Running Down a Dream: Purdue's Kara Patterson

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - When Purdue's Kara Patterson started the 2008 track and field season, she made it known that her goal for the season was to make the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team in the javelin. While many saw this as an extremely lofty ambition at the time, all doubt has been erased as nearly seven months later she has run down her dream and heads to Beijing, China, next week for the 2008 Olympic Games.

To fully understand the height of this goal, one must not only look at Patterson's prior efforts in the javelin, but the country's as well. The women's javelin was redesigned in 1999, and heading into the 2008 track and field season only one woman had ever surpassed the Olympic "A" Standard of 60.50 meters. Moreover, that woman, Kim Kreiner, was in the field at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, held at Hayward Track and Field in Eugene, Ore. Kreiner's American record throw of 64.19 meters (210-07) came in 2007, and was also within the window to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Patterson had several hurdles to climb on the way to her goal. First, heading into the 2008 season she had never thrown farther than 56.19 meters (184-04), and therefore needed to add 4.31 meters (14-02) to her personal best just to qualify for the Olympic Games. Second, she was forced to sit out the entire 2007 season because of a back injury suffered early in her third year of college. Add in the facts that she had never advanced to the finals in her two appearances at the NCAA Championships, and failed to surpass 50 meters in either of those attempts.

"Failure tends to motivate me to prevent another failure," said Patterson. "The complete devastation I felt after not making an NCAA final in my first two Purdue seasons, and then being forced to sit out my third, was a lot of great prompting to do everything I could to succeed, not just prevent failure."

Regardless of the hill in front of her, Patterson started the climb with the beginning of Purdue's 2008 season and steadily raced towards the top. She opened the season with a solid mark of 52.80 meters (173-03) at the Arizona State Invitational, and increased to one of the top marks in the country at 56.10 meters (184-00) by midseason. While she stood among the NCAA elite, secured an automatic qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Trials and appeared a lock to capture her first NCAA All-America award, she still remained quite short of her goal.

"Since I gradually built up the length of my full approach this season, I was completely confident in my ability to eventually throw the `A' Standard," said Patterson. "I was throwing approximately my previous PR out of a run that was a whole two `steps' (two left feet, so really four running steps that let you get lots of speed) shorter than the approach I used two years ago midseason, so I was stoked about the potential distances I could achieve."

Patterson reigned in her focus over the next month, competing just once prior to the 2008 Big Ten Championships. She arrived in Champaign, Ill., ready to go and primed for a duel with conference rival Ruby Radocaj of the University of Minnesota, but all the anticipation would be very short-lived. Using her full approach for the first time of the season, Patterson ripped an enormous career-best throw of 61.56 meters (202-00) on her first attempt and, after taking just one more throw, walked away with the Big Ten title. Her mark is the second-best in U.S. and NCAA history, and set the American Collegiate, Big Ten Championships and Purdue records. Above all in Patterson's mind was the fact that she had achieved the first step of her goal in reaching the "A" Standard for Beijing.

With large amounts of success came large amounts of exposure and publicity, which was news to Patterson. Along with the slew of interview requests came the fans, officials and by-standards, who were anticipating 200-foot throws on a consistant basis. With the NCAA Mideast Regionals and national championships on the horizon, she began to feel like she needed to win an NCAA Championship and set a record on every attempt. She went on to win the regional crown, and locked up her first NCAA All-America award with a fifth-place showing, but personally she was disappointed with both efforts and knew she had taken a major step backwards.

"I got caught up in the hype," she said. "I was way too tense and focused, and I wasn't having any fun. I'm usually a very happy and carefree person, but for those competitions I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, and it showed in my performances. After NCAA's I promised myself it would be different at the U.S. Trials."

Patterson knew that she needed to get back to having fun with the javelin and relaxing in her competition, and there were a few elements that helped in this process. First, she was able to continue working with Purdue javelin coach Rodney Zuyderwyk, and second she resumed training alongside former Boilermaker standout and Nike representative Lindsey Blaine. Add to this that she reminded herself that she was able to compete against several opponents who had become friends including Radocaj, the Air Force Academy's Dana Pounds and the University of Oregon's Rachel Yurkovich and Patterson began to feel right at home.

The adjustment of attitude was almost immediately obvious in Eugene as she eased into the finals with the fourth-longest preliminary throw, and then produced the best series of her career in the finals. Patterson topped the 58-meter mark three times, including her top throw of 58.44 meters (191-09), and walked away with the U.S. Olympic Trials title, a U.S. Trials Record and a spot on the 2008 U.S. Beijing Olympics Team. Patterson's dream had come true; her "lofty" goal had been achieved.

"Achieving the goal of making my first Olympic team was AMAZING," beamed Patterson. "I was so excited about Olympic Trials because I knew something fantastic was going to happen. I had so much fun during the entire competition that winning and being completely satisfied with the way I made the team was ridiculously tasty icing on an already delicious cake."

With the achievement of one goal comes the setting of another, and Patterson now hopes to makes the finals at the Olympic Games. "I want to make the second day of competition," she said. "I want to do something impressive there, not just go to go."

Patterson is scheduled to compete in the preliminaries on Aug. 19, and must finish in the top 12 to advance to the finals on Aug. 21. Her career-best mark currently ranks just outside the top-20 throws in the world in 2008; the world's best mark sits at 69.15 meters (226-10) by Czechoslovakia's Barbora Špotáková.

As the Boilermakers' first-ever women's track and field Olympian and their first female Olympic competitor since the 1950s, Patterson has secured her place in Purdue history. With the Olympics ahead and a year of college eligibility remaining, who knows how much more she can do?

Bekele is untouchable

07:19, 6 August 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

You guys seem to forget that Lagat only managed to scoop the 5k gold medal in Osaka because the king opted not to run the race. So, with Bekele back in the mix, Lagat's best bet is surely a silver, or bronze if Uganda's Kipsiro plans his race quite well.