What Happened to Katie Hoff?
You don’t want to dog out a homegirl, but what in the world happened to Katie Hoff?
Four years ago, she was the youngest representative at the Olympic Games in Athens, adorned with heightened expectations for the 2008 Summer Games. Four weeks ago, she was the talk of the U.S. Olympic trials, carving out a Wonder Woman-type lore for herself to match fellow Baltimorean Michael Phelps’ legacy.
But in Beijing, Wonder Woman has folks wondering what is wrong with her stroke. She has medaled in two events, but has more looks of exhaustion and exasperation than gold medals. Events in which she set American records more than a month ago have not proven as kind on the global stage.
Perhaps sharing a hometown and a sport with the greatest Olympian of all time are a gift and a curse for Hoff. She gets a lot of the attention and notoriety that comes with the Phelps marketing machine, and the same number of expectations that she might not be ready or able to shoulder.
At 19, she’ll have plenty of time to make her mark. We can only hope that our dreams for Hoff’s Olympic success haven’t marked up her competitive psyche for 2012.
Comments
By Jan English on August 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Michael Phelps was not rested for Trials 5 weeks earlier. That’s why he improved in Beijing. Same goes for Ryan Lochte–both multi-event guys. Michael is so much stronger than everyone in the US that he can at least get top 2 spots in his events at Trials and then be fully rested for Beijing. Katie and the majority of the mutli-event athletes, particularly those doing longer events, don’t have that option and they are fully rested in order to secure spots in their events at Trials (Ryan Lochte clearly wasn’t rested which resulted in losing a slot in the 100 Back). To do the same schedule 5 weeks later and get best times, particularly in her longer events, after ramping up training for a only a couple of weeks between Trials and Beijing, would have been a miracle for Katie. Even so she got best times in her 200 Free and the anchor leg of the 4×200 Free relay. If the first two relay legs, Allison Schmitt and Natalie Coughlin had done their job, Katie would have had a gold and they would have gotten the world record, not the Aussies.
The rest of the world has their Trials in April and then has 4 months to re-prepare, so it’s not a level playing field. Katie’s coach probably should have accounted for this and encouraged Katie to reduce her load for the Olympics, but he is inexperienced as well and not sure if he sought counsel from the more experienced US coaches. They probably would have encouraged her to go for it., anyway, and give it a try. It is the media that hyped up the Michael Phelps comparison. If Katie had done that same schedule and had 4 months to re-prepare like the rest of the world I am certain she would have had great results. But the US athletes, particularly those doing longer events (notice the US men and women did not improve times or gained time in events of 400 or longer, with the exception of Michael in the 400IM) have to do the best they can under the US Trials format. She was clearly the best athlete the US had for the events she swam–to even have a chance for a medal. Yes, Natalie was able to keep it together but she does shorter races (and did poorly in the 4×200 relay), and had only 1 best time of all of her races. It’s time for a change if the US wants their swimmers to compete against a fast-improving rest of the world and be at their best. College swimming is the obstacle but college swimmers will have to forgo their college season in an Olympic year. It’s as simple as that. With the majority of swimmers now being professionals, the college scene is not a big source of good swimmers, anyway.