Stevens Point Area Senior High graduates Suzy Favor Hamilton and Curt Clausen both came up short in their bids for Olympic medals in Sydney, Australia.
Favor Hamilton, suffering from dehydration, fell in the final 100 meters and finished 12th, in 4:23.05, in the 1,500-meter final. Clausen, who said it just wasn't his day, was 22nd the 50-Kilometer racewalk.
Favor Hamilton moved into the lead 800 meters into the race but was passed with about 300 meters to go by Carla Sacramento of Portugal. Favor Hamilton and Sacramento were shoulder to shoulder, with Favor Hamilton taking the lead again.
Favor Hamilton then faded and fell onto the track. She appeared to have fainted and was placed in a wheelchair.
On her website, www.suzyfavorhamilton.com, Favor Hamilton said she was dehydrated, in part because of anti-inflammatories that she took to battle hamstring problems she had for most of the season.
"I really thought the gold was mine," she wrote. "In retrospect, I was receiving warning signs (of dehydration). The final, mentally, I was so ready. Ready to win, so relaxed and confident. Physically, I felt OK in the warmup, and during the first lap of the race, but when we picked it up, I knew this wasn't good.
"With a lap to go, I thought I might be OK. Just one more lap, and I'm out in front. Then with 200 to go, still in front, but I was getting very light headed and I began to see only white.
"Then with about 80 to go, I blacked out and fell. I had to get up and finish. That's all I could think of. I remember crossing the line, then looking at (Romania' Gabriela) Szabo, then that's the last thing I remember."
Nouria Merah-Benida of Algeria won the gold in 4:05.10. Violeta Szekely of Romania was second in 4:05.15 and Szabo won the bronze in 4:05.27. Sacramento finished 10th in 4:11.15. Marla Runyan, the other American entrant in the final, was eighth in 4:08.30.
Favor Hamilton ran the second-fastest time in the semifinals and in the preliminary round, she ran the fastest time of all 24 semifinal qualifiers, finishing in 4:08.08.
The SPASH graduate was trying to become the first U.S. woman to win a medal in the 1,500 meters. Her best time of the season was 3:57.40, at a meet in Oslo, Norway in late July.
"I'm probably not as disappointed about the Olympics as one might think. I try to keep perspective," Favor Hamilton wrote on her website.
"I just know I let a bunch of people down and that hurts, and I am upset with myself for not being better informed about the dehydrating characteristics on anti-inflammatories. But I know I had a great year."
Clausen, who finished fourth at the Track and Field World Championships last summer and was considered one the favorites to win a medal, finished in 3:58:39. His personal-best time in the event is 3:48:04, an American record.
Robert Korzeniowski of Poland won the race in 3:42:22. He is the first racewalker to win gold medals in both the 20-K and 50-K racewalks in the same Olympics.
Aigars Fadejevs of Latvia won the silver medal, finishing in 3:43:40. Joel Sanchez of Mexico took the bronze medal in 3:44:36.