Two Former Detroit Lions To Compete At Rio Olympics
Former Detroit Lions Jahvid Best and Carlin Isles will both compete at the Rio Olympics in August.
The Detroit Lions will be well-represented at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janiero in August, as former running back Jahvid Best and former practice squad speedster Carlin Isles will both be participating.
Jahvid Best, who played for the Lions for two seasons after being taken 30th overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, will compete in the 100-meter dash for the Caribbean island-nation of St. Lucia, which has never won an Olympic medal. Best’s father has citizenship in the United States and St. Lucia, which grants Best eligibility to represent the nation despite having never lived there nor having citizenship himself. He will be the first former NFL player to compete in the Summer Olympics and will be the only sprinter representing St. Lucia on a team of five athletes.
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Best was a sprinter in high school, where he competed in the 100, 200, and 400-meter dash events. He has been training for the past year-plus in Arizona at ALTIS, where many Olympians have trained. He ran a personal-best 10.16 in the 100 meters at a meet in Sacremento, California on April 2, which met the minimum Olympic standard for qualification, although with that time he would have been unlikely to qualify for the American Olympic team.
Best showed flashes of brilliance in his two seasons with the Lions, gaining over 1,700 total yards from scrimmage and scoring nine touchdowns in 22 career games, but recurring problems with concussions sidelined him for good during the 2011 season. The Lions released him before the 2013 season.
Carlin Isles will compete for the United States rugby sevens team at the Olympics. Isles played football and ran track at Division II Ashland University, where he was a second-team all-GLIAC kick returner in 2009. He picked up rugby after college in an effort to compete in Rio. Known as “the fastest man in rugby,” he signed with the Lions as a practice squad member at the end of the 2013 season after posting a 4.22 40-yard dash time. He signed a futures deal shortly thereafter, but never appeared in a game for Detroit, opting to sign with the Glasgow Warriors rugby club in Scotland in February 2014.
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Isles left the Warriors at the end of their season to prepare for the Rio Games and lead Team USA in tries (32) in the 2014-15 World Rugby Sevens Series. He qualified for this year’s Olympic track and field trials but opted not to participate in order to focus on rugby, which is returning to the Games for the first time since 1924. He has expressed interest in returning to track after the Games are over and might also “maybe do football a little bit.”
Best and Isles are not the only athletes with NFL ties and Olympic dreams in 2016. New England Patriots safety Nate Ebner will join Isles on the American rugby team as the first Summer Olympian who is also currently an NFL player.
Some other NFL Rio hopefuls did not qualify for the Games. Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin failed to qualify as a long jumper for the United States after finishing 10th in London in 2012, former Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers returner Jeff Demps came up short in the 100-meter dash for the United States and former San Francisco 49ers running back Jarryd Hayne failed to make the Fijian rugby team.
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The Olympic rugby schedule begins on August 6 and runs through the 11th, while track and field events will begin on the 12th and run through the end of the Games on the 21st. The full Olympic schedule is available here.