by Ann Gaffigan
The 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials was not just a track meet; it was a track-a-palooza.
I landed in Portland, Oregon, and took the Athlete’s shuttle to Eugene, where the meet took place. As we approached “Track Town USA”, I started to see billboards with phrases like “Home of the Hardest Team to Make” and “Where You’re Fired for Being 0.01 Seconds Late”, punctuated by the Nike swoosh.
As the shuttle neared my drop-off at the Living Learning Center, a dormitory rented out to athletes during the Trials, we passed the famous Track Town Pizza and a bar that had a large Adidas banner hanging above its front door. The time had finally come.
I competed in the 3000m steeplechase in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. I won and set an American Record in the process. But I did not go to the Olympics in Athens. The steeplechase was not yet an Olympic event for women (it has been an Olympic event for men since the first Games). So for the past 4 years, I put the rest of my life on hold and trained.
I stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, to be coached by my collegiate coach, Jay Dirksen. I worked hard to balance the training, the recovery and sleep, the proper nutrition, and the job to pay the bills. The 2008 Trials were the light at the end of the tunnel.
Since 2004, more women have tried the steeplechase and those who already were doing it honed their hurdling skills, water jump technique, and training to perfect the art of the event. The American record had been re-set twice since I had set it and several women were threatening to break it again SOON. It was definitely going to be one of the “hardest teams to make”.
Only the top three women in the final would qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team and many more than three wanted to make that team. BADLY. This was the first shot at the Olympics for all of us steeplechasers.
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