ROCKINGHAM — The Olympic trials are taking place this weekend in San Jose, California.
Hamlet native Ashton Locklear will be vying for a spot on the 2016 U.S. women’s gymnastics team.
And Jody Meacham will be there every step of the way.
Meacham, a Hamlet native himself, will cover Locklear’s journey at the trials for the Richmond County Daily Journal, a sister paper of the Anson Record. His work will include spending time with Locklear and her family as they prepare for, experience and react to a weekend event that could propel Hamlet’s own into a spotlight like never before.
If Locklear, who has been practicing gymnastics since the age of two, earns a spot on the U.S. team that will compete in the 2016 Olympics, she would be the first-ever Olympian who was born in Hamlet.
“For an athlete to come from my hometown and be able to go to the Olympic Games would be — it’s hard to describe,” Meacham said. “It’s such a coincidence that I would be in a position to see that happen and to actually meet that person and write about them — because that’s my business as a journalist.”
Meacham currently works for the Silicon Valley Business Journal, which is located in San Jose. There, Meacham writes on various topics in the area, as he taking a “business angle” on each affair.
However, he was able to step outside of the business world this past February when he covered Super Bowl 50 in nearby Santa Clara — revisiting his sports reporting days.
After graduating from Hamlet High in 1969, Meacham attended UNC-Chapel Hill and received a degree in journalism in 1973. He would then go on to report police and city hall news for the Asheville Citizen-Times, cover sports (on every level) for the Charlotte News and work as the assistant sports editor for the Charlotte Observer, before moving to California to become a sports writer at the San Jose Mercury News in 1985.
During his 15 years at the Mercury, Meacham covered four Winter Olympic Games (Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998) and two Summer Olympic Games (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996).
Kristi Yamaguchi, former figure skater, and Amy Chow, former gymnast, were two notable U.S. competitors who won gold at the 1992 Winter Games and the 1996 Summer Games, respectively. Yamaguchi picked up a gold medal in the ladies’ single competition, while Chow — who also won silver on the uneven bars — was a member of the gold-medal winning ‘96 team.
Meacham had the pleasure of covering both Olympians’ journey to what eventually blossomed into two life-changing moments, for Yamaguchi and Chow, on the biggest stage possible.
And that’s what he hopes to do at next weekend’s trials for Locklear.
“In a lot of ways, Ashton reminds me of Amy Chow,” he explained. “Both Amy and Ashton, and Kristi for that matter, are examples of young people who, for whatever reason, got inspired to be Olympic athletes at a very young age. And had the tenacity and the maturity to be able to pursue that for 10, 15, 20 years until they made it. That’s something not even a lot of adults can do…It’s amazing to be able to witness it up close the way you can when you are a sports writer.”
Although nothing is promised, Meacham is almost sure that Locklear will be one of the five who make the trip to Brazil. He says that while the scores at the trials are important, Márta Károlyi — the U.S. women’s team coordinator — and her staff have some flexibity in choosing which athletes make the cut.
“I think she has an excellent chance,” Meacham said. “Her season last year looks like a down year, which is was, but it was because of an injury. She’s come back this year and she’s won every single uneven bars competition that she’s been a part of.
“The United States and Márta Károlyi want to pick a team that has the very best performer in each of those events, including the uneven bars. That’s where Ashton has the chance to make her mark, because right now, she is the best at uneven bars of any gymnast in this country.”
In his coverage of Locklear, Meacham hopes that readers can learn to appreciate how much work and effort — from Locklear and her family — goes into competing on such a high level. He also wants to write the stories in a way that the everyday sports fan can understand the scoring and strategy of gymnastics in the same manner that one does when watching football or basketball.
“I would hope that there are a lot of people in Hamlet and Richmond County who would gain some appreciation of how rare this is to have an athlete, from what we all know as a small town and a small county, to be the best in the world at something,” he said. “And the fact that it’s the best in the world in gymnastics or some other field of endeavor is less important to me than it just shows what somebody can accomplish who makes up their mind to do it — and works as hard at it as Ashton and really her whole family has done.”
Locklear’s hard work, dedication, resiliency and ability to perform when it counts are all things that Meacham admires and believes will get her one of those much-coveted spots on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team.
“It’s just a great thing to see a young person do well,” Meacham added. “When you’re young, people tell you things can’t be done, but you don’t know what impossible is. And then when you get older and you see kids who are not afraid to take chances and go beyond what expectations are for them, you just can’t help but feel good for them and hope they achieve everything they dream of.”
A dream that is only getting closer.
Reach sports editor Leon Hargrove Jr. at 910-817-2673 and follow the sports section on Twitter @RCDailySports.