Basin Electric employee’s daughter has Olympic-sized experience

The Clyde family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (from left): Wyatt, Devin, Olivia, Kristine, Alexander and Mike.

Good things abound for the Clyde family.

First and foremost, Olivia Clyde was declared cancer-free after being diagnosed in 2013 with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer.

Secondly, the Clyde family had the opportunity to attend part of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, via the Make-A-Wish America foundation.

Olivia, 16, is the daughter of Mike Clyde, mechanical supervisor at Dry Fork Station. The Clyde family – Mike and his wife, Kristine, and their children Olivia, Devin, Alexander and Wyatt – arrived in Rio, Brazil, Aug. 5, in time for the opening ceremony.

“It was really exciting,” Mike says. “There were a lot of fireworks and we sat pretty close to the front, right behind where the American team was sitting.”

In addition to the opening ceremony, the family attended a portion of the gymnastics, table tennis and swimming competitions, where they saw Michael Phelps win one of his gold medals. Olivia, a swimmer herself, enjoyed watching the swimming events the most.

“They’re all amazing though,” she says. “It was just amazing to see what the athletes can do and how hard they push themselves to get to where they are.”

Most events didn’t start until about 10 p.m., Mike says, so on many nights the family wouldn’t get back to the hotel until 2 or 3 a.m. During their days, which stayed about 80-90 degrees, the family was able to visit sites such as the Christ the Redeemer statue and Brazil’s famed beaches.

When Olivia was undergoing cancer treatments, she was watching a lot of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. She found out that year from the Make-A-Wish foundation that she’d be going to Rio.

“I was just super shocked and super excited. I was just ready to go,” Olivia says.

Mike thinks the trip provided Olivia more than just a lifelong memory.

“I just think that when she was going through it all, it gave her something to look forward to,” Mike says.

This story originally appeared in the September-October 2016 Basin Today.