MIAMI LAKES, Fla. — Katie Lou Samuelson and Devin Cannady took their marriage vows in April. They made another vow to each other long before that.
An Olympic vow.
It was July 2021 during the Tokyo Olympics, when Samuelson’s team won a gold medal without her. Samuelson tested positive for COVID-19 right before the women’s 3×3 basketball team was leaving for Japan, denying her the chance to compete and become an Olympian.
Samuelson was in her family’s Southern California home as that competition ended, distraught over not being able to play. Cannady, her boyfriend at the time who couldn’t even hug her because of the precautions necessary after she tested positive, asked her a simple question: Does she want to go to Paris in 2024?
She said yes. Cannady promised he would be with her for every step of that journey. And here they are, set to compete essentially side-by-side at the FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup that started Thursday in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Americans open play Saturday, Cannady part of the men’s squad, Samuelson part of the women’s team — their 4-month-old daughter there as well.
“I have some unfinished business,” Samuelson said after a training camp practice in South Florida this week. “I clearly wanted to be a part of the Tokyo Olympics, and I was about 24…
