Donn Cabral, Olympian

Anytime TigerBlog finds himself in some big-time pressure situation in athletics, he always remembers what former men's lacrosse coach Bill Tierney always said about such moments: "Think of what you do best and do it."

Of course, for TB, such pressure situations are almost always in squash at lunchtime.

When TB plays lacrosse with the old guys, he's sort of at a loss in those situations, because there really is nothing that he does best as a lacrosse player.

As TB watched the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials last night, he couldn't help but think of another comment he heard Tierney say many times. In this case, Tierney always said that the round with the most pressure in the NCAA tournament was the quarterfinal round.

Win that, and you've accomplished something tangible simply by making the Final Four. Lose in the quarters and it leaves you with an empty feeling.

Combine those two issues - dealing with pressure and the emptiness of coming oh-so-close - and you have the Olympic Trials.

Reaching the Olympics is the culmination of a lifelong dream - and of a lifetime training. To be an Olympian in swimming or track or any other individual sport requires personal sacrifice and near-100% focus on the task at hand, or else there is little chance of achieving the goal.

And even if you were a medal favorite and you come away empty from the Games themselves, you're still an Olympian, a distinction that can never be taken away. The opportunity to march in the opening ceremonies and the opportunity to be part of the Olympic experience as a whole has to be wild enough all by itself.

TB cannot imagine what the woman who faded at the end of the 5,000 and missed out on the Olympics by an eyelash is thinking right now.

He cannot imagine waking up the next day and realizing that you came so close to all of it, only to let it get away right at the end.

All of this brings us to Donn Cabral.

Way back in the fall, Cabral set some lofty goals for himself, culminating in winning the NCAA steeplechase championship and making the Olympics in the same event.

TB doesn't claim to know a lot about track and field, but his best guess is that Cabral really pushed it, going through cross country, indoor track and then outdoor track and then almost immediately to the Olympic Trials.

And there he was, with three laps to go, in fourth place.

What could he possibly have been thinking at that moment? What could any of them?

Cabral had already run the Olympic A qualifying standard, but then again so did most of his serious competition in the race. In other words, he needed a top three finish to make it to London.

Watching the race on TV, TB came away with even more of an appreciation for how grueling it is to run a 3,000-meter race that also includes 28 hurdles and seven water jumps. And how it can slip away with one, well, slip, on a hurdle or a water jump.

And each time the runners land in the water pit, their shoes get soaked, making it even more difficult to keep going around the track.

By the second to last lap, it started to be clear that Cabral had little to worry about in terms of making the Olympics. By the last lap, he was locked in second place, and that's where he finished.

It was an amazing accomplishment, to go through the physical pounding of three collegiate seasons and the mental pounding of a senior thesis and finishing up at Princeton and then still be able to compete on an international level to make the Olympic team.

For a little historical perspective, Cabral is the first Princeton men's athlete to qualify for the Olympics in a running race since J. Coard Taylor ran the 400 and William Stevenson ran on the 4x400 relay (winning gold) way back in 1924 in Paris.

When it was over, Cabral was interviewed on TV along with the other two Americans to qualify.

When he was asked about his long year in getting ready for the Trials, his response was simple: "I love to race."

Well, he gets to race some more this summer. On the biggest stage in the sport.

Donn Cabral is an Olympian.