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*** Jill Kintner Makes The US Olympic Team ***

GT Bicycles Olympic News -- 06/02/2008



Jill Kintner thought her Olympic dream ended four weeks ago,
when she was writhing in the dirt, screaming in agony after
re-injuring her chronically right knee in a training crash.

She felt no pain Saturday.

By finishing sixth at the BMX world championships in Taiyuan,
China, the 26-year-old from Seattle earned enough points to
barely edge Arielle Martin of Pleasant Grove, Utah, in USA Cycling's
yearlong battle for the lone automatic women's BMX berth into this
summer's Beijing Olympics.

“I didn't even know it was possible,” Kintner said in a telephone
interview with The Associated Press on Saturday from Taiyuan.
“For it to come down like this, I don't know what to think. There
had to be some higher forces working for me.”

However, the day will likely be remembered as bittersweet for
the American women, most of whom struggled Saturday. Although
the official rankings have not yet been confirmed by the International
Cycling Union, calculations by USA Cycling show they will have only
one women's start position in the Beijing Games – meaning while
Kintner races for Olympic gold, her close friend Martin will be watching.

“I was crying because of that more than because I made it,” said
Kintner, who was with Martin when USA Cycling's BMX director Mike
King came into their hotel room Saturday evening and broke the news.
“Today, it's a lot more bitter than sweet. Tomorrow, it might be a
different story.”

The U.S. could have secured a second Olympic spot with some
strong finishes Saturday. But other than Kintner, no American
woman advanced out of the quarterfinals. Martin crashed in her
quarterfinal race, ending her day, and probably her Olympic
hopes as well.

Kintner entered Saturday 13 points behind Martin in the USA
Cycling standings. Martin was eliminated in the quarterfinals,
meaning she did not add any points to her yearlong total. And
by finishing sixth – an outcome that was all but assured when
two French women in the eight-racer final stumbled – Kintner
earned 14 points, giving her a 129-128 victory after the 17-race
competition.

Kintner and Martin were roommates both on the trip to
China and for the last several months at the Olympic
Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.

“You take the good with the bad,” King said.
“You're happy for one and you're hurting for the other.”

Kintner was a four-time national champion and three-time world
champion in the event known as mountain-cross, where racers on
mountain bikes head downhill while dodging obstacles. But because
BMX was added to the Olympic program, she returned to the smaller
bike this year with eyes of making the team headed to Beijing.

She was a junior BMX world champion as a teenager – and now
as an adult, will have the chance of adding a gold medal to her
resume.

“After all I've gone through to get here, I guess it was worth it,”
Kintner said.

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