Some 42 athletes in 17 different sports on Team USA have local San Diego connections, either as homegrown athletes or as a training base at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Athlete information is courtesy of the NBC Olympics Website.
Brady Ellison - Men's Archery
Born: October 27, 1988Residence: Chula Vista, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'10" / 165 lbs
Event(s): Individual; Men's team
Sitting in first place after two different stages of the U.S. Trials (held in late September and early April), Brady Ellison finished the job during the first weekend in May in Phoenix, Ariz., winning the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and his first-ever Olympic berth.
Julie Ertel - Women's Triathlon
Born: December 27, 1972Hometown: Anaheim, CA
Residence: Irvine, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'8" / 145 lbs
Olympics: 2000
Event(s): Triathlon
Ertel, the 2007 USAT Elite National Champion, took home a gold medal at the Pan Am Games in July and won her first World Cup event in Cancun in November. Ertel was a member of the U.S. women's Olympic water polo team from 1993-2001. She competed at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, when she was known by her maiden name, Julie Swain. The team took home a silver medal.
Valerie Gotay - Judo
Born: November 05, 1973Hometown: Temecula, CA
Residence: Harlingen, TX
Wt: 125 lbs
Olympics: 1992
Event(s): Judo (57kg)
An SdSU alum, Gotay began competing internationally in the sport of judo at the age of 14. Then, in 1992, when she was only 18 years old, Valerie made her first U.S. Olympic team. However, after getting sick trying to make weight in Barcelona, she retired from the competition, exhausted. Following Barcelona, Gotay then went on to pursue a degree in psychology from San Diego State, and live life "like a normal person." Twelve years later after Barcelona, and after several attempts at comebacks, Gotay decided to return to competitive judo.
Ryan Hall - Track & Field
Born: October 14, 1982Hometown: Big Bear Lake, CA
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'10" / 140 lbs
Event(s): Marathon
Training at the OTC in Chula Vista, Hall clinched a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's marathon team with a record-setting performance at the trials in New York. He ran the undulating Central Park course in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 2 seconds, pulling away from the competition with a blistering 18th mile of 4:32. Hall's shining moment, however, was marred by the news that his friend and fellow runner Ryan Shay collapsed and died while running in the race. Many consider Hall to be a candidate for title of the next great American distance runner.
Sarah Hammer - Cycling
Born: August 18, 1983Residence: Temecula, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'7" / 135 lbs
Event(s): Track cycling
This two-time world champion on the track in the 3000 m and seven-time world cup gold medalist will be the favorite in individual pursuit, and the Americans' best hope for a medal at the Olympic velodrome. This will be the 24-year-old Hammer's first shot at an Olympic medal, but she is far from new to the sport. Burned out by age 20, she quit to pursue other things, but while watching the races on TV during Athens, she realized that she could return and have a legitimate shot at the gold. At the 2008 World Championships in Manchester, England, she took home silver.
Mike Hazle - Track & Field
Born: March 22, 1979Hometown: Temple, TX
Residence: San Diego, CA
Ht: / Wt: 6'0" / 205 lbs
Event(s): Javelin
A resident at the OTC in Chula Vista, Mike Hazle will make his Olympic debut for the United States this summer in Beijing, where he will compete in the men's javelin. The 29-year-old Texas native never finished better than fifth at the U.S. national championships before breaking through with a runner-up finish in 2007, which he duplicated at the Olympic Trials.
Monique Henderson - Track & Field
Born: February 18, 1983Hometown: San Diego, CA
Residence: Chula Vista, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'7" / 118 lbs
Olympics: 2004, 2000
Event(s): 4x400m
Monique Henderson will represent the United States at the Olympics for the third time in her career this summer in Beijing, where she will compete in the 4x400m relay. A member of the gold-winning 4x400m relay team in Athens, Henderson was a 17-year-old relay team member in Sydney, but didn't run in any of the races in her first trip to the Olympics. Her grandfather reportedly raced Jesse Owens on dirt roads in rural Louisiana. While at San Diego's Samuel Morse High School, Henderson won four consecutive California state titles in the 400m.
Carrie Johnson - Flatwater Kayak
Born: January 16, 1984Hometown: San Diego, CA
Residence: Chula Vista, CA
Olympics: 2004
Event(s): K-1 500
Since finishing tenth at the 2004 Games, Carrie Johnson has been training, clocking in better results each year. In 2006 she won five national titles and won the bronze in the K-1 1000-meter race at the Poznan and Guangzhou World Cups. In 2007, she finished fifth in the K-1 500 at Worlds, securing the U.S. an Olympic berth in the event. Johnson started paddling when she was thirteen through the local junior lifeguard program. Among her instructors was 1992 Olympian Chris Barlow, who organized sessions on Saturday mornings on San Diego's Mission Bay so the lifeguards could learn to paddle.
Deena Kastor - Track & Field
Born: February 14, 1973Hometown: Agoura, CA
Residence: Mammoth Lakes, CA
Ht: / Wt: 5'4" / 104 lbs
Olympics: 2004, 2000
Event(s): Marathon
The top female distance runner in the U.S., Deena Kastor, who trains at the OTC in Chula Vista, will compete in her third Olympic Games this summer in Beijing. In Athens in 2004, Kastor won bronze in the women's marathon. At the Sydney Olympics, she competed with an Achilles injury she suffered weeks before the Games and was eliminated in the qualifying round of the 10,000m.
Jill Kintner - Women's BMX
Born: October 24, 1981Hometown: Seattle, WA
Residence: Seattle, WA
Ht: / Wt: 5'7" / 135 lbs
A resident of the OTC in Chula Vista, Kintner started BMX at the age of eight after following her brother Paul into the sport. In 2002, at the age of 21 and the ABA BMX World Champion but burned out from the sport, she switched over to mountain biking, where she would eventually win the world title in 4-cross in 2005, 2006 and 2007. During 2006 she switched back to BMX where she won the first event she entered, but continued mountain biking as well. Following her title at the Mountain Biking 2007 Worlds, she switched back to BMX full-time in order to dedicate herself to the pursuit of an Olympic medal in Beijing.
