Sharing a World OF Experience : Olympic Gold Medalist Van Langen Helps St. Bernard Cross-Country Teams Get a Running Start

Saint Bernard High is half a world away from Ellen van Langen’s native Amsterdam and eight time zones away from Barcelona, where she became a national hero after winning the 800 meters at the Summer Olympics.

The track at St. Bernard is dirt and about 100 meters shorter than a regulation 400-meter track. The end zones of the football field extend halfway into the turns of the track.

It is a stark contrast to the synthetic state-of-the-art tracks van Langen is accustomed to racing on against world-class runners on the European circuit.

But occasional visits to the 1,100-student Catholic school are a welcome change for van Langen, who is assisting St. Bernard cross-country coaches Rose Monday and Mike Trujillo during a two-month stay in the United States.

In Barcelona, van Langen, 26, defeated a field that included world champion Lilia Nurutdinova to win in 1 minute 55.54 seconds--the fastest time in the world this year--and lower her national record set earlier in the summer.

Lately, though, van Langen has been hearing the roar of airplanes rather than the roar of fans.

Van Langen was interrupted every few minutes by planes en route to nearby Los Angeles International Airport as she answered questions from the cross-country team as they stretched during a recent workout.

She attracted little attention from students on their way home or football players starting to gather for practice.

“When I was in Amsterdam, people did not recognize me before Barcelona,” van Langen said. “But now when I go shopping or I walk on the street, people want to talk to you or get your signature. The phone rang all day and I had to do a lot of interviews. I hardly had time to train at all.”

Van Langen said the only time she could find solitude was when she went to compete in other countries. But even there, van Langen had pressure to perform in post-Olympic meets.

“I felt I had to win every race,” van Langen said. “No Olympic champion wins every race with a few exceptions. It’s so difficult because you’re so tired from all the celebrations and parties that people organize for you, and I was so tired.”

That was part of the reason van Langen came to the United States to visit her boyfriend, Hans Koehlman, a Dutch steeplechaser who competed at Clemson and lives in Santa Monica.

Van Langen is taking a break from training before beginning preparation for next year’s World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Monday, a first-year coach at St. Bernard, finished sixth in the 800 and 1,500 in The Athletics Congress national championships in 1989. She met van Langen at a meet in Holland in 1990 and the they have raced against each other in Europe several times. The two often get together during van Langen’s visits to the United States in the fall and spring.

In October, van Langen accepted an offer from Monday to come to St. Bernard to show her gold medal and talk with the cross-country team. The team recently presented van Langen with a card signed by every member to express their appreciation.

“Coming from my background, I can tell them things they need to do on training,” Monday said. “But coming from a gold medalist, it means that much more. All the kids are jazzed. You can tell by the general excitement on their faces.”

Junior Sandra Cano, the No. 1 runner on the girls’ team, never considered running after high school before van Langen’s visit, but now she hopes to compete in college.

“I felt flattered that she would take time out of her schedule to come and visit us,” Cano said. “I don’t know how far I’ll go, but it inspired me to see what type of potential I have. She showed us it’s worth something.”

If it were not for an observant coach, van Langen might have never discovered her potential.

Van Langen, a converted soccer player, did not start running until age 20 and did not start training seriously until 1988, when she won the first of three Dutch 800-meter titles.

In 1990, the 5-foot-8, 123-pound van Langen set the national 800-meter record of 1:57.57, finishing second in the World University Games and fourth in the European championships.

However, van Langen, hobbled by a nagging Achilles’ tendon injury, failed to advance past the first round in the 1991 World championships in Tokyo.

The injury sidelined her for three months and when she began running again, her training was limited to two to three minutes a day for the next several months. She was not able to build up to her normal 45-50 miles a week until February.

But despite the late start, van Langen broke her national record by nearly a second, running a world-leading 1:56.66 heading into the Olympics.

“At first, the only thing I thought was let me be there,” van Langen said. “That’s enough. When I did pretty well at the beginning of the season, then I started to change my ambitions. Then I thought not only do I want to be there, but maybe I can win a medal.”

Van Langen hopes to have instilled similar aspirations in members of the St. Bernard team.

“The whole team was amazed by her,” junior Lewie Wright said. “She fits in well and is a real nice person to talk to. Even if you’re like me and not too good in the beginning, you never know what might happen with a little bit of training.”