Where Olympians from Montana got their starts
Check out places from all over the state that have produced Summer Olympians.
Memorial Stadium
Memorial Stadium in Great Falls is a familiar venue for many track and field athletes around the state who have competed there at some point during their high school careers with the state track meet regularly rotating through. It was also the home of high jumper Pam Spencer. She went on to become a three-time U.S. champion, set the U.S. record twice and competed at two Olympics (1976 Montreal, 1984 Los Angeles), but technically made the team three times although the U.S. boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow.
Hillcrest Park
Whitefish's Nicole Heavirland (2020) got her start with Black and Blue Rugby in the Flathead Valley. After initially pursuing basketball and playing a semester at West Point with the U.S. Army, she decided to pursue rugby and has been part of the U.S. team in various forms for three Olympic teams now, as a traveling alternate in Rio (2016) and Paris (2024) and as one of twelve active players in Tokyo. Hillcrest Park often hosts rugby in the Flathead Valley.
Carter Community Hall
Lones Wigger Jr. went on to become the most decorated U.S. Olympic Team shooter, so much so that the Olympic Training Center range in Colorado Springs, Colo., was named in his honor. His journey started in the basement of the Carter Community Hall in 1949 where his dad, Lones Wigger Sr., taught shooting for decades of Montana competitors according to a Great Falls Tribune article in 1988. Outside the entrance on the northeast exterior wall, plaques commemorate families from the community, including one for the Wigger family.
Great Falls High wrestling room
Great Falls High wrestlers can see 2008 Olympian Mike Zadick and current U.S. men's freestyle team coach Bill Zadick on the wall alongside their practice mats each day. The brothers are two of three total four-time champions to come from Great Falls High in state history. On the opposite side of the room, there's also a mark by the original Olympic wrestler from Montana with Gene Davis' signature one of a handful located along the other on the wall.
Gallatin Valley Sharp Shooters
The Gallatin Valley Sharp Shooters warehouse facility is pictured on Wednesday, July 25, 2024. The facility may appear nondescript tucked into the southwest part of Belgrade off of Doe and Royal roads, but former club members have featured in back-to-back Olympics with Ali Weisz (Belgrade) competing in the women's air rifle in Tokyo and Ivan Roe (Manhattan) competing in the men's rifle events in Paris.
Livingston Sacajawea Park
The current track is located next to the current high school, but back when Larry Questad was competing, the track and football field was located in the wide open meadow of Sacajawea Park. Questad was consistently ranked as one of the top five sprinters in the world during the early 1960s and went on to compete at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Billings YMCA
Two-time Olympic medalist Cody Miller was born in and spent the first six years of his life in Billings where he got his start taking swim lessons at the Billings Family YMCA and Rocky Mountain College before moving to Nevada.Â
Fortin Center at RMC
Two-time Olympic medalist Cody Miller was born in and spent the first six years of his life in Billings where he got his start taking swim lessons at the Billings Family YMCA and Rocky Mountain College's Fortin Center before moving to Nevada.Â
Daylis Stadium
Daylis Stadium borders Pioneer Park and Billings Senior High School. Over decades, it has served as the starting point to multiple Olympians including Billings Senior graduate Julie Brown and Billings West graduate Chris Clark. It's also hosted some of the most notable Olympians over the past almost 40 years in the form of torchlighters visiting the Big Sky State Games opening ceremonies each summer, of which Brown was the first in 1986.
Yellowstone Rifle Club
Located west of Billings, the Yellowstone Rifle Club gave gold medalist Pat Spurgin Pitney her start in shooting sports so the 'Home of Champions' moniker on their entry sign rings true. She won gold in 1984 in Los Angeles when women's shooting events were added to the Olympic program for the first time.
Missoula County Public Stadium
In one of the state track performances people still talk about, Christina Aragon finished setting three more all-class records to conclude her decorated high school career in 2016 at Missoula County Public Stadium. But before that, future bronze medalist decathlete Dave Johnson got his start in track and field as a high school junior at Missoula Sentinel. When his family moved his senior year to Corvallis, Oregon, Johnson hit a growth spurt and his athletic career took off.
Splash Montana
Missoula swimmer Katharine Berkoff swam for the Missoula Aquatic Club as a kid before becoming a multi-time NCAA champion and Olympic bronze medalist in the women's 100 backstroke at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Sidney high school track and football field
Pole vaulter Leila Ben-Youssef was a three-time state champion for the Sidney Eagles when she graduated in 2000 (the same year women's pole vaulting was added to the Olympic program for the first time) and had a longer start in the sport because Montana was one of the first states to add women's pole vaulting. She went on to compete for Stanford University and elected to compete for her father's country of Tunisia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in just the third time the event was held at the Olympics.
Westlake Park BMX track
With a view of the Bridger Mountain range to the northeast even on a smoky day, Westlake Park in Bozeman hosts the Gallatin Valley BMX track where Cameron Wood first picked up the sport. It's still just one of two BMX racing tracks in the state, the other being in Great Falls. Wood made his first Olympics at the 2024 Paris Olympics where he placed fifth overall.
Butte to Walkerville
The hills of Butte served as two-time Olympian Levi Leipheimer's early training ground, part of which typically included riding races up the hill to Walkerville.
Electric City Boxing Club
The location has moved around since Todd Foster was competing for the Electric City Boxing Club in the 1980s, but his club still exists in Great Falls. It's currently tucked into a small brick building at 306 Central Ave W.
No one starts their career at the Olympics and tucked into all corners of the state are places that have produced athletes that competed at the highest levels.
