Читать книгу Indiana University Olympians. From Leroy Samse to Lilly King онлайн

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“I’m an island,” she once said.

Except, she said, when she opened herself up to the Lord. Nathan became a Christian when she was twenty-one.

“You know, it has shaped my life, as it should,” she said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. I wouldn’t take anything for my journey now.”

Nathan’s journey is unique in Indiana sports history. She has been a state champion, Big Ten champion, national champion, and world champion; she has been on a state championship team and coached a state championship team. She made it to her only Olympic Games at age thirty-two, but she came ever so close to being a four-time Olympian. Doing so would have tied her with JJK. She came within twenty-four points of beating JJK at the 1998 Goodwill Games.

With three women in the heptathlon going to the Olympics, Nathan finished fourth at the US trials in 1992 and 1996, and fifth in 2004. She won the 2000 trials and finished ninth at Sydney in what was an uncharacteristic performance. Afterward, she said, “I was out there long jumping, and God said, ‘You are already a champion. You’ve accomplished your goal.’ You do so much and you get to the pinnacle, what else is there to do? Yeah, you can win, but at the same time I could have missed this whole thing. . . . So this is really a blessing, it really is.”