On August 8, at 9 a.m., be sure to tune into the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics to catch a local competing as a first-time Olympian. Professional cyclist and Nederland resident Grant Koontz will be competing alongside some of the world’s greatest athletes in the Men’s Omnium event.

The Omnium is a track cycling event made up of six individual races, starting with a scratch race, then an individual pursuit, an elimination race, a time trial, a lap against the clock, and a points race.

30-year-old Koontz has plenty of experience in the Omnium event and in the professional cycling world, having competed internationally and ranked 6th place in the 2022 UCI World Championships.

He took home two bronze medals and four gold medals in the 2023 Pan-American Games in Santiago, Chile, a bronze medal in the 2024 UCI Track Nations Cup, and five gold medals in the USA Cycling Track National Championships.

But even with all the wins under his belt, competing in the Olympics presents an entirely different challenge, a higher level which Koontz has been striving to achieve.

Supporting each other’s passions: The athletic couple met in the world of cycling, and had a picturesque wedding at the Tolland School House.[/caption]

“In the last six months our training started to get increasingly more difficult as Grant’s level just kept going up and up,” Cyclist Daphne Karagianis told The Mountain-Ear, speaking about her husband’s regimen and attitude leading up to the big event.

“He is an incredibly calm person; he does have stresses and anxieties like the rest of us, but he has really good ways of managing that,” Karagianis said. “He’s really ready to just get after it, because at this point he’s been training for so long he’s ready to compete and unleash.”

Koontz has ridden for many legendary cycling teams over the years, including Texas A&M University from 2012 to 2016, DNA Racing in 2019, Rodeo Labs Pro Gravel from 2020 to 2021, Star Track UCI from 2021 to today, as well as the USA National Track Team from 2022 to today.

Koontz will be competing in the Men’s Omnium, a track cycling event consisting of three different races.[/caption]

His biography on the official website for the 2024 Olympics notes that he began cycling professionally when his parents gave him a bike instead of a car for his 16th birthday. Koontz’s father was also a cyclist and introduced him to the sport.

During his formative years, from 16 to 22, Koontz fell in love with cycling and with competing as an athlete. For four years he competed in the professional road circuit, until he was introduced to track cycling in 2019. It was then that his sights became focused on working his way to the Olympics; a dream that is days away from becoming a reality.

“I’m actually going to be there,” Karagianis said, when asked how she planned to celebrate Koontz during his event. “I leave for Paris on Monday. His mom and dad, uncles and aunts are also coming, and my cousin and a couple of our friends will be there as well. We have a little crew that’s going to be a cheer squad.”

The cheer squad will be waving an American flag, as well as a banner that reads “Grant is Gold.”

Koontz and Karagianis were introduced to each other by friends in the cycling world, and spent a good amount of time in the beginning of their relationship riding together around Nederland.

“It was during the pandemic, bike racing was canceled so it was a great opportunity to ride together for fun and get to know each other and share that time together when we would otherwise be traveling around the world to race,” Karagianis reminisced.

The couple got married in September of 2023, at the Tolland Schoolhouse off of Rollins Pass.

“After the Olympics we’re going to do a week and a half in southern France as a honeymoon,” Karagianis mentioned. “We never got to take one because preparing for the Olympics takes a lot of time.”

Karagianis spoke about Koontz’s intense schedule sending him all over the world, stating that Koontz was in Belgium, representing Team USA at a training camp prior to traveling to Paris to compete in the Olympics.

“In the beginning of our relationship he was racing gravel and I was racing road and he’d come back when I was leaving, and when we leave it’s usually for big chunks of time, at least two weeks,” Karagianis explained.

“I’d always joke with him, ‘can’t you just race road as well and then we can go to these things together’.”

“Even after the Olympics it’s still kind of crazy. The world championships are in October, so he’ll be prepping for those, and then there’s the champions league for track cycling.”

Despite such hectic schedules, the couple find respite and are refreshed when they are together again after a long time apart.

“We savor that for sure,” Karagianis said. “It’s kind of our reboot. It’s hard to be away but when we have that time together it really feeds us and gives us the energy to keep doing it.”

Koontz also still competes in road cycling events, as does Karagianis, who has raced with Team Illuminate and DNA Pro Cycling, and is currently with the Denver Disruptors.

Karagianis is a fierce competitor in her own right, Placing 12th in the 2017 Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau, 9th in the 2019 Tour of Zhoushan Island, and 4th in the 2022 Tour of the Gila. She also is a successful designer in the branding and UI/UX worlds.

“I started working at ad agencies and design firms in Chicago and as I got more sucked into racing professionally I decided to go at it on my own and pursue both passions,” Karagianis said.

“I moved here straight from Chicago after living in the city for 17 years. My coach at the time lived here; her name is Alison Powers.”

Powers is a retired professional cyclist who is also a celebrated Nederland local. Powers is the first, and only, cyclist to hold all three national championship titles (for a road race, time trial, and criterium) simultaneously in the same year.

“I came out here to dogsit for her and just fell in love with the area,” Karagianis continued. “She helped me find a place to live out here and now we’re neighbors.”

Koontz is Karagianis’s current coach, which fosters a professional relationship and collaboration that results in the trading of techniques and strategies.

“He really pushes me. He’s been my coach now for the past year, and I help him on the track, too. I actually started with track racing and I know what all the races are and all the tactics.”

With Karagianis’s knowledge and support guiding him, coupled with the training and motivation that he finds here in Nederland, Koontz has everything he needs to bolster his natural talent and determination and to compete as a true Olympian.

“Grant, because of the Nederland training grounds that we have here, the amazing topography and roads, that’s what’s really propelled his training and gotten him to this really amazing place,” Karagianis said. “I think that being up here has really nurtured that, it’s a special place that we’re in and it’s pretty cool that it can breed Olympians.”

Hopefully all cycling enthusiasts, fans of the Olympics and Team USA, and those who want to support an Olympian from Nederland will rally behind Koontz and cheer him on through to the finish line.

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics can be viewed live on NBC and on the Peacock app. The Men’s Omnium event is expected to take place on Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 9 a.m. but please follow the official 2024 Olympics schedule, located here, for the latest updates: https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule/grid

Follow Grant Koontz at: https:// www.grantkoontz.com or @ rakoooontz on Instagram.

Follow Daphne Karagianis at: https://www.daphneak.com or @ daphneak on Instagram.