Lydia Ko and the Olympic-size challenge that awaits
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Midway through her six-birdie second round at the Olympics, which put her squarely back in the chase for her third straight Olympic medal.
Lydia Ko remembered the important stuff, the things a veteran who at a different point in her career might have missed as she walked between shots.
The 27-year-old New Zealand native noticed a couple of old friends in the gallery and flashed a smile that maybe wasn’t always immediately there on the course in her headier days nearly a decade ago as the No. 1 player in the world. She stopped, exchanged quick hugs and a laugh, and then went about her business.
After two rounds at the Le Golf National, that business looks an awful lot like a potential victory that would immediately qualify her for the LPGA Hall of Fame and give her a full Olympic medal sweep of Gold, Silver and Bronze.
“It’s been really cool,” Ko said Thursday after her second-round 67 left her solo third place, three shots off the lead of Morgane Metraux. “Obviously played the group behind Celine these past couple days so the people are super excited to support their fellow Frenchmen. But at the same time, the fans here have been so great because they have been supporting each and every one of us. I’ve honestly loved it.
“It almost brought tears to my eyes yesterday on the first hole because this could potentially be my last Olympics, and to have it in front of this mass amount of 30,000 people, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Ko, who has battled injuries and slumps that saw her drop outside the top 40 players in the world back in 2019, has struggled since winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and finishing second in a playoff at the LPGA Drive-On Championship at the start of this year. That win put her one point away from the LPGA Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Ko saw only one other top-10 this year before T-8 at the CPKC Canadian Women’s Open last month.
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Ko sees the Olympics as a special opportunity not merely because it might be her last in the quadrennial event, but because the Albatros course demands the kind of precision and focus that rewards a more measured, discerning mind of someone who’s been there before.
“Honestly, this golf course is so hard, it’s hard to think about the other things because I’m just trying to shoot the best score I can around here,” said Ko, who ranks in the top 10 so far this week in strokes gained/around the green, strokes gained/putting, greens in regulation, putts per green in regulation and scrambling. “I said earlier in the week, I think this is the toughest golf course we’ve played in the past three Games, and all of them had very different characteristics. But this one, you could shoot a really low score if you’re on, but at the same time it can get away from you, as well.”
Ko’s 18th-hole bogey was a case in point. A poor tee shot in the right rough led to a poor layup in the rough. That was followed by an approach that ended up in a tough lie in the bunker, which was then followed by a two-putt from 20 feet. It was her only dropped shot of the day, but still, there Ko was at the end signing autographs. On the verge of a career-defining opportunity, the 20-time LPGA winner isn’t going to let herself get too far astray, professionally or personally.
“I think there’s so many things I need to focus on, like right in front of me, which has been good,” she said. “Because then that has been less on my mind. It’s really cool that if I did win the gold, I could get in the Hall of Fame, and it would stop all these questions.
“I feel like if it’s going to happen, whether it’s in Paris or in Florida or in Scotland, it’s going to happen. And I’m just excited that I have this opportunity. If I get to do it here, it would be a pretty cool way to get it done. But I’m playing alongside 59 other top qualified players here, and there’s 36 holes for me to go.”
Ko knows Le Golf National can be rewarding and relentless almost in the same breath. For the week, 11 holes are playing over par and the course has biting back if a player chooses to be aggressive at the wrong time. Only three second-round scores were better than Ko’s 66. She’s not sure how much more the course might give up.
So far after two rounds it’s still playing almost a stroke and a half over par, with 451 bogeys and double bogeys or worse for the week, 76 more than the number of birdies and eagles. With scores on the 18th hole on Thursday ranging from a low of eagle 3 to a high of quadruple-bogey 9, it’s clear that the medal-winners may be in large part decided by how aggressive a player feels she can get.
Ko is measured when it comes to that strategy. While she didn’t like the way her day finished on 18, she said getting too aggressive isn’t going to get the job done at Le Golf National. Words that sound like the wise soul that’s been shaped by a dozen years in the spotlight.
“Sometimes pars are just as crucial as birdies,” she said. “People get so excited about birdies because it knocks a score off your total score, but at the same time I think pars are sometimes what kind of gets the momentum going because you’re not losing shots, and around this golf course, I think that’s so important.
“I wasn’t in too many like weird positions, and I think that’s just so important around this golf course. Between you being on the fairway and just missing the green and being in the rough, it’s really penalizing.”
She also knows that halfway through is a long way from being finished. There’s something awkward about awarding Hall of Fame status based on a number. Ko seems at once content enough with her position to be patient, while recognizing that the chances need to be taken when presented.
“It’s just a lot of golf to be played,” she said, talking about the Hall of Fame in a way that makes it clear she’s thinking about it without thinking about it. “I’m just focusing on me right now, and hopefully I do have this opportunity by the end of Saturday. I’ve had the opportunity to be contending, and it would be really cool, I’m not going to lie, to get that done here.”
There’s a sense that this big moment, as much as it might mean for Ko, is something she’s able to appreciate without being burdened by it all. Just like realizing that you always have time to say hello in the middle of your workday.
“It’s been such a cool atmosphere,” she said. “I’m excited for all [the fans] to return these next couple days because I think this is truly a celebration of golf and a celebration of sport, and it’s cool that I’m one of the thousands of people that’s here witnessing this.”
In point of fact, though, Ko might very well be the one those thousands ultimately come to witness.
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 08: Lydia Ko of Team New Zealand looks across the 18th green during Day Two of the Women’s Individual Stroke Play on day thirteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Le Golf National on August 08, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 08: Lydia Ko of Team New Zealand looks across the 18th green during Day Two of the Women’s Individual Stroke Play on day thirteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Le Golf National on August 08, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) © Kevin C. Cox
This LPGA veteran is retiring after the Olympics. A medal is looking like a possible going-away gift
This LPGA veteran is retiring after the Olympics. A medal is looking like a possible going-away gift
Olympics 2024: Meet Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, the surprise leader after 36 holes at Le Golf National
Olympics 2024: Meet Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux, the surprise leader after 36 holes at Le Golf National
Lydia Ko and the Olympic-size challenge that awaits
Lydia Ko and the Olympic-size challenge that awaits
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The UK’s ‘fittest woman’ uses rucking to get fitter and stronger. Here’s how she’s training for the CrossFit Games.
Story by [email protected] (Rachel Hosie)
• 1w • 3 min read
Aimee Cringle, a CrossFit athlete, is the UK’s Fittest Woman for 2024.
She’s been using a ruck, which is a weighted backpack, to train for the 2024 CrossFit Games.
Cringle’s training regimen includes strength work, intervals, steady-state cardio, and gymnastics.
The UK’s “fittest woman” has been training hard ahead of the 2024 CrossFit Games on August 8, and rucking is a key part of her arsenal.
Rucking — wearing a backpack containing a weight plate while walking or performing exercises — originated as a military-training tool but has soared in popularity among people hoping to get more out of their walks, including founders and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
Aimee Cringle, 25, earned the title of UK’s Fittest Woman this year after finishing first in the country’s CrossFit semifinals. She told Business Insider that wearing a ruck while training makes exercises more challenging so when she competes without a ruck at the games, exercises should feel easier.
Cringle broke down her intense training regimen and shared how she uses rucking to build strength and fitness.
Rucking helps to build strength
Cringle, whose background is in athletics, trains six days a week. She’s from the Isle of Man but moved to mainland England last year to work with a new coach. She said her training has become a lot more structured and features less steady-state cardio like cycling, running, and swimming.
Instead, she’s concentrated more on strength-building. She said she’s also been using a ruck to make exercises such as legless rope climbs, tricep dips, and chest-to-bar pull-ups more challenging.
“I guess if you can do stuff with a ruck on, you can do it better without,” Cringle said. “It makes everything harder.”
After performing an exercise wearing a ruck, it feels a lot easier once you take it off, which Cringle described as “quite cool.”
She’s never done the same workout twice
Cringle said no two workouts in her training regimen are the same, but an average week might include:
Monday morning: two 20-minute AMRAPs (as many rounds or reps as possible) including rope climbs, sled work, running, and rowing
Monday afternoon: rope climbs, dips, and handstand push-ups wearing a ruck
Tuesday morning: 400-calorie assault bike, 5-kilometer row, 400-calorie assault bike
Tuesday afternoon: strength training, including squats and snatches, a shorter high-intensity workout, and accessory movements
Wednesday morning: interval training
Wednesday afternoon: gymnastic work such as handstand walks, ring muscle-ups, and glute-hamstring-development sit-ups
Thursday: active recovery such as swimming or cycling
Friday morning: running
Friday afternoon: strength training
Saturday morning: strength work such as bench press and conditioning
Saturday afternoon: gymnastic-focused group training, including rope climbs, handstand push-ups, and handstand walks
Sunday: full rest day or gentle walk or cycle
“I haven’t done the same workout twice ever,” Cringle said.
Cringle’s priority is performance
As Cringle has improved her CrossFit skills, she’s built muscle, and she previously told BI that accepting her growing body wasn’t always easy.
But she’s more focused on performance than aesthetics.
“If I can reach my goal then I’ll do what needs to be done, and if that was to put on some weight,” Cringle said. “With CrossFit, we’re athletes, so we are bound to look stronger and larger than the average human. It seems to have worked, anyway.”
Cringle continued: “Some of the stuff we can do, it’s so impressive. Maybe not even me, but the weights some girls can lift — and a lot of girls aren’t even that big and they can lift so much and do so much. So I think I’d rather do that, maybe weigh a bit more and just lift so much.”
Despite being the third British woman to qualify for the CrossFit Games in the individual-elite category, Cringle said she struggles to feel proud of herself. But it’s her consistent drive to do better and achieve more that has made her a rising star.
If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start.
Aimee Cringle is a 25-year-old British CrossFit athlete. Courtesy of Common Ground
Aimee Cringle is a 25-year-old British CrossFit athlete. Courtesy of Common Ground
Gymnastic skills are an important part of CrossFit. Common Ground
Gymnastic skills are an important part of CrossFit. Common Ground © Common Ground
Cringle’s priority is getting stronger. Common Ground
Cringle’s priority is getting stronger. Common Ground © Common Ground
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