Home away from home: Top USA Olympians train in Florida
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Gold-medal glory is forged in Florida humidity.
State of play: Florida has become an adoptive home for many of Team USA's top Olympians, from swimmer Katie Ledecky to the world's fastest man, Noah Lyles.
Zoom in: Central Florida and North Central Florida so far have claimed more Olympic medals than some countries during the Summer Games.
Clermont, a small city near Orlando, calls itself the "choice of champions" for the world-class athletes who have lived or trained there.
- That includes 100m gold-medal winner Lyles and silver-medal sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson.
- Lyles trains with Pure Athletics out of the National Training Center in Clermont, while Richardson is part of the Star Athletics club. (Miami Olympic sprinter Twanisha "TT" Terry also trains with Star Athletics.)
- Lyles and Richardson have become huge stars off the track, appearing on magazine covers and the Netflix docuseries "Sprint."
Gainesville is home base for Ledecky, the most decorated female American Olympian ever.
- The Stanford alumna moved her training HQ to the University of Florida campus ahead of the Paris games.
- While at the Swamp, she worked with Team USA's Florida-based swimmers and men's Olympic head coach Anthony Nesty.
- "To my Florida crew, all those Florida boys who push me every day, I love you guys," she said after winning gold in the 1500m freestyle last week. "You guys made my life a lot easier today."
Sarasota can claim the bronze medal in men's gymnastics.
- Team USA pommel-horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik, who became an overnight sensation after clinching a team bronze and later an individual bronze for the Americans, trains at EVO Gymnastics with his teammate Brody Malone and squad alternate Shane Wiskus.
- Unlike other American gymnastics programs, they are paid to train here.
- MAG Foundation USA, the nonprofit that funds the gym, tells Axios that the gymnasts chose EVO "for the world class facility, top-notch coaching staff, full-time medical personnel and having the ability to be paid to do gymnastics professionally."
It's not just Team USA that owes Olympic glory to Floridian trainers: 17-year-old Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh, who's won three gold medals in these Games, trains in Sarasota, too.