ST. LOUIS — While St. Louis native Freddie Crittenden is chasing his dreams and Olympic glory in Paris, he has a St. Louis sports legend cheering him on from the stands: his uncle Kurt Warner.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Kurt's wife Brenda said they are in Paris to cheer on their nephew.
"What a dream and accomplishment for Freddie!" she said in the post. "Kurt is giddy with excitement living through Freddie as an Olympic athlete."
Crittenden, a former McCluer North High School student, advanced to the finals of the 110-meter hurdles after finishing second in his semi-final race on Tuesday. The news elicited a single word response from Kurt Warner.
Crittenden has taken an unusual route to the finals. He took advantage of the newly instituted repechage round on Tuesday. After feeling a tweak during training he made the decision to jog slowly over the hurdles in the first round to give himself more time to heal.
"At the end of the day, I'm going to make the best decision for myself and my family every single time," Crittenden told 5 On Your Side's Rene Knott about his decision to jog in the preliminary round. "So if people have stuff to say, I just let them talk … I'm gonna do what's best for me every single time."
And his decision paid off. He won his repechage heat Tuesday in 13.42 seconds and advanced to the semi-finals.
Now, with a chance to bring home Team USA's first gold medal in the competition since 2012, he'll have the support of a St. Louis sports legend.
