Tracy's love for sports began at a very early age. Born the middle child, between two brothers, Troy and Todd, Tracy's competitive streak kicked in early as well. Growing up in the Midwest, with its icy cold winters and hot, humid summers, Tracy's first sports as a child were figure skating and gymnastics.
Tracy excelled in both sports very quickly, but then nature took its course. "I grew to be too tall for both of these sports. By the time I was 10, I had legs up to my ears." That led her to the sports of volleyball and basketball in her middle school years. It wouldn't be until high school that Tracy would discover her greatest talent and passion: Track & Field.
Running History
So the bet was on...
The unexpected...
"I think I got so much attention because nobody knew who I was. I just came out of no where. I mean it started out as just a stupid bet. Everyone was like, 'Who IS she?, Where did she come from? The media just ran with it, it was crazy!" Tracy went through the next year undefeated, rewriting the record books around the state. Her senior year, Tracy repeated the feats of her Junior year and broke her own School, Conference and State Records. Those records still stand today. They have gone untouched for nearly 16 years.
College Years...
Tracy went on to compete for two years at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where she set a University record in the 400 meter hurdles. Another record that still stands today. Seeking a program that gave greater emphasis to sprints and hurdles, Tracy transferred to Arizona State University, where she set another school record. Those records made her the first NCAA athlete ever to hold school records at two major Division 1 universities.
Throughout her collegiate career, Tracy was a five time NCAA All-American and earned 13 All Big Ten honors, 13 Academic All Big Ten honors, 4 All PAC Ten honors, and 4 Academic All PAC Ten honors. In 1992, she and current PGA golfer Phil Michelson were named Arizona State's scholar athletes of the year.
World Class
After being a U.S. Team alternate in 1996, Tracy was on pace to qualify for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, when she suffered a spinal fracture in an auto accident in Austin, Texas. Her vehicle was halted at a stoplight when a Chevy Suburban "came flying around the turn behind me" and hit her car from behind.
"I'm a hurdler, and with all the impact and pounding the event requires, it made it almost impossible to work through. But believe me, we really tried. We did everything to work through it with doctors and chiropractors, but it just became too risky." National team doctors told her that if the fracture breaks all the way through, "I would risk never doing anything athletic again for the rest of my life." So we made the decision to forgo our goals for Sydney.
Tracy attended the Olympics in Sydney, but as a journalist writing copy for television broadcasts. It was in Sydney where Tracy first heard of an event called the Modern Pentathlon.
A New Event Modern Pentathlon page. )
But after Sydney, Tracy had a long healing process to go with her injury. She returned to Tampa, Florida with a decision to retire from Track & Field and focus on her broadcast career as a producer for the NBC station in Tampa. But her association with the World Olympians Association brought her to the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, where she once again worked with the media. The trip to Salt Lake reunited her with the WOA and her pentathlon friends, who encouraged her to give the sport a try. "They kept saying, with your athletic background, it would be perfect for you." So I checked it out with the United States Olympic Committee and learned there were two places in the States to train for Modern Pentathlon; San Antonio and Colorado Springs. While in Salt Lake City, Tracy spoke with Mike Moran, head of media relation for the USOC, about the possibility of a media related job with the USOC. When he told her to come on out, she made her decision to give the sport a try.
Modern Pentathlon
Later that year, Tracy slowly got into the Pentathlon scene, learning one event at a time. Her training was very limited because she was working most of the time. While on an interview for World Olympian magazine, Tracy met Pat Parelli, one of the world's most renowned horsemanship trainers. He also became fascinated with the riding event of the pentathlon and offered to sponsor Tracy's training.
The sponsorship began in February of 2003. In March Tracy went to Europe to train with one of Parelli's level three trainers, Luca Moneta in Italy, where she worked on improving her riding skills. Tracy then spent the summer at the Parelli international training center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado working personally with Pat on her riding skills and learning to jump. In September, now ready to fully take on all five events, Tracy moved to the South of France to train in Monaco, home of the international federation of Modern Pentathlon: UIPM.
Training in Monaco
The Future The Beginning
University Studies
With a passion to pursue her Track and Field career, Tracy followed her coach, Tom Jones to the University of Florida, where he took the head coaching job. At UF, Tracy worked on her Masters degree in Telecommunications, while training for the Olympics.
Off to a Good Start
Getting the Job
Going to the Top
"I called or went in every day for about six weeks straight, requesting a short meeting. I was very persistent. Finally, Amy, his assistant, told me, 'he's just NOT going to be able to see you. And I remember looking up at the clock, it was 5:45 p.m. Now to this day, I still don't know what possessed me to say what I said next; but my reply was this: 'What time does Mr. Dubow leave to go home?' And she said 'around 6 p.m.' And I said, 'good, I'll wait and walk him to his car, while I talk.' She glared back at me like I was completely insane and said, 'just a moment,' and went into his office. Now I was thinking, oh my god, they're probably calling security. But she came back out a few minutes later. With a stone cold look on her face; in a monotone voice, she said 'Mr. Dubow will see you now.'
Tracy learned later that the ONLY reason Mr. Dubow agreed to see her at that point was just sheer curiosity. "I walked into the most beautiful office I'd ever seen, and behind this huge desk across the room sat Mr. Craig Dubow. He put his phone down and said, 'You have five minutes.' I froze for a second, then thought, 'oh gosh Tracy, just start talking.' So I did and I went over all my ideas just like I'd rehearsed. And surprisingly, he seemed to like them all. I know this because, this same man who had only five minutes in next year, didn't seem to care that an hour and a half had gone by and we were still talking. He called in Amy and said he wanted me to come back at 8:30 the next morning to meet with him and Bob Walker, the station's Vice President."
The Job
During the months leading up to and during the Olympic Games, Tracy's job included: editing Olympic stories and doing wrap ups of each day of the Games, assisting the Olympic producer on stories ideas and interviewing her fellow track athletes. She worked with the promotions team and even hurdled in an Olympic commercial spot for the station. Tracy also had the opportunity to work with Bob Costas and Mary Lou Retton while interviewing athletes. "I worked at WXIA for two years and loved every minute of it."
In 1997 Tracy decided to train for the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney. That meant moving to the training base at the University of Texas in Austin. "I was really sad to leave that station, I loved everything about it. But I was also looking forward to the future. The day I left, Mr. Dubow said to me, 'do you know why I hired you? It was because I knew that if you could do nothing else, your determination alone would bring something great to this station, and I was right. Tracy don't ever lose that.'"
And she never did.
Moving on...
"Everyone was so great and supportive of my Olympic training." (Of course it didn't hurt that NBC is the network of Olympic Games) Then, in October of 1999, while on her way to the NBC station for the 5:30 Newscast, an accident happened that would change the next year of Tracy's life. "I was halted at a stoplight, when this Suburban came flying around the corner and hit my car from behind. I remember feeling really sore at the time, but I never dreamed in a million years, it would ever affect my running." But it did. The result was an L-5 spinal fracture that would eventually halt Tracy's training and end her dreams of competing in the Sydney Olympic Games. Tracy would go to Sydney, not as an athlete, but as a journalist and broadcaster.
Sydney 2000
A Big Decision
While Tracy loved her work at WFLA, her association with the World Olympians Association brought her to the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, where once again she worked with the media.
While in Salt Lake City, Tracy was encouraged to take a media job with the USOC, so she take on a new sporting challenge: training for the Olympic Games in a new event: The Modern Pentathlon..
After her contract with NBC in Florida ended, Tracy moved out to Colorado Springs to train and write for several Olympic publications, focusing primarily on her favorite, World Olympian Magazine.
The Future
