Double Duty

Hayley Wickenheiser is out to prove she's as talented on a softball field as she is on the ice

David E. Klutho

In early April, Hayley Wickenheiser was starring in her predictable puckhead role: playing center, leading the Canadian ice hockey team to its sixth women's world championship. A great victory, but not exactly ice-shattering news. More surprising is what Wickenheiser did afterward: She traded her skates and stick for cleats and a mitt, and suited up with the Canadian national softball team for a pre-Olympic tournament in Australia.

Wickenheiser, 21, is on a quest to be the second Canadian woman to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. (Cross-country skier/canoer Sue Holloway was the first.) "Doing the double would be a huge accomplishment," says Wickenheiser, Canada's alltime leading scorer and arguably the best female hockey player in the world. "It'll be a challenge, but I love playing under pressure."

She also loves softball. The Saskatchewan native began playing the game at age seven because, as she says, "there was nothing else to do in the summer on the prairies." In 1995 Wickenheiser made Canada's junior national softball team but decided to focus on hockey because she had just made that national team, which was gearing up for the 1998 Olympics. She kept up her softball skills by playing with a club in the summer.

Those skills came in handy when Wickenheiser, a utility player who favors first or third base, survived the first round of cuts for the Olympic squad at a February selection camp. Since then, she has racked up 20-plus games of experience (and lots of frequent flier miles) as a member of the national team and playing for Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, where she's a third-year kinesiology major.

This nonstop doubleheader demands time management skills as honed as her throw to home. Between competitions and camps this spring, Wickenheiser has typically spent mornings practicing softball with her Simon Fraser teammates, afternoons in class and evenings on the ice. "You have to be organized and prioritize your time," says Wickenheiser. "I've been good at doing that."

Wickenheiser's transition to the field has been helped by the stellar hand-eye coordination and speed she developed on the ice. The biggest hurdle is adjusting to hitting something that comes flying through the air, rather than across the ice. "I need to work on waiting for the right pitch and powering through the ball," she says. Fortunately, her strong work ethic and team-first attitude are helping her improve quickly. "She's a sponge for information," says Mike Renney, an assistant coach with the Canadian national team and head coach at Simon Fraser. "I'd love to have 17 Hayleys on my team."

Whether or not Wickenheiser gets to Sydney as a Summer Olympian (Canada's roster will be cut to 15 from 17 in mid-May), she's psyched for the 2002 Winter Games, and trying to avenge Canada's loss to the U.S. in the 1998 gold medal game. Thanks to her swing at softball, she'll be mentally stronger. "I've learned a lot about patience and timing," she says, "and how it feels to be on the bubble."

--Lucas Aykroyd

A Fresh Start

Jon Ferrey/Allsport

In February, when the U.S. soccer team dropped back-to-back games to Norway, it was the first time since 1992 that the golden girls had lost consecutively on American soil. That didn't worry new coach April Heinrichs. "Winning wasn't the focus," she says of her first games since replacing Tony DiCicco in January. "Evaluating younger players was." The losses were worth it when, a month later, some of the newcomers -- forward Christie Welsh, defender Danielle Slaton and goalie Siri Mullinix -- helped the U.S. capture the Algarve Cup, which the Americans had not won in five attempts. The Algarve final was a shutout for Mullinix, whose phenomenal play earned her a spot in the Olympic residency camp, along with fellow keepers Briana Scurry and former junior national teamers Hope Solo and Jen Branam. Noticeably absent from camp were World Cup backup goalies Saskia Webber and Tracy Ducar, as well as field players Tisha Venturini, Tiffany Roberts and Danielle Fotopoulos. "Letting Tisha go was my most difficult decision," Heinrichs says of the eight-year national team veteran. "I had the unenviable position of telling her that her highest soccer was behind her." With another World Cup in 2003, Heinrichs opted to give younger players, including four 17\!year-olds, a look. "Certainly our focus is the Olympics," she says, "but the youth injection is an investment in our future."

--Dimity McDowell

In the Line of Fire

Robert Beck

California's new assault weapons ban, which is intended to "stop the murder of innocent Californians by weapons designed solely to kill on the battlefield," according to the bill's author, Senator Don Perata, is also threatening to stop the development of Olympic pistol shooting in the state. At least that's the way it looks to 18-year-old Lauren Santibañez, a top junior shooter and Olympic hopeful from San Diego.

Santibañez's target pistol, a Walther .22-caliber rimfire with a custom, left-handed grip, has been included in the ban because it shares a characteristic with guns associated with several mass murders, including Columbine: Its ammunition magazine is in front of the trigger instead of in the grip, which gives it greater accuracy and reliability. "I understand what they are trying to do, but it's affecting the wrong people," says Santibañez, a four-time junior national champion. "It doesn't seem fair."

The law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, dictates that nobody in California can purchase or bring into the state target pistols like Santibañez's. (And those who already own such guns must register them by the end of the year.) Because some of the Walthers are classified as assault weapons, under no circumstances are minors allowed to touch one -- which means future Olympic hopefuls in the state will not have access to some of the most accurate pistols. "If juniors can't touch them, it is going to destroy Olympic competition in California," says Sandy Santibañez, Lauren's father.

Though as an adult Lauren can now legally use the Walther, which she has been using since she was 14 and is owned by her father, her plight in the 24 days between the law's enactment and her 18th birthday on Jan. 25 -- during which time she couldn't even hold the gun without committing a felony -- convinced state assemblywoman Charlene Zettel that the law needed to be amended. In February, Zettel introduced a "cleanup" bill that would exempt weapons used in USA Shooting-sanctioned events from the ban. "[Zettel] wanted people in the Golden State to be able to pursue the golden dream," says her spokesman John Kabateck.

It's too early to say whether the proposal, which has the support of the California Justice Department's Firearms Division, but not of Perata, will pass. As the legislative wrangling goes on in Sacramento, Santibañez will continue to prepare for the Olympic pistol shooting trials in June. "One reason I'm good at shooting is that I can stay focused," she says. "I don't let a lot of things bother me."

--Kelli Anderson

 
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