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Spotlight: Alexandra Harbold, Sprint Kayak
Posted: Friday July 23, 1999 11:49 AM Born: March 4, 1965 Hometown: Rockaway Beach, N.Y. Upcoming Events: Pan Am Games, July 20-August 8, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Canoe/Kayak Flatwater Sprint National Championships, August 3-7, Lake Placid N.Y. Worth Watching Because: Earlier this year, Harbold set two goals for herself: compete in the 1999 Pan Am Games and earn a spot on the U.S. roster for the 2000 Olympic Games. Having accomplished the former, she now has her sights set on Sydney."Even when I was extremely young, there was always a build-up toward the Olympics," Harbold says. "I remember watching and falling in love with the idea of going. It didn't matter what sport it was; I just wanted to go to represent my country." In 1992, Harbold got her chance. Her team finished seventh in the four-woman 500m flatwater sprint kayak race in Barcelona. Three years later, at the 1995 Pan Am Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Harbold won a silver medal in the four-woman 500m sprint and a gold in the one-woman 500m sprint. The following year, Harbold helped qualify the U.S. four-woman boat for a start position in the Atlanta Games. Harbold, 34, has been focused on the Olympics since she was a child. Her father, Sandor Bernhart -- a former member of the Hungarian national rowing team -- taught her how to kayak on New York's Jamaica Bay when she was 11. By the time she graduated from Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park, N.Y. in 1983, Harbold was travelling the globe as a member of the junior national team. Reaching the burnout point two years later, she put kayaking on hold and enrolled in Georgetown University. In 1988, a year before graduating with a B.A. in International Relations, Harbold got serious about her sport again and attended a training camp in Florida. One night, during a game of truth or dare, she honored a teammate's dare and planted a kiss on a male next door neighbor. The neighbor turned out to be Michael Harbold, now a three-time U.S. Olympic sprint kayaker. The duo wed in 1991 and became the first married couple ever to live together at an Olympic Training Center. Now training harder than ever, the Harbolds hope not only to bring home shared memories from Sydney, but also a pair of medals. Greatest Success: 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic Team member; 1996 K-4 500m Hemispheric Olympic Qualifier women's champion; 1995 K-1 500m Pan American Games women's champion; 1993-'95 K-4 500m sprint national women's champion; 1993, '94 K-2 500m sprint national women's champion Quote/Unquote: "Our sport is pretty lonely. You don't get much attention. You don't do it for the money. You don't do it for the recognition. You do it because you are good at it and you love it." Cool Fact: Alexandra (pronounced "Alley-shan-dra") has done some occasional modeling. She was the lone kayaker to appear in photographer Annie Liebowitz's 1996 book of Olympic portraits. Come back soon for a new women's sports Spotlight.
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