UCLA athletes compete for shot at Olympics

By Christina Teller

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

A chance for Olympic dreams lies a couple hundred miles north of
the UCLA campus. This locale is only fitting as the Bruin track
program looks to send 12 of its finest to Sacramento to vie for one
of the three coveted spots in each of their respective events.

With the qualifying period stretching from January 1999 through
July 2000, these dreams have been formulating long before the end
of the school year.

For many athletes in an Olympic sport, the games are their
ultimate dream.

“For most collegiate athletes, the Olympic trials are
viewed as a stepping stone,” distance coach Eric Peterson
said. “Those who are fortunate enough to compete in the
trials will be up against a much higher level of competition and
the stakes are much higher.

“They’re up against people who have devoted their
entire lives to being an Olympic champion,” Peterson
added.

Following in the footsteps of many illustrious
Bruins-turned-Olympians, the Bruin roster is young and hungry for
valuable experience and personal records.

“It’s a good opportunity for UCLA athletes to go and
compete at the next level,” women’s head coach Jeanette
Bolden said.

It is an athlete like Seilala Sua whose next step is this next
level. Having just swept the NCAA championships in both the discus
and shot put, Sua is the sixth-ranked thrower in the world.

“She has proven on an international level that she can do
it,” throwing coach and men’s head coach Art Venegas
said. “She’s already qualified for the Olympics, all
she needs to do is get in the top three to make the
team.”

Sua, the winningest athlete in UCLA track and field history and
the first woman to win a single event at the NCAAs for four
consecutive years, is humble about her success. She talks about
preparing for the Olympic trials as a part of her regular training
schedule.

“I’ve really been working on getting my form
down,” she said. “I’ve been lifting weights and I
have a few meets before the trials. After those, I’m just
going to wait for the trials.”

Despite her taking care of business approach, she is
excited.

“I am expecting to win and make the Olympic team,”
Sua said.

And rightly so. Sua has dedicated her life to track and field
because it’s what she loves to do most. After dominating NCAA
competition throughout her collegiate career, she is ready to move
on.

Jess Strutzel, 2000 Indoor 800 meter champion, is also looking
beyond collegiate competition in the long run. Entered with his
time of 1:45.81, the current UCLA record, Strutzel sits behind
eight men in the rankings. Up against the familiar competition of
Johnny Gray of the Santa Monica Track and Field Club and Derrick
Peterson of Missouri, both of whom he has defeated and been
defeated by, his chances of making the Olympics is a matter of his
performance on that given day.

But the bulk of the Bruin hopefuls have a couple of years ahead
of them to garner experience. Having just competed in the NCAA
championships at the beginning of June, the athletes got a small
taste of what they will be up against in Sacramento.

“At NCAAs, you see a lot of people who go on to the
Olympics,” Bolden said. “To me, NCAAs are a
prerequisite to the next level of track and field because so many
Olympians went through the NCAA system.”

Shekedia Jones, who completed her junior year this spring, faces
arguably the toughest competition out on the track. Up against the
likes of Marion Jones and Inger Miller in the 200m in addition to
former Bruin Gail Devers in the 100m, Jones will face off against
some of the world’s finest.

Similarly, high jumper Darnesha Griffith, niece of Bruin-turned
Olympians Jackie Joyner-Kersee and the late Florence Griffith
Joyner, must vie against former Bruin and high jump extraordinaire
Olympian Amy Acuff.

“The approach for someone like Seilala, who has a
legitimate chance for a spot, is different from the younger
athletes,” Peterson said. “Athletes like Darnesha
Griffith, who are improving at a very fast rate, are going to the
Trials for an opportunity to compete against some of the best
athletes in order to acquire as much experience as they
can.”

One person who gained a tremendous amount of experience in a
short period of time is sophomore pole vaulter Tracy O’Hara.
In only her third year competing in the sport, O’Hara claimed
both the 2000 indoor and outdoor national titles and would have
clinched the world record in April had her arm not caught the bar
at 15-1.

“After she won the indoor championship, we both knew right
then that she has the capacity of making the Olympic team,”
pole vault coach Anthony Curran said.

Entered with a mark of 14-7 1/4, and ranked fifth on the world
list, O’Hara is ready to leap at the pre-trial
predictions.

“Now she’s in the top five in the world, and
she’s sitting pretty comfortably going into the
trials,” Curran said. “She knows she’ll have to
perform well. She’s been one to rise to the
occasion.”

Despite the enormity of the achievements made by track and field
athletes, their world is not as vast as it appears, for they must
face the same competition time and time again. This year’s
Bruin 12 will encounter a number of UCLA alums in the heat of
Sacramento. Acuff, Devers, thrower John Godina and hurdler Joanna
Hayes will be among them.

“Going into the Olympic Trials, they automatically know
what is at stake and what they’re going to have to do,”
Bolden said. “They know the competition is going to be stiff
and that they have to perform on that day.”

Anything, Bolden added, can happen on any given day.

“I’ve seen young people come out of nowhere and
veterans who haven’t been doing their best show more at the
trials. You have to do it on that one day.”

A gold medalist herself, Bolden speaks from firsthand
experience. A member of the first place 1984 4x100m relay team,
Bolden was both a Bruin and an Olympian.

It’s only fitting that an Olympian will lead her Bruins to
the trials.

“I just want them to get a taste of what it’s
like,” Bolden said. “They’ll be up against people
who they’ve only seen on TV and have been in awe of. I want
them to see that this is what it feels to be at the Olympic
trials.”

With experience as their coach, the Bruins don’t need to
look very far for a source of inspiration as they head up north in
hopes of ending up down under.