Among the thousand of competitors in the Tokyo Olympics, there’s one woman that the Detroit Lions are rooting hard for.
Because she’s a part of the family.
Melissa Gonzalez, the wife of Lions backup quarterback David Blough, is running the 400-meter hurdles for Colombia.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Melissa Gonzalez, wife of Lions QB, to compete in Tokyo Olympics
Gonzalez and Blough, high school sweethearts, were both college athletes; Gonzalez at Texas and Blough at Purdue. Once Gonzalez’s college career was over, she didn’t that wasn’t the end of her time on the track. As a dual citizen of the U.S. and Colombia, she decided to go for qualifying for the Olympics, which she did in May.
On Friday night (which was actually Saturday morning in Tokyo), Gonzalez ran in one of the heats for the event, and the Lions hosted a watch party in one of the film rooms at the Allen Park headquarters.
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Take a look as the team watches Gonzalez advance to the semifinals (with a second-place finish in her preliminary heat and a time of 55.32 seconds — besting Olympic qualifying time by 0.34 seconds) with her No. 1 fan front and center.
Gonzalez will run in one of three semifinal heats at 7:55 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. The Lions are scheduled to continue training camp with practice about a half-hour later that morning. We’ll understand if at least one player is a tad bit late hitting the field.
Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.