Second Lady Usha Vance visited the US Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs on 29 May to promote childhood literacy, using one of Team USA's premier training facilities as a backdrop to encourage local students to read during the summer break.

What Happened at the Event

Vance was joined by two-time Olympian and six-time World Champion wrestler Adeline Gray for a reading session with a group of local children. The pair read If You Can Dream it, Be It — a children's book authored by Team USA bobsled pilot Riley Tejcek.

'What an honor it was to visit such an incredible space and meet the Team USA athletes who are representing our country so well. Team USA fosters excellence and inspires children to fulfill their potential — something I also hope to cultivate by encouraging childhood literacy,' Vance said.

The Summer Reading Challenge Initiative

The Colorado Springs visit forms part of the Second Lady's broader Summer Reading Challenge, an initiative designed to combat summer learning loss — a documented concern among educators across the United States who warn that students can lose academic ground during extended school breaks.

Earlier this year, Vance visited AcadeMir Academy Charter School West in Doral, Florida, where she read to students and engaged with faculty on strategies to address the same issue. She has also launched a podcast titled 'Storytime with the Second Lady', featuring public figures and celebrities reading children's books. Recent guests have included Paralympic medallist Brent Poppen, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, actor Cheryl Hines, Inter Miami CF player Ian Fray, and Vance's mother, Dr Lakshmi Chilukuri.

Adeline Gray on Combining Sport and Reading

Gray, a decorated wrestler and mother, described the event as a meaningful confluence of two formative influences in children's lives. 'It was great to welcome the Second Lady and a group of local children for their first experience at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center. As a mother myself, inspiring kids to be curious, dream big and develop a love for both sport and reading is incredibly important,' she said.

Vance's Continuing Support for Team USA

The visit also underscored Vance's sustained engagement with American Olympic and Paralympic sport. She travelled to Milan alongside Vice President JD Vance in February for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

The Colorado Springs facility serves as a training base for many of America's elite Olympic and Paralympic athletes and has long been a hub of US high-performance sport. As the summer break approaches, reading programmes run by schools, libraries, and community organisations remain among the most widely recommended tools to help children maintain literacy skills through the months away from the classroom.