RIO DE JANEIRO — Say you are in your early 30s and decide to pick up a new sport. If you try golf, tennis, soccer, volleyball or table tennis, it’s unlikely you would become an Olympian, even if you were a high-level college athlete in another sport.
Carmen Farmer, a former shortstop at Virginia Tech, was living in Maryland and practicing law when she decided to give rugby a shot. Four years later, she made the trip to the Rio as a member of the U.S. rugby sevens team.
“This wasn’t the plan,” Farmer, 35, said of going to the Olympics.