WAUWATOSA – The nine people who were locked into conversation at Idyll Coffee Roasters on a July afternoon could have been mistaken for a study group or a book club at first glance … until you notice that all of them were decked out in red, white and blue.
Any snippets of overheard conversation would have immediately given away the group as Olympians. Who else could discuss the finer points of scoring in fencing or speed-skating training methods or roster sizes of wheelchair basketball teams for international tournaments?
The event was an initiative of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee called “Legacy Lattes” that hopes to connect current or retired Olympians – and hopefuls – from the same area.
The setting for the Wisconsin contingent also had a Team USA component: Idyll co-owner Dave Tamburrino competed in the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics as a speed skater.
“Once you’re an Olympian, you’re always an Olympian,” said Bonnie Blair Cruikshank, who won five Olympic gold medals as a speed skater. “But you don’t always get the opportunity to connect with a lot of the different ones.”
Cruikshank brought along her daughter and fellow speed skater, Blair, who hopes to compete in the 2030 Winter Olympics.
“It gets her to see something different from the other sports and how it all works and it’s exciting for her,” Cruikshank said.
The group fell into an easy conversation, finding common ground in the fortuitous moments that set them on their paths to becoming elite athletes.
Cindy Rusher, who won a silver medal in rowing at the 1992 Summer Olympics, mentioned getting recruited for the sport at the University of Wisconsin while she was in line signing up for classes as a freshman, changing the trajectory of her life.
That got Jeromie Meyer II to think about his own story. Meyer was 9 years old when he was hit on his bicycle by a drunk driver. His recreational therapist in Nebraska got him into wheelchair basketball. When he showed talent in the sport, he decided to attend UW-Whitewater, which has a legendary wheelchair basketball program. Meyer won gold at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
“Like how Cindy talked about that person or that individual that really kind of changes it for you,” Meyer said. “And for me it was it was [UW-Whitewater coach] Jeremy Lade, or more people probably know him by ‘Opie.’
“Yeah, he kind of just gave me that unwavering confidence. He just instilled a belief and a confidence in me that I could accomplish kind of anything I wanted to accomplish in wheelchair basketball.
“And so from there I’ve bought into what a high-performance lifestyle looked like, and just kind of set my eyes, my target on making a national team, making a Paralympic national team and then seeing how far I could take it and ride that wave.”
Jadin O’Brien can relate. She was a track star at Divine Savior Holy Angels, then was a national champion heptathlete at Notre Dame. Her life took a sudden turn when U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor kept reaching out to O’Brien on Instagram to see if she wanted to try a different sport.
In one of the cooler local stories of the 2026 Winter Olympics, O’Brien learned how to bobsled in a matter of months and then was competing in Italy.
Now O’Brien wants to reach the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the heptathlon. She is even more inspired after the coffee meeting.
“Just how impressive all these people are in their own right,” O’Brien said. “We have so many different sports here, just listening to their stories I’m like ‘Holy cow.’
“A common theme is that it’s difficult to be an Olympian, to play an Olympic sport and compete at the Olympics. It’s a grind. You’re going to have to sacrifice everything.”
After more than an hour of conversation at Idyll, the Olympians headed out, caffeinated and connected.
“They’re calling it Legacy Lattes,” Meyer said. “So to me it’s very inspiring because I believe if you play a sport, regardless of what your sport is, at such a high level like this, you’re one way or another going to leave behind some type of legacy, right?
“Or if you want to play a high-performing sport and you want to make it kind of your craft, you typically want to leave behind some legacy or something that people remember you by.
“So being able to talk to all of these athletes that have competed and represented our country at former Olympics and Paralympics, it’s very awesome to hear them talk about the struggles, the sacrifices. What they had to do in order to get to the level that they were at.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin-tied Olympians find connection, inspiration over coffee
Reporting by Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Steele, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
