CHULA VISTA, Calif. - For former Gopher basketball star and 2003 Ms. Basketball award winner Liz Podominick, track and field has always been in her back court.
“My track coach in high school told me, "You know basketball is the sport you love now but it’s going to become a job and you're going to love track,'” Podominick recalls. “And I didn't believe him.”
Eventually she did and stopped playing basketball her senior year to pursue track and field.
“I don't regret playing basketball,” Podominick says. “l honestly think it was something I needed to do at the time. I still love basketball, just in a different way.”
Now the 31-year-old lives and trains throwing discus at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista as she tries for the third time to make the Olympic team as a self-described "late bloomer."
“I think I understand more what I need to do now,” Liz says. “But I feel young at heart too so, but my body might feel differently.”
Liz always had a passion for track and field but it took one particular life changing event for her to chase down her dream.
In 2008, Liz's 21-year-old brother John passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. It did, and still does hit Liz hard. But it also made her realize that life is short. Too short not to try to make your dreams come true.
“That was some of the deciding factor. I was like, wow, I loved my job but my brother was one of my biggest supporters. He went to every basketball game,” Liz says. “So I felt like in some ways this was in memory of him.”
Which is why she has no regrets putting her life on hold to honor his.
“Just tell myself to be brave and go after it,” Podominick says. “You know I'd rather fall flat on my face going after something whole-heartedly then just kind of being tentative.”
A heart that she's gotten quite good at following. And that she hopes takes her all the way to Rio.
If you would like to donate to Liz on her journey to make the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, go here: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/NjM5Mg==