ATLANTA — Many of them try to maintain part-time jobs to support themselves, but Olympic hopefuls and athletes train from when they wake up until the time they go back to sleep.
None of them are complaining. This chance is what they always wanted.
"It's literally, like, this much! You can do it!" said long-jumper Reggie Steele.
He can count his Olympic dream in centimeters.
"The Olympic Trial jump is 8 meters," he said. "I'm at 7.87 meters, so far."
But Steele's journey can be measured in miles.
He left everything he knew to move to Atlanta and train with The Winner's Circle.
"My family's back home," he said. "Everyone is back home in Maryland. They travel to see me on the holidays, but we live here."
The Winner's Circle is a team of Olympic hopefuls from all over the world who train together at the Georgia State University track every day. There are sprinters, jumpers, and hurdlers doing everything they can to make the Olympic team.
"Being an Olympian is really lived," he said. It's not something you can just get up and do. You have to change your whole lifestyle to fit this thing."
Every single one of them has a countdown in their head -- how long until the Olympic trials, how long until the Games, and what they have left to get there.
"Everyone is going so hard, every single rep, blood, sweat, and tears out here," Steele said. "And that's one thing I really appreciate about all of my teammates, nobody's slacking. There isn't one person in the back saying, 'I don't want to do this.' Everyone is grinding. The winner's circle is one big family."
While they train together, they each have to raise the money it takes to compete. Plane tickets, hotel rooms, entry fees - it's all out of pocket.
"Everyone who trains in whatever sport they compete in: until you're sponsored, everything is out of pocket," he said. "Your family helps you do everything, it's all fundraising and donations that allow us to get to these places."
Reggie is 27. For a long jumper, that's the athletic prime of their career. So this year - this Olympics - is it for him.
He started an online fundraiser to try and get the money he needs to compete and to give the Tokyo Olympics everything he's got.
"All the hard work and dedication, every rep where I feel like I'm going to die -- I look to my teammates to give me a high five or give me a look like, we have to get it," he said.
Friday evening, he learned he qualified for the indoor Olympic trials. The Olympic trials are July 18 -- so that's when he will know whether or not he will get to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo.
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