Cody Miller with his Bronze.
RIO DE JANEIRO — American Cody Miller won bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke, finishing behind Britain’s Adam Peaty, who set a world record in 57.13 seconds.
Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa took silver in 58.69, .18 seconds ahead of Miller.
Cody Miller is a local OB celebrity – in a real sense – as he is the son of an Ocean Beach homeless man, Craig Miller, who died last year on Christmas Day.
Writers Vera Sanchez and Sunny Rey wrote about it for the OB Rag a couple of weeks ago. They described it then:
The road for Cody did not come easy.
Cody was born with Pectus Excavatum, also known as a sunken or funnel chest. In order to improve his medical condition, he began swimming to monitor his heart and breathing.
Swimming, it seems, was survival for Cody both in the physical and emotional sense. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, with both of his parents. Shortly after, his parent’s divorced, with Cody staying in Nevada with his mother.
Craig Miller, father, left his family and moved to California, working odd jobs at fish markets. Eventually, things got tough, and Craig became homeless, loosing contact with his son.
San Diego readers may recall an article published in January, 2016 in the OB Rag of a homeless man found dead on Christmas Day in the streets of Ocean Beach. The homeless man was Cody’s father.
Here’s a recent interview of Cody in Rio.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
What an AMAZING STORY!!! And taking home the BRONZE!!!
If we can secure an interview over here at The Rag, would love to make that happen.
Miller set a new American record with a 58.87-second swim to earn his first Olympic medal.
The original writers of Craig’s story, posted in the OB Rag on January 12th, 2016, would greatly appreciate if anyone with follow-up information to Craig or Cody Miller contact us at the following email address: Vera Sanchez, vsanchez_32@yahoo.com or Sunny Rey, pastduepulp@gmail.com. The writers are in the process of writing a book. Thank you.
Click on the link to read the Craig Miller article written by Vera and Sunny.
http://obrag.org/?p=102576
As a Pt Loma High school varsity swimmer, ocean lifeguard and advocate for teaching more kids to swim, Cody Miller is a shining example of overcoming life’s challenges to excel!