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

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“I never would have thought in a billion years about bobsled,” she said.

She did not pursue bobsled because she was not done with track and field, although it must have seemed like she was still on a roller coaster. She won her second national heptathlon title in 2001 despite arriving in Eugene, Oregon, at 4:30 a.m. on the day she was to open competition. Her flight was delayed in Denver by a hailstorm. After five hours of sleep, she competed in borrowed clothes, her college running shoes, and spikes a half inch too small. She nonetheless scored 6,174 points. At the World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, she was seventh.

She tried once more to make it to an Olympics, and she said it was her “farewell to the sport.” She was fifth in the 2004 trials at Sacramento. Coincidentally, she was again third heading into the 800 and scored 6,020 points, her best since 2001. She was 106 points behind third place.

“I’m an Olympian because I gutted my way through that,” Nathan said. “It wasn’t because I was the most talented. I lost all the time. I gutted my way to the Olympics. Period.”