OLD TOWN — For Sarah Chung, graduate school simply had to wait.
Chung, a member of the Lincoln Park-based Menomonee Judo Club, was quite possibly the last person added to the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro after Russian paralympians got caught in their national doping scandal.
She suddenly had to put off starting grad school in counseling with an emphasis on sports and health psychology at Adler University Downtown to hastily prepare and compete in Rio for two weeks in September. Then, a week later, she was invited to the White House with about 600 other U.S. Olympians from the Summer Games.
"It was really intense, but definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Chung, who is blind.
The Crystal Lake resident has since worked to catch up, she said this week.
"I'm working on it still," Chung added. "I'm hoping that I'm caught up, and my professors have been incredibly understanding."
Oh, by the way, she ran the Chicago Marathon as well in October with her father.
"She's got a lot going on," said Brett Wolf, her coach at the Menomonee Judo Club.
Chung didn't earn a medal at the Paralympics, but it was an honor just to compete, she said, after she initially lost a qualifying match last spring to the woman who went on to win bronze in her weight class.
"Considering it was my first time and I didn't expect to go, I think it worked out really well," Chung said. "I was hoping for a better outcome, but it's only lighting a fire for a better outcome in Tokyo in 2020."
Meeting President Barack Obama at the White House was even more brief, but equally satisfying.
"He had to meet 600 athletes," Chung said. "The thing is, he was genuine to every single one of them. In the five seconds that I got to interact with him, he was the nicest person."
Consider that Chung hasn't even been doing judo at Menomonee for three years, having joined late in 2013, and her expectations to improve and perhaps even medal in Tokyo in four years are justified.
"That surprises me too every day," Chung said. "It wasn't just me doing this. It was a group effort — because of the support of my instructors, my training partners and my teammates."
Wolf said qualifying for the Paralympics and representing the United States at the game was the real victory for Chung.
"It was a great experience," said Wolf, who grew up in Lincoln Park and now lives in West Ridge. "We're very proud of Sarah, and I can tell the experience has given her even more incentive and drive for 2020."
That intensity, Wolf said, has been passed on to others at the judo club, which is one of the largest in the nation and "definitely the largest for people with disabilities in the United States."
In fact, it's the official Paralympics Judo National Training Center.
Although the judo club started out at the Menomonee Club in Old Town, Wolf said, "We've grown a ton, so it goes far beyond our affiliation with the Menomonee Club."
"I'm just incredibly thankful for this experience altogether," Chung said, "and I'm really going to push for Tokyo in 2020," perhaps taking some Menomonee Judo Club teammates along next time.
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