I picked up the San Francisco Chronicle on the first day of the
Olympic trials, eager to see whether my local paper included any
tidbits about the UCLA athletes I’d been covering for the
past seven months.
Then a quote by Michael Johnson, considered invincible to some,
grabbed my attention. He talked about what an accomplishment being
at the trials was for each and every athlete there.
“This is probably the most pressure an American track and
field athlete will feel in his entire career,” said Johnson,
the world record holder and a two-time Olympic medalist in the
200-meter run. “This is the best track meet in the
world.”
In the last two weeks, the Olympic track and field trials made
their once-every-four-year stop in our state’s capital. They
stretched over a nine-day period, during which professional,
collegiate and high school athletes battled it out for a spot in
the finals, some of them in hopes of defying the odds and being one
of the fittest three at the end of the day.
I’m the first to admit that I haven’t been following
track and field for very long. Though my roommate during freshman
year was on the track team, all I knew of the sport were the
distances on the track and what the field events looked like. But
as fate would have it, I was introduced to the purest competitive
sport I’ve ever seen when I started covering it for the Daily
Bruin.
I immediately respected the athletes for their athletic ability.
I myself could only dream of running, jumping or throwing that far
five days a week.
The dedication they apply to their sport is amazing. It may not
make them all that different from the other athletes on campus, but
the arena of competition sets the track and field athletes apart
from the rest.
It is only in a sport like track and field where you see a
recent high school graduate take the track next to a seasoned
Olympic veteran; where a 39-year-old javelin thrower will throw in
his fifth Olympic trials and still not make his first Olympic
berth; and where current students are not only exposed to, but
matched up against the greatness of those who came before them, the
alumni who decorate the record books.
I was lucky enough to witness the Olympic trials first-hand.
After having attended the NCAA track and field championships a
little over a month ago, I thought I had seen some pretty amazing
competition. But this was a whole different level.
“This is the best track and field meet in the world next
to the Olympic Games because it is so sudden death,” said
Jeanette Bolden, UCLA women’s head coach and a member of the
1984 4x400m gold medal relay team.
“Athletes train all their lives and they only have one
shot. It’s not like the NBA or NFL, where they have the
finals or Super Bowl every year. This only happens every four
years, and it relies upon what you do at that track meet,”
she added.
As much as the athletic display in Hornet Stadium amazed me,
what truly captured my attention was the cohesiveness of the crowd
and the respect that the fans paid the athletes.
At so many other athletic contests, much of the noise is an
attempt to shake the other team and distract them from their game.
That wasn’t the case at all in this pre-Olympic showcase.
The crowd clapped in unison as the long-jumpers prepared at the
mouth of the runway. You would have thought that the guy sitting
behind me had a child in every single event the way he was cheering
and ringing his cowbell during the six hours of competition that
day.
Standing ovations were awarded to the winners at the completion
of every event. Once the victors passed one side of the stadium, a
cheer awaited them on the other.
This was displayed most prominently when veteran 800m runner
Johnny Gray of the Santa Monica track and field club decided that
it had been his final race after his 1:53.27, 27th-place finish on
Friday.
But the crowd did not judge his finish. He received a standing
ovation from the track and field faithfuls, who respected him for
his lifetime of accomplishments, including earning the current
American and Olympic trials records of 1:42.60 and 1:42.80,
respectively.
Paul Crimmins, my good family friend, summed it up the best. His
eight-year-old daughter asked him who we wanted to win, and he
answered simply, “We want everyone to do their
best.”
The professional fate of these athletes was decided in a matter
of three rounds. A lifetime of work all came down to that window of
time on that given day. Coaches have told me countless times
throughout the season that anything can happen on any given day. It
is all too true.
In the qualifying round of the discus throw, Bruin graduate
Seilala Sua barely cleared 190. Thirty-six hours later, she trumped
her lifetime best by nearly four feet and secured herself the 2000
national championship and a berth to Sydney with her 216-2
throw.
Jess Strutzel, who finished fifth in the NCAA outdoor
championships behind Trinity Gray of Brown and Derrick Peterson of
Missouri, advanced to the final round of the 800m run ahead of them
both, and ended up finishing eighth.
These athletes dedicate their lives to their sport, with careers
spanning decades, even if they have never competed in the Olympic
games. In the last few weeks Sacramento earned the utmost honor, as
the host and arena of competition for some of the world’s
best.