The Air Force's World Class Athlete Program is training three active-duty service members toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics while other airmen execute combat operations in an unresolved war with Iran. The tension is real: a U.S. Central Command fact sheet released April 6 reported that American forces had struck more than 13,000 targets since Operation Epic Fury launched Feb. 28, and the conflict remained unresolved in August.
The case for the program lives in three sets of results. Airman First Class Anita Alvarez, who helped the United States win artistic-swimming team silver at the 2024 Paris Games, entered Air Force basic training in November 2024 and became the first Olympic medalist specifically recruited into the Department of the Air Force's World Class Athlete Program. She won two World Cup bronze medals in team events in 2025, then in 2026 added a team acrobatic gold in Medellin, three silver medals and two more bronze medals. Second Lieutenant Texas Tanner, commissioned after graduating the Air Force Academy in 2026, won the U.S. discus title July 25 at 65.46 meters. He took it by nearly a meter and a half. First Lieutenant Wyatt Hendrickson defeated Olympic champion Gable Steveson at the 2025 NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship, won consecutive Pan American titles, and in June defeated world medalist Mason Parris at Final X to secure the 125-kilogram slot on the U.S. world team for the second straight year.
The operational debt
The counterargument has a name, and Hendrickson gave it himself. Other airmen are performing the work he would otherwise be doing. "I really have to give more credit to the airmen that are kind of filling my role right now," he said. With CENTCOM conducting bomber, fighter, tanker, surveillance, electronic-warfare and airlift operations, the program's three athletes are in a training pool, a throwing circle and a wrestling arena. The deferral is concrete, and the conflict was still running in August.
On balance, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Chad Senior's career is the closest thing to a completed return on investment the program can point to. Senior competed in modern pentathlon through the Army's World Class Athlete Program, entered the 2000 Olympic year ranked No. 1 in the world, finished sixth at the Sydney Games and placed 13th at Athens in 2004. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he left competition, became an Air Force combat rescue officer, served two deployments to Afghanistan and one to Iraq with the 920th Rescue Wing and 308th Rescue Squadron, rose to director of operations of the 308th, and retired at lieutenant colonel. He now supports the Air Force as a contractor, planning contingency rescues for human-spaceflight crews. Senior argues the real return on the program comes after athletes leave competition, when the habits built under pressure carry into operational units.
The line to watch is whether Alvarez, Tanner and Hendrickson complete the same arc. Senior's career is the only data point the record shows.