© 2008 Bob Burns and Pacific Association. All rights reserved.
2008 Pacific Association/USATF Olympian
Erica McLain Profile
By Bob Burns
PA/USATF Feature Story Reporter
Stanford senior Erica McLain was freaking out. Her friends were out and about interviewing for jobs, and there she was, playing in the sand each day.
She may have been a seven-time All-American in the horizontal jumps, but McLain fretted that her devotion to track and field was leaving her behind her career-minded classmates.
“I was worried about whether I could make this my profession,” McLain said. “I kept telling myself that if I didn’t jump well, I wouldn’t get a (professional) contract. I didn’t have a backup plan.”
Stanford track coach Edrick Floreal tried to reassure her.
“You don’t have time for a backup plan,” Floreal said. “Don’t worry about making money. If you put the jumps out there, it’s not going to be a problem.”
As she prepares for the biggest competition of her career, the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, McLain no longer feels quite so stressed. She put several jumps out there at the recent NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, winning the triple jump with the longest mark ever by a collegian (47 feet, 10 inches). She earlier placed fourth in the long jump with a career 21-6.
Her longest effort in the triple jump was wind-aided, so it didn’t count as a collegiate record. But it was more than a foot farther than she had ever jumped before.
“I was so psyched when I saw the distance on the scoreboard,” McLain said. “I started laughing and said to myself, ‘Who just did that? Me?’
“I usually jump around and go crazy after a big jump, but this time I just sat down and started thinking about how I needed to get my head together, because this really would be my career for the next few years.”
When she and Floreal sat down a week later to review the video of her jump, they were surprised to see a bunch of little mistakes.
“It was not a pretty jump,” McLain said. “It was just a faster jump than my bad ones. I’ve still got a lot of room for improvement.”
McLain, a 22-year-old native of Plano, Texas, will be competing in her first Olympic Trials. She qualified for the Trials in 2004 as a high school senior but chose to compete in the U.S. Junior Championships instead.
These Olympic Trials will be held June 27 to July 6 in Eugene, Ore. McLain will also compete in the long jump, but the triple jump represents her best chance to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the Beijing Olympics.
In most events, the top three finishers at the Trials qualify for the Olympic team. It’s as simple as that. But McLain’s situation is considerably more complicated. The women’s triple jump is a weak event in the United States, and a top-three finish doesn’t necessarily guarantee an Olympic berth.
Athletes also need to meet or surpass the Olympic “A” qualifying standard, which in the women’s triple jump is 46-7¼. McLain hit that distance on the nose in finishing first at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships. Shani Marks jumped 46-11 in mid-June, so two Americans now have the “A” standard.
That’s a relief for McLain, because if she had been the only triple jumper with the “A” standard, she would have had to win the Trials to guarantee herself a spot on the Olympic team. If a jumper with the “B” standard had won in Eugene, the winner would have gone to Beijing instead. Now that two jumpers have the “A” standard, McLain might not have to finish in the top three in Eugene to qualify for the Olympics.
If you’re confused, take a number. Put simply, McLain has an excellent chance to make her first Olympic team.
“That’s the game plan,” Floreal said. “There a lot of outside stuff at the Olympic Trials that can distract you, but when it’s game time, Erica gets into her own world.”
McLain earned a slew of national honors at Plano East High School, including three Texas state titles and a U.S. junior championship in the long jump. She won the long jump and triple jump at the 2002 Golden West Invitational in Sacramento.
|
