Posted: January 22, 2004

Athletics: Back On Track, Teter Optimistic About Olympic Year

By David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved < RaceResultsWeekly.com>

Nicole Teter's 2003 track season was short, and ultimately sour.

Nursing a stress fracture of the navicular bone in her foot and related compensating injuries, she held together well enough to enter one indoor competition last season, easily defending her U.S. indoor title at 800 meters last March.

"I said at the beginning of the season that if I wasn't 100%, I wasn't going to run," Teter said after that victory. "So, I feel like I'm 100% so I ran and was fit enough to defend my title."

But the injuries came back, and Teter had to sit out the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships. In fact, she did not race again until the U.S. Outdoor Championships last June, finishing second in 1:59.91. Although she qualified herself for the IAAF World Championships in Paris, again injuries prevented her from making the trip.

"When you're in the moment you don't realize it as much as when you reflect on it," Teter said of her disappointment in an interview in New York City yesterday. "I think in the past month or so, my boyfriend [Nike Farm Team teammate Drew Griffin] and I have been reflecting on that time period. He said I was more devastated than I remember myself being devastated. He helped me maintain through that. He helped me to crosstrain, he helped me to bike... and to stay positive. He knew that I would get through it."

Teter now gives herself an 85% rating heading into the indoor season, and will run her first track race in about seven months at the adidas Boston Indoor Games on 31-Jan.

"I only raced twice last year," said Teter. "I may have raced rounds --I actually raced five times-- but I only entered two competitions. So, I'm not competition savvy. I just need to get back into races."

Teter, 30, is the U.S. indoor record holder for 800m, scorching a 1:58.71 at the U.S. Indoor Championships in 2002. She's run 1:57.97 outdoors, and is the #9 performer on the U.S. all-time list. She's also run 4:04.19 for 1500m.

In addition to Griffin, Teter lavished praise on Farm Team coach Frank Gagliano, whom she trusts to prepare her for an Olympic debut in Athens in August.

"My coach is so positive. Even while being injured he would be out there with me crosstraining. He would come into the gym with me on the bike, do workouts with me. He never abandoned me at all. His stability there was incredibe. It's nothing that I'd ever seen before. His belief in me and the other athletes is just phenomenal."

Coach Gagliano will help Teter to managed the two peaks U.S. athletes must attain in order to enjoy Olympic success. First, they must be sharp enough for the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, where the top-3 finishers are chosen to make the Olympic Team, and then at the Olympic Games a month later. A too-sharp athlete at the Trials can get to the Olympics flat and tired.

"I seriously, 100% belive in my coach's philosophy, and he is the master," Teter said, brimming with confidence. "I do what he says and I know that he has the plan."

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