Potts may be the favorite, but Kemper has his eyes set on making his third Olympic Team this weekend
By Courtney Johnson
June 19, 2008 -- With the Olympic trials just two days away, race officials in Des Moines have finally found a location that is safe for the elites to race for a spot for the third and final spot on the Olympic Triathlon Team. Bacteria levels have finally reached a level that is safe for both the amateur and elite athletes to swim at Blue Heron Lake in West Des Moines’ Raccoon River Park. “I am really happy they are racing,” said USAT Residential Coordinator Sharon Donnelly. A rain free day with partly cloudy skies and a temperature of 85 degrees is predicted.
Hunter Kemper got in one last swim workout at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. today before heading to Des Moines this afternoon. “I am very excited to race,” he said. “It is a relief to know we will race this weekend. It was quite stressful.”
The two-time Olympian is healing from a hernia, which sprung up in February on his lower right abdomen. He received a cortisone-type shot two weeks ago. “I think it is helping for sure,” he said. Kemper plans to have surgery, but not until after the season ends. “It is definitely coming around. Put it this way, if I don’t make the Olympic Team, I can’t use my hernia as an excuse.”
Kemper was third in the Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in April and pulled out of the ITU World Championship in Vancouver in May to allow more time to let his hernia heal. In his 14th year as an elite, Kemper would love to go to Beijing and bring home a medal for the USA. Right now though, he is just focusing on making the team. “To make the Olympic team would mean so much,” he said. “I think I took making the team for granted with Athens and Sydney. It’s been a struggle this go around, so it means a lot more. I now have a newfound appreciation for what it means to be an Olympic athlete.”
Kemper will have to win the race and hold off Andy Potts for the last Olympic spot for the men. “I am ready to go. My fitness is turning around and definitely good enough to make the team. How great would it be going into the Olympics by winning this weekend with $200,000 in my pocket?”
As Kemper alluded to, the prize purse for the first overall male and female in Des Moines is a cool $200K.
At only 32, Kemper doesn’t see this as his last Olympic run, no matter the outcome this weekend. “I just turned 32 and I can definitely see myself going for the team in 2012. No matter what happens this go around I would love to race in London [site of the 2012 Olympic Games]."