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LE GA L O1YMPIAN S ... ................ .................................... KATHY D. &p INS , unfol! 9 1988 Summer. Olympics ts, and friends euben Clark Lazu School Tunmtte, me the Canadian basketball team, and He .... chaser on t . track and .field f .. sonal link between an x-- -4--- -- rmed a cluS":called Athletics they would subsidize my law 01 if I continued trair heir one stipulation was that I ross-country and track team I had was a law school there, so I enrolle in either sport. In one y n Law School. onary who was a walk-c Fkpbsidizcd my schooling while I continued to train chaser to a participant in the Olympic fi5.3 @#@&:~$my sccond year, I made the 1980 Olympic team. a second off the American record at 8:23 #$.S boycotted the games, I won the Olympic tri- &;jy American record during my second year in Was it about that time you stai-ted making defini: law school? I'd always planned on being an attorney-even whe s Wheit did your i. in grade school. My father was a Harvard law graduate. I ~ Aft :.:.:.> uiipcc he inqtilled that in me ..........5'...1 livinv in Eugene. si- ILLUSTRATION BY JOLEBN HUGHPS 2 Did you find that combining the daily in the top 10 in the world. That’s unpar- physical training and the rigors of study in alleled in track history. And that’s been law school were almost impossible at while I’ve been going through law school times? Or were the two endeavors more and working at a law firm. compatible than an outsider might think? Law school’s really pretty easy. It’s 1 would suspect that you’ve had some peo- running that’s hard. ple help you achieve these incredible goals. I’m fortunate that Nike came in and Wait a minute! subsidized me, that I had a lot of cooper- That will go over big with a lot of law ation from those around me, and that I students. What I’m really trying to say is had Rex Lee to run with when I was in that it’s a question of balancing. I knew my third year at BYU. when I started law school and I was still After law school, my luck held out training for the Olympic games that I when I got an opportunity with the law would have to constantly remember my firm Parsons, Behle & Latimer. I worked goals. I wanted to pass my courses, and I there for about three-and-a-half years, wanted to make the Olympic team. And and they gave me time off to train I had so I didn’t have the time othcr students an arrangement where they would just did, but still I didn’t have the time for pay me by the number of hours that I training that I normally would have had worked and let me train as I saw fit So either-because law school does take a I’ve had cooperative employers and lot of time. So I cut back in some periph- school administrators throughout my eral areas of running that are a big time career that have really helped me main- drain and have marginal athletic bene- tain this longevity in competing. fits. I cut back in both areas yet com- pleted law school in three years and inside observing several of them. In 1980 And your family has been there cheering excelled in running. we boycotted; I think 1984 was really the you on? pinnacle for me both physiologically and Definitely-although my training and Did you take the bar soon after your emotionally. The emotion in Los competing has been very difficult on the graduation ? Angeles was unbelievable for an Ameri- family. I had to have their cooperation Yes, in July 1981. That was an inter- can athlete. Korea was almost a letdown because of the unique pressures Yet I esting time in my life. I remember it dis- emotionally by comparison The Korean think that in some ways it’s helped my tinctly. I passed my courses and then people are very polite and reserved, and family a great deal. With a very flexible went off to Europe to compete. I had all they obviously didn’t cheer wildly for the work and training schedule, particularly the bar review materials with me, and Americans. I know it required a lot more since 1984, I think I’ve spent more time between my races I’d be studying for the internal motivation for our athletes to with the family than the typical law bar exam. I came back, took and passed excel there. graduate could who starts working long the bar exam, and then went back over Personally, I had a lot of motivation hours at a law firm I would work only 20 to Europe for the World Cup in Rome- since I knew that this would be the last or 30 hours a week, train, and then all this in the summer of 1981. competition of my career. I wanted to go spend the evenings at home out on a positive note. I think I did that. And then? I ran the fastest semifinal and final back- Tell me of your cutrent professional I started working for Parsons, Behle to-back races that I’d ever run in my life, involvements. & Latimer in Salt Lake City. 8% and 8:14 (the last time being one of I work for the Franklin Institute. I the fastest times I’ve run in my life). A came on as director of the corporate- How did your family life fit into all this? week before the games, I ran the second wellness division I teach time-manage- I got married right after I completed sub four-minute mile of my life. My fin- ment seminars to major corporations my undergraduate degree, and we had ish was the fastest sixth-place time in throughout the country. our first child between my first and sec- history. So, I feel that I went out strong. ond year of law school. So I had time I didn’t win a medal but I fought hard Your career today would be classijied as an pressures that I had to be continually until the end of my career, and I finished alternative to the traditional practice of balancing. my last year as the number-one Ameri- law. How does your legal training fit in? can steeplechaser. I find that my legal background has I understand that 1988’s competition was Obviously the Olympics have been a meant a lot to me in many ways, even your grand finale Could you share with us big part of my life. I’m one of only three though I may never formally work in a your reflections about the 1988 Olympics American male runners who have made law firm again. In my current profession, and those that preceded it? four Olympic teams, so I’m really proud if I have to draw up a contract I know I think I have a unique perspective of of my longevity record. During that time, how to do it. And so I think I’ll always the Olympics since I’ve been on the every year for the past 13 years, I’ve been use my legal background. 4 One main benefit of legal training has Were you in college during this time? And to be credibility. Someone who’s a mem- did you play basketball there? ber of the bar has instant credibility that Yes, I was attending the University of opens doors for them. For instance, I Henry Marsh Calgary, where I received my under- started out on the legislative committee graduate degree I was a guard on the of the Olympic committee because of my university team, and we were always legal background. Currently, for the competitive in the Canadian University U.S. Olympic Committee, I’m president League of the Athletes Advisory Council, and I’m on the executive board and the What did you do between the 1984 and the administrative committee. I’ve done a 1988 Olympics? lot of work with the Utah amateur effort Because of my Olympic dream I had in the summer and winter games, and I put off my mission until the 1984 Olym- serve on the governor’s task force work- pics Denver drafted me and I went ing to bring the winter Olympic games to down and tried out, making it to the Utah. I feel that most of these oppor- final cuts before they released me They tunities have been direct results of my encouraged me to go to Europe and to legal background. come back and try out again I told them that I’d think about it, but I went back Any concluding thoughts? home and dccidcd to go on my mission In thinking about the correlation It seemed like the perfect time between the legal profession and run- ning and athletics, I would have to con- Where did you serve your mission? clude that there are some interesting In the California Arcadia Mission I parallels. The type of person who wants didn’t play basketball at all while I was to become an attorney is usually one but I did make what they call the “B” on my mission, but I did run and I also who is methodical and analytical Those team. They kept 18 players and 12 of shot a few early morning baskets. same traits are applicable to athletic those were on the “A’ team and the training and competing.

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