Olympic Gold Medalist Ryan Held returns home to Springfield

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - Friday morning, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Ryan Held returned home to Springfield, stopping by the YMCA where he began his swimming career.

"Every little kid thinks of hitting the corner three for the buzzer beater or catching the Hail Mary pass. I think for swimmers, it's swimming at the Olympics."

Held began swimming at the downtown YMCA as a kid, then swimming at the new Kerasotes YMCA as a teenager.

He has one two gold medals, one in 2016 as a part of the 4x100 Freestyle Relay, the second coming this summer in Paris in the same event.

Held looked back on his time swimming with Olympic legend Michael Phelps, saying, "Anytime he was on a relay, I've always likened it to playing pickup basketball against some neighborhood kids, but you have Michael Jordan on your team. So, you're pretty sure you're going to win no matter what happens, and if you're losing he's going to go off and do everything in his power that he's going to win."

Kids and teenagers that showed up to meet Held walked away confident they could maybe win gold one day too.

"It's insane knowing that someone got to go to both Rio and Paris and swim against the best of the best," said David Johnson, a swimmer at Rochester High School. "Even knowing that they were coached by some of the same coaches I got to be coached by, it's really neat to know that I got to have some of the same training even though I might not be on that level yet."

After being left off the Olympic team in 2021, Held considered retirement, but ultimately decided to give it one more go.

"I was really down in the dumps. It was hard and it was painful," Held said. "To bounce back, to conquer my mind, conquer my emotions, I'm really proud of that."

Those in the YMCA Friday now prepared to work as hard as Held does.

"That work can get you almost anywhere," Johnson said.

Six-year-old Annie chimed in, saying, "If I work hard enough, maybe I can do it."