The Olympic experience has already started for two of the University’s four Olympic athletes in Beijing.
Junior Jenn Salling, representing Canada in softball, and junior Micaela Cocks, a native New Zealander playing basketball, have helped their teams to victories in their first games.
Senior 10,000m qualifier Galen Rupp will have to wait until next Sunday, Aug. 17, before his event final takes place. Junior 800m star Andrew Wheating is the last Duck to start his competition, with the first round of the half-mile race starting Wednesday, Aug. 20.
On Saturday morning, Cocks scored two points, dished two assists and grabbed two rebounds in 20 minutes of playing time in the Tall Ferns’ 76-72 win over Mali in Group B pool play.
Cocks then continued on Monday morning’s game with Spain.
Off the court, Cocks has kept her fans back home and in Eugene up-to-date with her first Olympic Games experience through a blog on the University’s athletic department Web site, www.goducks.com, called “In the Huddle.”
It details her memorable moments off the court – such as meeting Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in the athletes’ village McDonalds.
“We asked for a photo (with Kidd) and then he did the same. He actually wanted a photo with us – we buzzed out!” she wrote. “Soon the rest of his teammates walked over to us and started hanging around. I turned my shoulder and there stood LeBron James and Kobe – the rest is history.”
She was even modest enough to admit to being starstruck with Bryant despite camera problems.
“As I tend to do,” she wrote, “I turned bright red and speed talked – I’m sure he didn’t understand a word of my kiwi accent.”
The Tall Ferns’ last guaranteed game of the tournament is next Monday’s game against the United States. Should New Zealand advance, the quarterfinals begin the next day and run through the gold- and bronze-medal games on August 23.
After not taking classes last year to concentrate solely on Canada’s Olympic softball program, Salling’s first competition came against Chinese Taipei today.
The Canadians are guaranteed seven games during pool play. Salling has had an excellent season prior to Beijing.
In the Tri-Nations Tournament on July 25 against The Netherlands, Salling went 1-for-3 from the plate with a home run in Canada’s 5-0 win.
During the team’s Canada Cup tournament in the middle of July, Salling, a shortstop, hit .437 from the plate with 8 RBI and a home run en route to Canada’s third place finish.
In that tournament, Salling was 2-for-4 with three RBI against Chinese Taipei.
Oregon’s two track and field Olympians will compete in the bright spotlight surrounding track and field starting next week.
Rupp, second in the 10,000m at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials in July, will run in the final at 7:45 a.m. Pacific time next Sunday. Rupp has been training for Beijing’s humidity and heat in Houston since mid-July with his coach, Alberto Salazar.
Rupp enters the race with the 50th-fastest time this year, according to the International Association of Athletics Federation. Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, the current and former world record holders in the event and Ethiopian compatriots, are expected to duel for the Olympic title.
Wheating is in a similar situation as Rupp, with the 49th-fastest time in the 800m this year. Just making it to the second round would be an achievement for Wheating, who will be a junior for the Ducks next season.
After nearly an 11-day wait, Wheating will make his debut at 4 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Oregon Track Club Elite’s Nick Symmonds and Christian Smith will start along with Wheating on Wednesday, trying to advance at least one Eugene resident to the next round.
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