By Phil Stacey
Marblehead native Shalane Flanagan reached her dream of a lifetime last night, winning a bronze medal in the women's 10,000-meter final at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The 27-year-old Flanagan crossed the final line at the National Stadium in 30 minutes, 22.22 seconds, breaking her own American record.
In doing so, she became only the second American female runner to earn a medal in the 10,000, joining Lynn Jennings who came home with a bronze in 1992.
As she finished, Flanagan wasn't quite sure whether she had finished third or fourth. She put her hands on her head, then raised three fingers and looked for some confirmation that she had, indeed, managed to win a medal.
"Oh, my God. Am I three?" she was quoted as saying. "Am I third?"
She was, and the former Marblehead High School and University of North Carolina standout was soon running joyously around the National Stadium track with an American flag draped around her.
What makes her medal-winning performance that much more amazing is that Flanagan had endured six hours of intense gastrointestinal distress, with vomiting and diarrhea, Tuesday evening at Team USA's training camp. She continued to suffer gastrointestinal problems while working out for the next two days, and at one point her participation in the race was up in the air.
"It was not pretty for about 48 hours," she told the Associated Press.
But she rebounded nicely in time for yesterday's race, toeing the line at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium and running the race of her life.
Flanagan is the American record holder in three separate events: the 3,000 meter, 5,000 and 10,000. She ran in the 5,000 meter women's race at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, placing 11th overall.
Yesterday, Flanagan crossed the finish line behind gold medal winner and two-time world champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia (29 minutes, 54.66 seconds, a new Olympic record) and Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey (29 minutes, 56.32 seconds).
Flanagan slowly worked her way up the pack during the race. She was in eighth place overall about halfway through the race, then moved up to fifth place behind leader Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands, Abeylegesse, Dibaba and Linet Chepkwemoi Masai of Kenya with 3,000 meters to go.
With three laps to go, Flanagan moved up to fourth place and was gaining on Masai, who was approximately a half-second ahead of her. The Marbleheader passed Masai with 800 meters left in the race to eventually claim the bronze.
Flanagan will now turn her sights to her favorite event, the 5,000 meter race. She'll take place in one of three semifinal heats Tuesday night in Beijing, hoping to qualify for Friday's 5,000-meter final.
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Material from both The Associated Press and the USA Track & Field web site were used in this report.
