Let the Games Begin!
In the shadows of the University of Alabama's legendary Crimson Tide football stadium, American Olympic Triathlon hopes will be on the line Saturday. Where football legends from Don Hutson to Joe Namath started their careers, American triathletes like Hunter Kemper, Andy Potts, Sarah Haskins and Julie Ertel will hope to write some athletic history.
As the still new sport of triathlon is about to celebrate its third Olympic appearance in Beijing, the great drama of making the U.S. teams is revving up again. Last September, a richly deserving Laura Bennett validated her unprecedented four International Triathlon Union world championship medals and long-suffering Olympic dreams by taking the first qualifying slot at the Beijing BG Triathlon World Cup. The next day, long shot young newcomer Jarrod Shoemaker stole the first men’s slot from the two prohibitive favorites of the U.S. men’s field, the highly decorated duo of Hunter Kemper and Andy Potts.
In the great democratic American tradition, there will be no backroom deals, no coach’s choices, no safety net for the old dogs already dripping with medals. The second Olympic slot will go to the first American man and woman to cross the line at Tuscaloosa, Alabama April 19. The third and final slots will be awarded after the Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa, June 15—based on a cut-and-dried calculation of the two best results of the remaining aspirants in the U.S. Trials. As we have seen time and again, anything can happen in the emotionally charged, winner-take-all Olympic Trials. We wait in the delicious agony of uncertainty who might emerge from the hot ovens of Olympic Trials pressure with their tickets punched for a starting line spot this August at the Shisanling Reservoir near Beijing.
THE COURSES
Tuscaloosa was chosen in large part because its bike and run courses closely mimic the topography of Beijing. Because the top American finishers in Alabama will earn the second Beijing slot free and clear, there is a lot more focus on the circuit in the shadow of the Crimson Tide’s vast football stadium than Hy-Vee. In the 2004 Olympic Trials, bike courses in Honolulu, Madeira, Portugal, and Bellingham, Washington, closely simulated the extraordinarily steep Athens track—climbing 400 feet over half a mile–maxing out at a 20 percent grade done six times. By contrast, Tuscaloosa’s rise coming off Jack Warner Parkway and entering Queen City Park requires a climb of roughly 110 feet over a quarter-mile done eight times—a little less than Beijing’s 150-foot rise done six times.
While Tuscaloosa will require some sweat, it won’t be a make-or-break effort tilting the race to the cyclists. At the Beijing World Cup, a field of 80 and the mild hill made breakaways virtually impossible. At Tuscaloosa, with an anticipated field maximum of 30 with a dozen U.S. Olympic contenders in the men and women’s fields, fast swimmers and determined bikers in packs of three to five have a realistic chance of breaking away. On the run, Tuscaloosa’s almost flat track along the Black Warrior River differs from the long gradual uphill grind in Beijing.
SITTING PRETTY
Jarrod Shoemaker, 25, Sudbury, Massachusetts
Second at 2006 Edmonton World Cup; 2005 U-23 world champion; fastest run in field 2007 Ishigaki World Cup
ITU world ranking: 2006 (25), 2007 (37)
The Dartmouth cross-country runner stopped his usual bleeding on the swim at Beijing, saved energy in the massive pack on the bike and had his best day on the run to edge out American icon Hunter Kemper by 12 seconds for the first American Olympic slot. The unassuming lad with the curly blond hair who looks like a cross between Olympic gold come-from-behind runner Dave Wottle and shy guy actor Michael Cera of Juno and Superbad was the prototypical Olympic longshot success story.
STILL VYING FOR SLOTS
Hunter Kemper, 31, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2003 Pan Am gold, three-time ITU World Cup winner, 2006 Life Time Fitness champ, six-time USAT elite national champion, 2000 and 2004 Olympian
ITU world ranking: 2005 (1), 2006 (5), 2007 (82)
To his detriment, America’s greatest Olympic-distance male triathlete raced himself into exhaustion carrying the U.S. men’s team on his back to gain them three Olympic slots in 2000. One of the sport’s 10 greatest runners, Kemper won the Olympic preview 2005 Beijing World Cup to cap off an unprecedented for the U.S. men the ITU world No.1 ranking. During an 18-month span in 2005-2006, Kemper was the World Cup’s best bet to podium and set five fastest run splits. Last year’s career threatening hip injury may have been a blessing in disguise to get Kemper to take an extended rest for the all-important 2008. Recovered swiftly to 98 percent race fitness but lacking his top-end, Kemper lost the first Olympic slot to Shoemaker by 12 seconds. Anticipate a great duel with Potts.
Recent form: Unlike Potts, Kemper is laying low except for his red-hot 1:08 half-marathon in Florida. All reports say Kemper will be fully ready and sharp to deal with Potts and Reed and all the other adrenaline-fueled dreamers of the five-ring dream.
Odds: 5-2
Andy Potts, 31, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2007 wins: Pan Am Games, Escape From Alcatraz, Ironman 70.3 Worlds, two World Cups; 2004 Olympian
ITU world ranking: 2005 (9), 2006 (3), 2007 (29)
Former just-missed-the-Olympics NCAA swimmer has become a clutch, all-around triathlete with Olympic medal capability. Potts first showed he could mobilize his tall, large-framed body in 2005 when he dueled with 2004 Olympic gold medalist Hamish Carter to the line at Escape From Alcatraz. Since then, Potts won two World Cups, finished the 2006 season ranked third in the world, and proved he could run with the low-30-minute 10km crowd on his best days. In 2007, Potts was money with wins at Escape, Pan Am Games, USA Elite Nationals, Ironman 70.3 Worlds and a silver by two seconds to Simon Whitfield at the Vancouver World Cup. Potts looked at his fade in the middle of the run at his first crack at the 2008 Olympic team performance in Beijing and says: ”I didn’t follow my game plan and I have made the adjustments.”
Recent form: This time around, Potts comes off a win three weeks ago at his new favorite distance, winning Ironman California 70.3 over the usual stellar field—a reprise of his Ironman 70.3 world championship last November. Some might guess that running a twice-Olympic-distance race would take a little snap out of the legs, but here’s guessing it was a perfect tune-up for a mighty battle with Hunter Kemper. P.S. Potts loves to show oddsmakers like myself—who see him second at Tuscaloosa—that we are all morons.
Odds: 3-1
Matt Reed, 32, Boulder, Colorado
2006 Escape From Alcatraz champion, 2007 St. Anthony’s champion, 2004 U.S. elite national champion
ITU world ranking: 2005 (7), 2007 (21)
Before Shoemaker stunned the usual studs of the U.S. men in Beijing, the New Zealand-born new U.S. citizen and tallest man in triathlon seemed like a solid bet to join Kemper and Potts on the 2008 Olympic team. Several times the top U.S. finisher at ITU Worlds, the 6-foot-5-inch Reed was once thought of as a swim-bike star until he started confidence building workouts with run specialists and regularly scored low 31-minute 10kms in World Cups in 2005. In 2006, he won Escape From Alcatraz, and in 2007, he won St. Anthony’s and scored a world-class 30:53 10km
at Vancouver in 2007. Fully recovered from an energy-sapping four-month bout with cytomegalo virus in mid-2006, Reed still faced bouts of VO2 max deficiencies through 2007 until he was diagnosed with severe asthma and given medication for 2008. Although he and Kemper are good friends, Reed could be a threat to the established order if he’s firing on all cylinders at Tuscaloosa.
Recent form: Reed’s secret weapon may be brother Shane Reed’s selection as the third and final team member on the New Zealand Olympic squad. “What one brother has, the other will get,” says Matt’s wife Kelly. On more objective grounds, Reed’s diagnosis of exercise-induced asthma and subsequent treatment has freed up the tallest man in the sport to access his giant potential. Case in point: Reed outran Argentine Olympian (and last year’s runner-up at the Ironman 70.3 world championship) Oscar Galindez to win the March 16 Miami International in 1:45:31.
Odds: 6-1
Victor Plata, 35, San Luis Obispo, California
2004 Olympian (27th); two 2005 World Cup podium finishes
ITU world ranking: 2005 (12)
Can lightning strike twice? After the his long-shot Olympic qualification in 2004, Plata took two years off from serious competition to get his law degree. Rated by former U.S. National Teams Coach Libby Burrell as the man with the most unused talent in the game. Plata is back for a last shot at the Olympics—and he has a dangerous runner’s chance for a second upset.
Recent form: Plata is dangerous because, as he says, “I have nothing to lose.” Plata was ready to give up his pro career to devote 17-hour days to law school but found he could sneak in a weekly training load of 250 miles on the bike, 20 miles swimming and 70 miles running and stay strong enough to win Musselman, take second at the Drummondville Pan Am Cup and finish 13th at the Rhodes World Cup late last year. If he pulls another upset as he did in 2004, Plata will meet up in Beijing with his adventurous mother, Caitlin Addison-Howard, who has been teaching and traveling in China the past eight months. If Plata passes his longshot Olympic test, the bar exam waits.
Odds: 12-1
Mark Fretta, 30, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Second at 2006 Doha World Cup, third at 2003 Tongyeong World Cup
ITU world ranking: 2005 (26), 2006 (22), 2007 (102)
Before he smashed his collarbone in 2006, Fretta has a six-weeks hold on the world No. 1 ranking thanks to a second at Doha and a sixth at Mazatlan. Like Plata, Fretta’s strong run (sub-31 minutes at his best) has a puncher’s chance.
Recent form: Fretta finished top American and 17th overall—ahead of such luminaries as Olivier Marceau, Shane Reed, Courtney Atkinson, Dimitry Gaag, and Peter Robertson—at the Mooloolaba World Cup with a 31:58 closing run.
Odds: 15-1
Doug Friman, 32, Tucson, Arizona
2007 bests: 17th at Vancouver, 12th (second American) Des Moines, 21st and third American at 2006 ITU Worlds
ITU world rankings: 2005 (48), 2006 (75)
Friman had the third U.S. men’s Olympic slot into the last lap of run at the Dallas Olympic Trials and has not wavered in the next eight years in his pursuit of the Olympic dream. The Cornell graduate and former U.S. amateur overall champion went alone into the jungles of Brazil to train and submitted to the rigors of supercoach Brett Sutton and continues to improve. A 30:57 10km at Vancouver in 2007 gives the other tall man of the U.S. team a reason to dream.
Recent Form: Last year, Friman finished 12th and second American behind Jarrod Shoemaker and ahead of Kemper and Potts at the $700,000 Des Moines World Cup. He scored a 25th and top American at the Cancun World Cup and 36th and fourth American at Beijing with a 33:00 run. All we know for sure is that Doug Friman will lay it all on the line at Tuscaloosa.
Odds: 20-1
Brian Fleischman, 29, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Second American at 2007 USA Triathlon elite Nationals, eighth 2007 Pan Am Games, second 2001 U.S. Elite Nationals
ITU world ranking: 2007 (57)
The 5-foot-11-inch, 151-pounder from Jacksonville, Florida, has one of the best swims in the game
and from time to time has red-hot bikes and swims. But he has a hard time putting it all together.
Recent form: Placed fourth at Miami International, three minutes, two seconds behind winner Matt Reed.
Odds: 33-1
Joe Umphenour, 39, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Fifth at 2003 ITU World Cup in Gamagori was best-ever; top U.S. men's finisher at 2001 ITU world championship
ITU world ranking: 2007 (66)
This Seattle native has guts—he competed in the 2000 Olympic Trials three weeks after breaking his arm. Competing in tri since he was 13, Umphenour once swam 1,500 meters in 15:39.
Odds: 66-1
Manny Huerta, 24, Colorado Springs, Colorado
First year as ITU World Cup elite; first, 2006 U-23 championship; sixth, 2006 ITU U-23 Worlds; first, ITU La Paz Continental Cup
Recent form: Finished 20th and second American behind Mark Fretta at the Mooloolaba World Cup with a 10km run of 32:04, 90 seconds off winning run times.
Odds: 75-1
CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR A LOOK AT THE WOMEN!
