OTC residents aim for gold

BEIJING • Call her a long shot, an underdog, a joke of a medal contender.

Call her anything you want. It doesn’t matter because Clarissa Chun isn’t listening.

Like some of her relatively obscure, unproven Olympic Training Center teammates, Chun enters the Beijing Games with high hopes, determined to show her medal prospects are more than a pipe dream.

Sixteen of the 55 Colorado Springs residents competing in Beijing have Olympic experience. The only one with a medal is shooter Matt Emmons, who won gold in 50-meter rifle prone at the 2004 Athens Games.

Most in the Colorado Springs crop are afterthoughts — boxer Javier Molina, who struggled to make the qualifier for the U.S. Olympic trials, and wrestler Adam Wheeler, who figured he would spend his summer working at 24 Hour Fitness.

“I’m representing the underdogs,” said Chun, who upset 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Patricia Miranda at the trials. “Even the best fall. No one thought Tyson Gay would fall and not qualify for the 200 (meters). That’s the great thing about sports. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Chances are Colorado Springs residents won’t win more than a handful of medals unless four-time Olympian Danielle Scott-Arruda helps carry the OTC-based women’s indoor volleyball team past a strong field anchored by China, Cuba and Brazil.

Emmons should challenge for his second straight gold in rifle prone. He’s also a threat in rifle 3-position, an event he would have won in Athens if he hadn’t fired at his competitor’s target on his final shot.

“If you’re going to look at the numbers, it’s probably safe to say that I am the best all-around shooter in the world,” said Emmons, a four-time NCAA rifle champion at Alaska-Fairbanks. “I’m not saying this to be cocky. But I can win medals in every event, pretty much every time.”

Medals aren’t likely for three-time Olympic triathlete Hunter Kemper or judo player Brian Olson and shooter Beki Snyder, appearing in their fourth Olympics. They are for wrestlers Dremiel Byers, T.C. Dantzler, Marcie Van Dusen and Brad Vering.

Russian Kasan Baroev stands in the way of Byers, and Van Dusen awaits reigning Olympic champion Saori Yoshida of Japan. For Dantzler, the road is blocked by China’s Chang Yong Ksiang, Lithuanian Valdemaras Venckaitis and Bulgarian Yavor Yanakiev.

“I’m thinking about winning that gold medal,” said Dantzler, whose resume is highlighted by two Pan American Games bronze medals.

“I’ve stepped up my mental game.

“As I’m drilling moves and going through techniques, I’m in the same mind-state I would be in a match, that way I’m able to maintain intensity.”

Like Dantzler, Chun finds no satisfaction in simply making the Olympics.

“I set the highest expectation,” she said. “I don’t want to settle for anything less than gold.”

—

Contact the Writer: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com