By: by Hunter McKay
Kennesaw, Ga. - Qualifying for the Olympics is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
Kennesaw State track and field assistant coaches
Derrick Atkins and
Agne Eggerth both competed in sprints in a pair of Olympic Games. Both took different paths and overcame many obstacles to make it.
Atkins was born in Jamaica, but his family moved to Nassau, Bahamas when he was young. At the age of five, Atkins fell in love with running. He grew up running with his best friend and Bahamian teammate, Aaron Cleare.
"I didn't start focusing on track until I was in the tenth grade," Atkins said. "When I reached high school is when I got better and I became focused on getting a scholarship to run track in college."
In just three years of track in high school Atkins had some success. He got his first real taste of international competition at the St. Georges GAC Championships where he ran 10.44 in the 100m final.
That success earned him a scholarship to Dickinson State University in North Dakota. While at DSU, Atkins put together one of the most successful track careers in NAIA history. He helped the Blue Hawks win three national team titles while collecting 19 All-American awards and seven individual titles in indoor and outdoor.
The lack of places to train outside and the weather in North Dakota took wore on Atkins. So the sprinter moved to Gainesville to train under University of Florida head coach Mike Holloway, who has coached five Olympic athletes who combined to win nine medals since 1992.
His career blossomed under Holloway's guidance, and after a few months of training, he headed to the Bahamian Olympic Trials.
"The trials in the Bahamas are not a big production like it is in the United States. Once you make the standards and finish top three at the trials you're pretty much set as you stay healthy."
Atkins earned a spot on the Bahamian Olympics team after winning the 100m in 9.97 seconds. At the time, he was the second ranked athlete in the world in the 100m.
In August of 2008, Atkins along with nearly 11,000 of the world's best athletes, headed to Bejing for the Olympics Games. He was at the height of his career.
He remembers being there but only for a short time.
"In 2008, I was too much in my own head. I went to Tokyo did my pre meet stuff, wrapped up my training and competed. I skipped the opening and closing ceremonies because I was so focused on myself and what I was trying to do."
Atkins opened with a time of 10.28 seconds to win his heat in round one to advance him to the second round. He would cross the line in 10.14 seconds in his second round heat to move on to the semifinals coming in just .14 seconds behind his cousin, Asafa Powell, who won the heat. In his semifinal heat, Atkins would fall short of his goal of making an Olympic final by finishing sixth in a heat that featured the eventual Gold medalist and world-record holder Usain Bolt and Silver medalist Walter Dix.
"I was super disappointed after the 2008 Olympics. I felt I should have won a medal. I was in great shape and was ranked sixth in the world but I came up short of my goal and that still angers me."
Atkins would race in 2009, but an issue in 2010 nearly cost him his track career.
"I took a year off for personal reasons after the 2010 season. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue running track & field professionally anymore, but in the fall of 2011, I decided to give it one more try and I started to train. At this point I didn't have a coach so I trained myself with the help of friends. It was very hard after taking a year off mentally and financially too."
He knew he faced an uphill battle while training to try to get back to another Olympics.
"I just tried to first lose all the weight I gained in that year I took off. I was 20 pounds overweight at the time and I was able to get back to five pounds under my race weight at the games. It was a very up and down season in which I had to battle injuries too. Most of the days, it was a psychological battle more than a physical one."
Giving track another shot paid off for Atkins as he qualified for the 2012 Olympics after winning his sixth of seven Bahamian National Championships in the 100m in 10.38 seconds.
He fell just short of the finals again at the 2012 Games in London. After opening with a second place finish in his opening round-heat, Atkins came up just two spots short of making the finals.
"I really enjoyed the 2012 Olympics. I walked in the parade in both the opening and closing ceremonies and I loved every minute of it. I don't remember what I did every day I was there but I do remember feeling like I accomplished what I set out to do starting from the fall of 2011. Even though I didn't make the finals, to make it to the Olympics again this time on my own was an accomplishment within itself. I wouldn't suggest anyone to do it the way I did. Having a good coach helps to relive the stress of training. But coaching myself I learned a lot about myself."
Eggerth grew up in Kaunas, Lithuania and was introduced to track at a very early age. One would think she would grow up wanting to be an Olympic athlete, but for Eggerth her Olympic focus did not begin until just before her collegiate career began.
"I was around track & field my whole life," Eggerth said. "Both of my parents ran track. My mother was a 400m runner and my dad a mid-distance runner. I tried a little bit of volleyball when I was about nine years old but that didn't last long."
She picked up her track skills quickly.
"I started going to an organized track practice when I was 10 years old. But that was just more like playing games with other kids in an organized environment. At 11 years old playing games started to be a little more like learning track events and picking up skills."
At 14, she began competing against adults in Lithuania. She won her first Lithuanian Championship, becoming the youngest Lithuanian Champion, and four years later made her second World Junior Championships team where she finished fourth in the 200m final.
After competing in and placing in more international events during her high school career. Eggerth had a decision to make on college.
"I began being recruited by schools from all over the United State after the 1996 World Junior Championships. The coach from Iowa State recruited me heavily. He is the only coach of all the schools that offered me to actually stay in contact with me during my junior and senior year. I was all set to go Iowa State, but I did not pass the TOEFL test. So I went to McKendree College in Illinois because they had a strong English as a Second Language (ESL) program."
"I came to the United States a couple of months after getting silver at the European Junior Championships. At that point the Olympics were in my sights."
While at McKendree, Eggerth flourished. She helped lead the Bearcats to five NAIA National Championship titles, while collecting an individual championship 13 times and the NAIA Athlete of the Year twice while setting multiple school records.
She qualified for the 2000 Olympics during the spring of her senior year of college, but a foot injury became a speed bump to her preparation.
"It got to a point where I couldn't put any weight on that foot even when I was walking. I didn't receive a solid diagnosis, I knew I couldn't just stop and rest, so I kept pushing. I continued my Olympic prep and ran through the pain. We got to Australia a couple of weeks prior the start of Olympic Games and made the decision to practice with swimmers so I could stay off my foot and minimize the pain."
Eggerth returned to the track the day before her race and didn't feel right. The next day, she was unable to advance out of her opening heat in the 100m.
"I don't remember much about the day, but the race itself felt like I was watching myself in a movie. I felt outside of myself, and then the race was over."
Eggerth took a year off after the Olympics to heal her ailing foot. She returned to the track to train again this time with a goal of making it to Athens for the 2004 Olympics.
She began to regain form by winning another 100m championship at the Lithuanian National Championships and reaching the semifinals of the European Championships in 2002. She eventually qualified for the 2004 Olympics by way of the Rome Golden Gala with a fifth-place finish.
For the better part of the next two years, Eggerth would go back-and forth between the United States under a new coach.
"My now husband, Andy, started coaching me after I graduated from McKendree in 2002. He would email me my workouts when I was back in Lithuania and me and my old Lithuanian coach (Vida Mikalauskiene) was overseeing me just to make sure that I was doing things correctly and kept me company."
She changed her approach to the lead up of the Olympics in 2004. Having already earned her qualifying time for the Olympics, Eggerth showed up to the Lithuanian Championships just wanting to show she was in good shape. She left the championships with a pair of gold medal wins in the 100m and 200m.
She went to Athens to prepare a few days before the Olympics and treated like any other competition. She ran well in her heat but it was not enough to advance her to the next round.
"I ran well and ended up in 32nd place. Mind you 32 people advance to the next round. But unfortunately for me a three-time Olympic gold medalist, a two-time World Champion and the athlete who got bronze medalist in the 100m in Athens were all in my heat, so the first three automatic places were taken already. I finished fifth in my heat and 32nd overall. And again unfortunately for me, 32 advance to the next round but there were a couple of athletes who ran in slower heats and advanced automatically with slower times."
The Owls are fortunate to have a pair of former Olympians on the track & field coaching staff. The life lessons both Eggerth and Atkins have learned through the highest highs and the lowest lows are invaluable.
They've reached the pinnacle of the sport, and their experiences prove that qualifying for the Olympics is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
Keep up with Owls track and field teams by following KSU on Twitter at @KSUOwlNation and @KSUTrackFieldXC or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.
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