
Armstrong then took questions from the audience and answered everything from his favorite color — red — to his favorite thing about Paris.
“Oh, so the food in Paris. Shocker, my favorite thing in Paris is the food. Croissants are even better in Paris, but also in the (Olympic) village, we had these chocolate muffins,” Armstrong said. “They were amazing. It was like chocolate mousse filled on the inside and then chocolate chunks up top. I honestly had that breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert, and I kept a couple in the room in case I got hungry.”
For those wondering why the swimmers come out to the arena to compete wearing so much heavy clothing, Armstrong gave some insight.
“Sometimes it is cold, but also, we have to insulate because shaking is wasted energy. So we'll keep on hats, gloves, anything that will insulate and keep our body temperature normal before we race,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong revealed what goes on in his mind when he is racing.
“The plain and simple answer is ouch. We spend years training for those 45-46 seconds that you're in the water. So once you get behind the blocks, you turn your brain off and you let your body do what it's been trained to do,” Armstrong said.
The process really comes down to one thing.
“It all comes down to faith, not only Christianity faith, but also faith in yourself. As I said, we have worked countless hours training our bodies to do exactly what we want them to do. So when you get behind the blocks, all the work has been done, and the results are out of your control,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong was asked if he wishes there were some things he had done differently in his life and swimming career.
“Absolutely not, even with a different outcome. If I were not sitting here with two medals and it was one medal or no medals, the way I choose to live my life is with no regrets,” Armstrong said. “I've done everything for a reason, and it's all part of God's plan, so I don't live with any regrets in my life.”
Armstrong fans were pleased to learn he plans to keep swimming, and he hopes to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He said even though the USA swimmers are friends with the Australian swimmers, they are the team the USA wants to beat at any competition.
When his swimming career is over, Armstrong wants to become an elementary school teacher in Tuscarawas County, and he is already inspiring children.
Faith in yourself matters at any age. A young boy asked if Armstrong thought he could be an Olympic swimmer one day.
“Do you know how to swim right now?” Armstrong said.
The boy said he did.
“Maybe, if you work hard, you can do anything that you want to do. It doesn't matter where you came from,” Armstrong said.