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Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN
MINNEAPOLIS — It’s past 10 p.m. Friday night, and the Target Center, which had been packed with people for about an hour before, is silent as one of USA Gymnastics’ busiest volunteers makes his way to the exit. Bacon, a 4-year-old golden retriever, is the organization’s first therapy dog and the only part-time member of its staff. Bacon wears a certification, travels to major meets like the Olympic trials and holds the title of USA Gymnastics’ “Best Boy.”
Tonight, the lighthouse was cleared. He spent a long day comforting athletes and coaches, comforting members of the women’s national team before the first night of competition in the Olympic qualifiers, giving them belly rubs and gently licking their faces after a bruising encounter that saw injuries to their ranks. Two of the best prospects in the country.
“He’s tired right now,” said Tracy Callahan Molnar, Bacon’s coach and a former gymnast and coach, who was never more than 5 feet from the leash. “I think we did a great job. It was a tough night for some of the gymnasts, and I think Bacon helped celebrate the good and be there and support the challenges.”
Those started before the meeting. Shellis Jones, a two-time world champion who was considered a lock for the team, was injured during vault warmups. After Yurchenko’s double twisting landing, she grabbed her left knee and was helped off the scene by her coach, Sarah Korngold, and national team coach Chelsea Memmel. She returned to compete on the uneven bars and had the highest score of the night, but she was scratched from other events and her condition on Sunday is uncertain.
Soon after, Kayla Di Cielo, a 2021 alternate who had looked as promising as anyone recently, began competing on vault. She landed awkwardly, sat on the mat and shook her head. She left the arena in a wheelchair in tears and later withdrew from the competition with an Achilles tendon injury.
Around the ring, Di Cielo’s friends and rivals were in awe. Her roommate here in Minneapolis and one of her best friends, current Olympic champion Sunny Lee, cried when she lined up to jump for the first time. It was a devastating start to an important night for these women vying for one of the five spots on Team USA.
After the meeting, Bacon went to work. He and Callahan-Molnar went out onto the court and spent about 40 minutes with the gymnasts and their coaches, including Lee, who stroked his back, rubbed his soft fur, and when he was able to get them to do so, rubbed his belly.
“I watch the women and if they get excited when they see him, I’ll walk up to them,” Callahan-Molnar said. “Tonight, some of them called him or came up to him on their own.” Not every gymnast has grown up around dogs, so she knows that interacting with Beacon is a new experience for some. Sometimes, Beacon will direct Callahan-Molnar’s attention to someone who is gently pulling on his leash. He’s drawn to two things: hearing his name and an innate sense when someone needs him.
“He’ll turn on a dime without seeing who it is,” Callahan-Molnar said. “He picks up on the tension and will be drawn to that person immediately.” Therapy dogs like Bacon act as a kind of emotional sponge, she says. “They absorb the stress of people who relieve their stress,” she said. “So, even though it might have been lying around for two hours, it was then eliminated.”
Which is why Bacon now needs a good night’s sleep and he’s suffocating. He’s been putting in 15-hour days that began with Callahan Molnar waking him up at 7. Here’s a peek into a day in the life of USAG’s most famous employee.
7-11 AM: Callahan Molnar didn’t mean to, but she woke him up when she got out of bed at seven o’clock. The two shared a two-bed suite at a Hampton Inn, and Bacon began the night alone. He was now lying in the middle of it, with his head on her pillow. “It’s a great way to start the day,” she said. “Hopefully for him, but certainly for me.”
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM: Beacon attends the first of two scheduled breakout sessions at the USAG Sports Hotel. Callahan-Molnar brings her good boy into the meeting room where gymnasts and coaches wait to nominate throughout the session. Beacon is part of USAG’s Mental Health Program, a move by the organization to better care for the whole athlete. “Science shows that petting a dog, or even watching someone pet a dog, can lower blood pressure and anxiety, help increase happiness hormones like serotonin and dopamine and lower cortisol levels,” Callahan-Molnar said. Cortisol is the body’s main stress hormone. “We all need a certain amount, but too much of it is not healthy,” she said.
2-3 pm: Bacon takes a much needed break while Callahan Molnar is interviewed for another story about them. He has become very popular since his first participation in a USAG event, an elite rhythmic gymnastics qualifier in Indianapolis, a little more than a year ago. “In any other aspect of my life, I would avoid the limelight,” Callahan-Molnar said. “But I’m happy to talk about Bacon and pet therapy to anyone who wants to listen. I see myself as his sidekick.”
The two have been together since Bacon, whom she calls Bright Guiding Light, was a puppy. He was initially her service animal, before she trained him in obedience and earned his therapy dog certification through Pet Partners. At home in Pasadena, California, he volunteers at local hospitals.
3-3:30 PM: The moment the couple stands up to leave, they become like a magnet. “It’s hard to walk from point A to point B with him to find free time,” she says. “Everyone wants to say hello, and he wants to say hello to them. It takes 20 minutes to get there…not very far.”
3:30 – 5:30 pm: The second session is at the athletes’ hotel. As competition approaches, Bacon, joined by two other therapy dogs, another golden retriever and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, provides the gymnasts with a much-needed distraction from the stress of the trials. In each city, Callahan Molnar, a 40-year USAG employee, coordinates multiple teams of therapy dogs and handlers to volunteer at events. Fifteen of them work here in Minneapolis, including USA Gymnastics CEO Lee Lee Long’s husband, Chris, and their Siberian husky, Soma. During the sessions, it’s not uncommon for gymnasts to bring gifts for Bacon: a stuffed bear wearing a T-shirt with Bacon and the gymnast on the front, a handmade keychain with his name on it, a beaded bracelet and a personalized guest book with sweet notes written to him from members of the women’s national team.
5:30-7pm: The duo returns to the hotel to relax and eat. Callahan Molnar grabs an extra bagel from the breakfast buffet, which now serves as her dinner. Bacon finishes off the food, which she has fortified with blueberries, raspberries, chopped pumpkin seeds, and kefir. He has a big night ahead of him, starting with a return to the square. When he is stopped, Callahan Molnar steps back and lets him work and/or distribute his cards, which come complete with his Instagram account, his birth date, his likes—swimming and hiking—and his dislikes—celery—on the back.
7-9 PM: Beacon and Callahan Molnar watch the meet from a room at Target Center. Before warm-ups, Leanne Wong gives him one of her signature handmade hair bows, which he wears on his belt all night. He’s learning to interact with mascots like USAG’s Flip the Cat, but he’d rather spend the hours during competition in the rest room.
After Saturday and Sunday’s competition, the men’s and women’s teams will be named, and Bacon will be there for those who need him. Once the selection committee hears who has been selected, he, Callahan Molnar and another therapy dog team will be available to athletes not named to Team USA and their families. She has spent the past week choosing the perfect other pair to accompany them on that duty. “It’s a delicate situation,” she said. “Their work on those nights is a huge responsibility.”
