Tiandra Ponteen's Olympic Experience
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 | Women's Track and Field
Tiandra Ponteen Looks To Continue Standing Out
By Mike Vietti, UF Sports Information
In the spectacle that is the Olympics, sometimes it's easy to get lost in the shuffle.
Think about it: more than a thousand athletes from hundreds of different nations. More than tens of thousands of fans from a multitude of countries across the globe. Reporters from every nook and cranny of the Earth. All in one place. All at the same time.
Who's with who? Who's from where? Where is there? What's that country? Is that a swimmer or a rower or an archer?
But University of Florida sophomore Tiandra Ponteen didn't get lost amid the masses. Well, at least not to those paying attention. That's because Ponteen competed for St. Kitts, an island in the Caribbean inhabited by 45,000 people. And she was exactly half of the number of athletes at the Olympics for St. Kitts.
Picture the opening ceremony. The U.S. had more than 500 athletes alone. Many other countries' totals numbered in the hundreds as well. But then there was St. Kitts and its two athletes. And Ponteen was one of them. There's no getting lost in the shuffle under those circumstances.
"During the opening ceremony, I said to myself, 'I have to be blessed,' said Ponteen, UF's record holder in the outdoor 400m. "There are so many people who try to make the Olympics and I did it."
And Ponteen didn't stop at just making the Olympics. She advanced to the semifinals and clocked a 51.33, narrowly missing advancing to the finals. Just for perspective, only the top eight 400m runners in the world advance to the finals of the Olympics. Ponteen was on the cusp of that group. And she was just a freshman at Florida last year.
But she'll keep thinking about her Olympic experience in 2004 as she prepares for another shot at the 2008 Olympic Games.
"I can't even explain it what it was like," Ponteen said. "There were so many people. During the first round, I couldn't believe how many people were there watching and then during the semifinals, I looked around and you couldn't see an empty seat anywhere. But I told myself that I needed to keep focus because if I didn't, the crowd would take it all out of me.
"When I was there, I realized that I had worked really hard to get there over the past couple of months," Ponteen said. "I wasn't disappointed at all with how I ran. I just decided that I was going to run as hard as I could and if people wanted to, they'd have to catch me. I was pretty excited about making the semifinals."
Not that her achievements weren't to be expected, but as even Ponteen puts it when talking about making the Olympics in 2004, "I was looking more at 2008 because coming out of high school, my times weren't quite as flamboyant as others."
Which just goes to show how far she came in just one year as a member of the Florida track and field team. She was named the 2004 SEC Indoor and Outdoor Freshman Runner of the Year. She earned All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 400m after finishing second in 51.23. She picked up another All-America honor at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 400m after finishing fifth in 51.41, which was a then-personal best.
But it's when you compare Ponteen's times that her hard work and dedication shine through. She entered Florida with a high school personal best of 52.76 in the 400m. When she ran a 51.00 at a meet in Colombia in early July of 2004, it culminated a year in which she shaved nearly two seconds off her times.
"I really did surprise myself this year," Ponteen said. "Coming out of high school, I was kind of scared about some of these girls who had been in school for three or four years. But after a while I started getting brave and I told myself that I could run with these girls.
"My freshman year really was awesome," she said. "I just pray that the remainder of the days that I have are just as good or even better. I can't complain about anything because I know what I want to do and I know what I want to be."
Helping her realize what she wants to be is the Florida coaching staff, led by head coach Tom Jones, who was able to win over Ponteen amongst the dozens of collegiate suitors she had.
"We have a really, really good relationship," Ponteen said of Jones. "That really pays off because if you don't have a coach that you don't get along with , then you're not going to want to go to practice and give it your all. You have to get along well and we do."
Given her impressive improvements in just one year under Jones' tutelage, saying the sky is the limit for Ponteen might be an understatement. That, coupled with what Ponteen learned at the 2004 Olympics, just might provide her with the necessary tools to remain from becoming just another athlete at the 2008 Games. And, perhaps, then it will be not only because she represents St. Kitts.
"I think 2008 will the year for me," Ponteen said. "I think this was just preparing me for 2008. The Olympics has a big name to it, but I took it as just another track meet with a different name and more people. I think if I approach like that in 2008, I'll do well."
