Stevens Point Area Senior High graduate Curt Clausen is the first member of the 2000 Olympic Track and Field team.
Clausen, a racewalker, qualified for his second Olympic games Sunday, winning the 50-kilometer race at the Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif. His time of 3:56:16 broke the Olympic Trials record set by Carl Schueler in 1988 (3:57:48). That record-breaking effort came despite sub-50 degree temperatures and driving wind and rain gusts up to 50 miles an hour.
Clausen, who trains in Chula Vista, Calif. with several other racewalkers, finished 50th in the 20-K in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. He was fourth in the 50-K at the World Championships in Seville, Spain last August, the highest finish for an American in more than 25 years.
The 1986 SPASH grad will try to become the first American racewalker to medal since Larry Young won the bronze in the 20-K racewalk in 1972.
Clausen is the subject of a piece in "Inside Olympic Sports" in the February 21 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.