Lauren PetersonNick Bhatnagar
Sports Reporter
After seeing a girl get hit in the back of the neck with a javelin, and a runner vomit immediately after his race during the Washington University invitational, it is pretty obvious that it takes someone special to be a track star.
Even though track is a team sport, some Bears have been outstanding this season and deserve to be recognized on an individual level. On the women’s side, Suzi Ramsey, a senior hurdler, has proven herself to be a great individual performer and an even better team leader.
SL: When did you first start track? What event did you first participate in? Was your early track career a good indication of how you would perform now? Were you initially successful at track?
Ramsey: I started track in second grade, we did just 50 and 75m sprints. Freshman year of high school was when I first started running hurdles. I did pretty well in high school, so I guess that is a pretty good indication of how I would do in college.
SL: Is there any track star that has been a major inspiration?
Ramsey: I don’t know about track stars that I emulate, but most of my inspiration came from my high school track coach. He was my first hurdling coach and that is what I love most about track. I still keep in touch with him to this day and I tell him how I am doing in all of my track meets.
SL: Do you feel that track as a sport is given enough respect?
Ramsey: Well, I definitely think that track is not given as much credit as it should be. When athletes go to Europe or other countries where they host the Olympics, they [track stars] are superstars. In the US if these same athletes go shopping no one would even recognize them.
SL: What was your most
memorable meet at Washington University?
Ramsey: I think I would have to say our outdoor conference meet last year. The weather was beautiful and it was my 21st birthday. Both the men’s and women’s team won, and that [was] the first time that happened. There was just so much energy and that has a lot to do with us being home so that our friends could come and see us perform.
SL: Do you have aspirations to coach track on any level in the future?
Ramsey: I think it would be fun. I can’t really see myself coaching on the college level, but I think it would be really cool to coach my kids’ track team many years down the road.
SL: Track being the major time commitment that it is, does it interfere with your social and academic life?
Ramsey: It definitely is a huge time commitment, and a lot of my best friends do run track, but I do have other outlets. For example, I am in a sorority. There are a lot of things you can fit into your schedule with track. I mean it is not such a huge time commitment that you cannot spend time with your friends. Maybe when I was a freshman or sophomore I felt that track was my life, but now I feel as if I have branched out.
SL: What are your training regimen and diet like? Do you have to eat any special foods?
Ramsey: I just had chocolate cake for lunch. I do eat a lot of carbs, and I end up eating a lot in general. For our training regimen on our longest days, I’ll come at 3:00 p.m. to lift and then practice will go on until 7:30 or 8:00 p.m., so it is a really long day sometimes.
SL: Have you had any serious track-related injuries?
Ramsey: Last year I had a really bad back injury that happened probably after the first or second indoor track meet. I got it X-rayed, but nobody really knew what happened, including the doctors. I couldn’t run for a month. Eventually I was slowly able to get back up to speed, but emotionally and physically it ruined my whole season. My back still bothers me on occasion; it was actually hurting me a little bit yesterday. I guess it is one of those things you have to get past.
SL: How would you rate the bodies of track athletes compared to the bodies of other athletes?
Ramsey: I think track is a unique sport in that it has many different body types. You have the distance runner body, the sprinter body, and the thrower body, which are all very different. I never really thought of which sport had the best body. It never really concerned me much.
SL: What would be the greatest honor: winning the Olympic gold or the Pulitzer prize?
Ramsey: Olympic gold, definitely. For me it would be the greater honor because I have devoted so much of my life and time to sports and I’m not really interested in writing at all. It’s a great honor to stand up on the podium and have the Star-Spangled Banner playing and knowing they are playing that for you and all that you have done. I think that is a great honor for you and for the country.
Delving into the mind of Ramsey, it is obvious that her desire shines through like an Olympic torch. With that attitude, it is no wonder she owns the Bears’ best times in the 100-meter hurdles at 15.17 and in the 400-meter hurdles at 65.73.