A hero’s homecoming

MILL CREEK – The first sign that Brett McClure wouldn’t be able to keep a low profile in his hometown anymore came on the ride from the airport.

The McClure family stopped Wednesday afternoon at a fast-food restaurant he has anonymously frequented many times in the past, and the kid behind the counter took one look at McClure and burst into a knowing smile.

“Hey,” McClure recalled the employee telling him, “I was just watching you on TV!”

Just like that, the Mill Creek product realized that he is no longer just Brett McClure. He’s now Brett McClure, Olympic silver medalist.

“When you’re in it, you don’t get to see anything going on back in the United States. You’re in the dark,” said McClure, a member of the U.S. gymnastics team that won silver at the Athens games. “So when I got back, I had no idea that so many people had watched it.

“It’s awesome. I’ve got to enjoy it while it lasts. Who knows? Maybe it will only last two weeks.”

For now, the attention will continue. McClure continued to draw a crowd when he stopped by Mill Creek City Hall later Wednesday afternoon. The City Council had just two days to put together a welcome-home party, but word apparently spread pretty quickly.

By the time McClure had satisfied every autograph-seeker in sight and taken about 45 minutes to answer questions from kids and neighbors, more than 100 people were packed into City Hall’s main quarters.

“This is fantastic,” Mayor Terry Ryan said as McClure signed a few autographs and posed for pictures. “He’s a really busy guy at the height of his career, yet he’s still taking time out to share with his former neighbors and all these kids. He won’t leave here until he signs every autograph. His parents obviously raised him well.”

Not until about 7 p.m. Wednesday – a full six hours after his flight from Colorado Springs landed at Sea-Tac Airport – did the McClure family get to actually take Brett home. He had driven straight from the airport to Cascade Elite in Mountlake Terrace, where McClure spoke and signed autographs at the gym where he once trained. From there, he was hustled over to City Hall for a 5 p.m. celebration.

Brett McClure wandered into the building 15 minutes early and was immediately swarmed by autograph-seekers. He signed for almost a half-hour before heading into the main room, where he was welcomed by more than 100 fans and a three-person jazz band.

“It’s overwhelming,” said McClure, 23, who now lives in Colorado Springs after growing up in Mill Creek. “I’m like, ‘Wow, what did I do to deserve this?’ The support from this city and state has been unbelievable. I’m so grateful to have been raised in a place like this where there are so many people who are so supportive.”

During an informal question-and-answer session, McClure was asked everything from his favorite gymnastics routine to how he protected his medal in Athens. (“You wear it to bed,” he joked. “And you put a plastic bag over it when you take a shower.”)

Many of the people in attendance were young gymnasts, including 10-year-old Kelsey Meyer of Mill Creek.

“Wow,” she said after posing for a picture with McClure, “this is really cool.”

Kelsey’s 8-year-old sister, Erika, skipped a gymnastics practice to attend the event.

“We decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Debra Meyer, the girls’ mother. “We figured that this was something that she would always remember. I’m not sure she’ll remember anything from one gymnastics class years down the road.”

McClure offered all the kids advice, including what it took to become an Olympic medalist.

“It takes a lot of dedication,” he said. “I trained six days a week, six hours a day, for a number of years.” McClure then held up the medal that was hanging around his neck. “But it paid off.”

McClure, who flew from Athens to Colorado Springs on Aug. 26, doesn’t have any breaks in the near future. He’s scheduled to do eight television and radio interviews today, beginning at 5:30 a.m. He’ll join Olympic swimmers Tara and Dana Kirk of Bremerton for a special presentation at tonight’s Seattle Seahawks-Minnesota Vikings preseason game at Qwest Field.

Then, at 11:30 p.m., he’ll fly to Dallas to begin training for the T.J. Maxx All-Stars of Gymnastics Tour, which runs almost three months.

In February, McClure plans to marry longtime girlfriend Jaycie Phelps, a member of the 1996 gold medal-winning U.S. women’s gymnastics team.

But for about 34 hours, McClure gets to be back in the Pacific Northwest for the first time since December.

“It’s been great,” he said. “I’m just so happy to be home. Being in a foreign country for three weeks was a little too long. It was the Olympic Games, but it’s definitely awesome to be home.”

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