SHALONDA SOLOMON

Represents: USA
Age: 22 (December 19, 1985)
College: University of South Carolina
Hometown: Inglewood, CA
Residence: Columbia, SC
Affiliation: Reebok
Coach: Curtis Frye
Event: 200m (22.30w Personal Best outdoors)
(22.57 Personal Best indoors)

Reebok Boston Indoor Games history:
Professional debut

Career Highlights

• 2006 NCAA Champion 200m
• 2006 NCAA Indoor Champion 200m
• 2nd , 2006 U.S. Championships 200m
• 2005 NCAA Indoor Champion 4x400m
• 2004 World Junior Champion 200m, 4x100m
• 2003 Pan Am Junior Champion 100m, 200m, 4x100m

Her Story

A graduate of track powerhouse Long Beach Poly in Long Beach, Calif., Shalonda – who hopes to someday follow in her mother Yolanda’s career footsteps – decided on the University of South Carolina in part for its strong nursing program. The honor of twice being named the Gatorade National High School Female Athlete of the Year (2003 and 2004) proved well-deserved when Shalonda became the NCAA Champion at 200 meters as a sophomore, capping an undefeated collegiate season at the distance. Then, just weeks later, she finished second at 200 meters at the U.S. Championships after also making the 100-meter final.

Solomon’s junior season was curtailed by a strained left quadriceps muscle, so she was unable to defend her 200m title. The injury, now healed, gave her some added insight into the career of an athlete. “You will have your ups and downs,” she told South Carolina athletes at the press conference to announce she was turning pro, “so remain close to those who love you so you can receive their support when you have those downs.”

We spoke with Shalonda recently, after her day’s training in South Carolina:

On looking forward to her pro debut in Boston: “I still don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it. I can’t put it into words. I don’t know, I just can’t believe it. Maybe when I step on the track it will hit me. We’ll see.”

On how frustrating it was to get hurt after a great 2006 season: “I was very disappointed not to be able to defend my title. I tried to come back, but I couldn’t get out of regionals. I just wasn’t ready. But overall it was better to just end my season and recover and get ready for what’s happening now. At the US nationals last year, I could see that the college athletes were in the game, and that could have been me but I got hurt. It gave me some insight into what I can do. Plus the break was probably good for me. I came back stronger, and now I’m more technically sound.”

On the decision to stay with Coach Frye: “He got me to where I am right now. Along with my high school coach, he’s the one who developed me. I feel like everything is OK right now; he knows me, I know him and he knows how to get me ready to run fast. I feel comfortable here.”

On following her mother’s footsteps into the study of nursing: “I like caring for people, anything I can do to help somebody. I’m taking three classes right now: Emerging Issues, Pediatrics and OB. We’re working with babies and delivery, learning how to clean babies and assess them right after birth. I like working with them and I’m not too scared to hold them. The first baby I ever saw being born was my sister’s last June. I thought it was pretty interesting, like wow.”

On whether nursing or running is harder: “I guess it depends on the day. In nursing, you have to get up early in the morning. I’d rather get up at 10 a.m. and begin my day then if I could.”

On her high school career at track powerhouse Long Beach Poly: “It gave me a lot of confidence, to know I was in an atmosphere where people have achieved so much, where they went beyond what might be expected.”

On visits to her old high school by Olympic gold medalists: “I want to do that later, too, when I’m big and famous.”

On her favorite thing to do off the track: “Sleep. And I like watching movies. I’m a cartoon, romance, comedy kind of girl.”

NICK WILLIS

Represents: New Zealand
Age: 24 (April 25, 1983)
College: University of Michigan
Hometown: Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Residence: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Affiliation: Reebok
Coach: Ron Warhurst
Event: 3000m (7:44.90, Personal Best) National Record

Reebok Boston Indoor Games history:
5th at 3000m in 2004 (7:44.90, National Record)

Career Highlights

• Gold Medalist, 2006 Commonwealth Games 1500m
• National Record 1500m (3:32.17)
• 2004 Olympic Games 1500m, semifinalist
• 2005  NCAA Indoor Champion, Mile
• 2-time NCAA Indoor Champion, Distance-Medley Relay (2004, 2005)

        
His Story

When Nick Willis was little, his sister Mieke would send him out to run around the block, again and again, pretending to time his efforts just to burn off his overabundance of energy. Those early laps paid off.  Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Steve (the 1998 Div. II national champ at 1500m for Western States College in Gunnison, Colo.), Nick is now seen as the heir apparent to New Zealand greats John Walker and Peter Snell.

In 2005, in only his second professional race, Nick ran 3:32.38 to break Walker’s 30-year-old national record for 1500m, and his Commonwealth Games gold medal – after being ill for a week with a virus, no less – was a fitting follow-up. (In July 2006, Willis lowered his own national mark to 3:32.17).

Last fall, Nick got married, to Sierra Boucher. Over the winter, brother Steve began acting as an assistant coach, who along with his wife and baby will travel with Nick for much of the year. Hence the birth of Team Willis, united in their quest for Olympic success.

After returning on Jan. 11 from a month of training in Tucson, Ariz., Nick spoke with us from back in Ann Arbor:

On his new relationship with Steve: “Basically, he’s helping me fill a void in my training. Ron can’t be with me everywhere because of the Michigan team,  but Steve can be with me for all of my training away from Ann Arbor, or even just during the day. Ron still writes my workouts, but Steve makes me stick to them. It’s good to have someone there for the accountability. Ron writes some pretty demanding workouts, and when you’re in another town it’s easy to pull the plug on them sometimes. This training camp in Tucson, we stuck to them pretty much 100 percent. Just having my brother alongside me as a sounding board is of great value. Wherever I go from now until the final of the Beijing Olympics, he’s going to be alongside me.”

On his marriage last Sept. 30 to Sierra Boucher: “It’s the greatest thing to happen in my life. It’s just awesome to have her 100 percent fully supporting me. We’re working as a team toward this Olympic dream. With my wife and now my brother as partners, well, it’s just great to have someone to share all this with. Plus Sierra puts me in my place when that’s required of her. Ron really likes her for that. She doesn’t put up with it when I whine.”

On his new approach to mealtime: “I’m trying to take a 100 percent focus to all areas of my running life. This is the most disciplined I’ve been with my diet. I’ve lost about six pounds in last month, so this is the lightest I’ve been since coming to America. I think it will make a difference, especially over the longer distance of 3K. I’m at 148, where normally this time of year I’m at 155, 154. Being married has been a huge help with that. The main difficulty was always social situations; you don’t want to stand out from the crowd by restricting your eating, or make people feel uncomfortable. Being married, it’s a safer environment .”

On the upcoming indoor season: “I haven’t raced indoors for three years now, but I always enjoyed it running for Michigan. My coaches and I all agree that it’s important to start this year with a really aggressive approach to the indoor season. It’s time to stop being one of the guys filling up the numbers, and to really start believing and having serious expectations about being up front. I seem to thrive on pressure. At the Commonwealth Games, I was expected to be up front, so I was. It’s time I start doing that all the time.”

On beginning his season in Boston: “I’m very excited. I wish it was tomorrow. Training is coming along better than I could have imagined. Steve Ovett said that when you’re in shape, you should make the most of it while you can. So I’m counting down the days when I come out and post a good time.”

JENN STUCZYNSKI

Age: 25 (February 5, 1982)
College: Roberts Wesleyan
Hometown: Fredonia, NY
Residence: Rochester, NY
Coach: Rick Suhr
Affiliation: adidas
Event: Pole Vault (4.88m/16 feet outdoors, Personal Best, 2007) American Record (4.72m/15 feet, 5.75 inches indoors, Personal Best)

Career Highlights

• American Record-holder
• #2 in the World All-Time
• 2-time US National Champion (2006, 2007)
• 2-time US Indoor Champion, (2005, 2007)

Her Story

Jenn Stuczynski’s rise has been so meteoric, it’s hard to remember that she was a complete unknown when she won the national title at the 2005 USA Indoor Championships. Less than 2 ½ years later, on May 20, 2007, she vaulted 15 feet, 10.5 inches to end Stacy Dragila’s 11-year reign as the American Record-holder, and two weeks later, on June 2, broke her own mark when she became the first American woman to vault 16 feet. That mark ties her as the #2 woman all-time with Svetlana Feofanova, trailing only Yelena Isinbayeva.

An all-around athlete, Stuczynski came to the pole vault late, vaulting for less than a year before she won that first US title in 2005. A softball player as a young girl, she went on to become a New York state high school champion in the pentathlon, and graduated as her college’s all-time leading scorer in basketball. It was after admiring Stuczynski’s toughness in a pick-up basketball game against men that Rick Suhr approached her about giving the pole vault a try.

Raised in the unforgiving winters of upstate New York, Stuczynski hones that toughness by training all winter in a cold, dimly lit quonset hut, a long tunnel tacked on for the run-up before the last two steps bring her into the main hut, its windows boarded up to preserve what little warmth is provided by a propane heater. “Everything is way outdated,” she says. “Even the radio has a tuner that only goes down, it doesn’t go up. Snow blows in through the door onto the pad. But it’s our training place and we love it.”

We spoke with Jenn the Monday before the meet. Two days before, she had approached her indoor personal best in an early-season warmup meet, a great sign after her record-setting 2007 season ended in disappointment with a withdrawal at the World Championships because of injury.

On whether she’s made any improvements to her training hut: “I did buy a $10 light at the store.”

On being forced to retire in the World Championship final: “When I got to Japan I was feeling good, but a few days after my workout I was just hoping to qualify and then give it a couple of days, but the couple of days didn’t work out. I knew before I stepped on the runway how much it hurt, and that it just wasn’t going to be possible.  I was on the smallest pole I’ve ever been on in a meet. I kept looking up at my coach, who was trying to tell me what adjustments to make but I knew full well there was no adjustment that could be made. I was just hoping for a miracle at that point. Like in Forrest Gump, when he’s running and the leg braces come off and he goes faster and faster. I just hoped something would heal and I’d be able to take off.”

On her recovery from back and Achilles injuries last season: “I’m jumping pretty well. I had to take a lot of time off and I’ve been coming back kind of slowly, but I’ve realized I haven’t lost as much as I thought I would. I’d been lifting, upper body, and trying to do some drills, but I didn’t know how I’d be on the runway. It didn’t take as long to get back as I thought it might. It was the first injury I ever had that I couldn’t work through, the first time I couldn’t just muscle it out. Then you don’t know when it’s going to heal, or IF it’s going to heal. You’re in the dark, and that’s a scary thing. To jump pain-free took about 2 ½ months.”

On what she did to distract herself while on the mend: “I got a dog, Tundra. That was my offseason concentration. I said, you know, I’ve always wanted a Great Pyrenees, now’s the time to give him everything he needs. We got him when he was about 2 ½ months old, and 17 pounds. When I got him the vet said, ‘enjoy this weight, because you’ll never see it again.’ Now he’s six months old and over 70 pounds.”

On when she knew she was back on track: For months when I would get up in the morning, I would have to scoot down the steps on my butt. You sleep all night and when you get up everything is stiff. I couldn’t walk downstairs. It was a humbling thing.  Then one day I realized on that first step that I could walk down the stairs. That was as happy as I’ve ever been. I was ready to run the marathon. I walked down every step; there was no holding me back. The bad dreams are gone, too. Sometimes I had whacked-out dreams of vaulting and hitting a wall, or running in sand. I don’t have them anymore. They’re all pleasant.”

On filming a TV commercial in December for Nutrilite, a new sponsor: “I hadn’t been jumping yet, so I was pretty nervous. But it was great. It was in Florida and they treated us so well. It’s funny, though, to spend 17 hours shooting a commercial that ends up being 30 seconds!”

On what she learned from last season: I learned to enjoy the highs, because they don’t last. You have to keep things in perspective. You have to let it go sometimes, and not dwell on it. Now I understand that there are going to be bad days of jumping and I don’t get as discouraged about them as I used to.”

On what it was like to win US indoors in 2005 as an unknown: “It was a little surreal. I don’t think I really understood what it was. I was so new to pole vault, I wasn’t really on top of what it meant. When I saw it on ESPN, because my mom taped it, I got more excited. Then every day after that it kind of got bigger and bigger to me.”

On whether ignorance is still bliss: “Oh no. I know perfectly well what it all means now.”