--- title: Road to the Olympics description: With eight months until the Olympic Games in Rio, four years of training are coming to a head for U.S. Olympic hopefuls. For some, the... canonical: https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-21T19:40:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:33:42.359Z article:section: Sports og:title: Road to the Olympics og:description: With eight months until the Olympic Games in Rio, four years of training are coming to a head for U.S. Olympic hopefuls. For some, the... og:url: https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97c789d5104e3ad0/69887621524fc091d4df5ff4/us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Road to the Olympics twitter:description: With eight months until the Olympic Games in Rio, four years of training are coming to a head for U.S. Olympic hopefuls. For some, the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97c789d5104e3ad0/69887621524fc091d4df5ff4/us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Road to the Olympics by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 21, 2015 7:40 PM UTC  (from left:) Donnell Whittenburg and Sam Mikulak, both american artistic gymnasts, practice on Friday, December 11, 2015 in U.S. Olympic Training Center in colorado springs, CO. (from left:) Donnell Whittenburg and Sam Mikulak, both american artistic gymnasts, practice on Friday, December 11, 2015 in U.S. Olympic Training Center in colorado springs, CO.Photograph by David Gutenfelder by TIME by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Dec 21, 2015 7:40 PM UTC With eight months until the Olympic Games in Rio, four years of training are coming to a head for U.S. Olympic hopefuls. For some, the coming year will see long-held goals fulfilled, while others may face crushing failures. What’s certain is that for each, 2016 will be a year they never forget. [Read the full story here.](http://time.com/road-to-the-olympics/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/"},"headline":"Road to the Olympics","datePublished":"2015-12-21T19:40:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:33:42.359Z","description":"With eight months until the Olympic Games in Rio, four years of training are coming to a head for U.S. Olympic hopefuls. For some, the...","url":"https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97c789d5104e3ad0/69887621524fc091d4df5ff4/us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt97c789d5104e3ad0/69887621524fc091d4df5ff4/us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil","caption":"us-olympics-gymnastics-training-rio-brazil","creditText":"Photograph by David Gutenfelder by TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4157567/road-to-the-olympics/","name":"Road to the Olympics"}}]}] ```