(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The athlete who, for one night, became the world's greatest bowler hails from west suburban Oswego.
A.J. Johnson took gold in the singles competition of the 2023 Pan American Games last month in Santiago, Chile, by edging out No. 1 seed Mitch Hupe of Canada.
Not bad for someone who was slotted in as a replacement for an ailing USA teammate.
“I finished the tenth frame, and I came back behind the tables, in the carpet area, and just kind of went down to my knees for a little bit,” Johnson tells sports reporter Rick Gregg in the latest Looped In: Chicago podcast. “I had tears rolling down my eyes a little bit, because I wasn’t supposed to be there.”
It’s pretty heady stuff for the 31-year-old Oswego High School alum, who literally grew up in Parkside Lanes in Aurora, where his father helped run men’s leagues.
“My dad would do the money at night. I’d get the lanes for, you know, however long it took him to do the money, and that was when I would learn to bowl, and I’d just practice, practice all night long,” Johnson said. “I bowled junior leagues here. This is just where everything started for me. From the time that I was two, three years old, all the way until I left for college, this was, the majority of time, where I bowled.”
Bowling has long been popular with the masses but has yet to be recognized as an Olympic sport. Johnson is befuddled at the exclusion but holds out hope that will change.
“I hope that one day we get to that point where we just end up forcing their hand, and say, you know what, we just have to let bowling in. We have to have that sport in the Olympics. Because it’s an awesome sport,” he said.
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