Georgia on Her Mind
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | Track and Field
Kevkhishvili Overcomes Language Barrier and a Country at War to Excel for UF Track and Field
By: Sean Cartell
University of Florida Communications
Mariam Kevkhishvili had never in her life felt better than she did on Aug. 8, 2008.
There had just been a huge public celebration in her home city of Tbilisi, Georgia, to celebrate the athletes from that country who would be participating in the Olympic Games in Beijing.
She had accomplished her life-long dream of qualifying for the Olympics and, coming off the 2008 NCAA Indoor Shot Put Championship, had the confidence and the ability to make her mark on the world's biggest stage. She was sitting around with her Georgian Olympic teammates of all sports that afternoon, sharing in their conflicted feelings of excitement and anticipation.
And then it all came crashing down.
“War has started,” said one of her Georgian teammates as he burst into the room.
From disbelief came reality.
“We just thought he was joking,” Kevkhishvili said. “He said, 'No, I'm serious,' and everyone just rushed into the computer lab to look on the Internet.”
War had broken out between Georgian nationalists and a combination of Russian forces along with Ossetian separatists. Online video from Russian news broadcasts showed the horror that was taking place in Kevkhishvili's home country. The scenes were beyond belief for the 22-year-old thrower.
“As soon as we walked into the computer lab, it was like, 'Oh my God, it's real,'” Kevkhishvili said. “Russian TV was showing riots and Georgian soldiers lying on the ground. It was just horrible.”
Kevkhishvili (pronounced KEV-kish-vee-lee) immediately thought back to her family at home and remembered the 2004 Olympic Games, where a chance meeting with a coach from the Australian National Team had began the journey she was experiencing.
TWO PATHS CROSS
Steve Lemke, a North Dakota native and an All-America javelin thrower at South Dakota State in the 1980s, has traveled the world as a renowned throws coach and instructor at all levels of the sport.
At the time of the 2004 Olympic Games, Lemke was in his sixth year living in Australia and was then serving as the head coach of the Queensland Academy of Sport. He also was the national throws coordinator for the Australian National Team, a position he had earned after a successful stint in a similar role in Norway.
Lemke was busy working with his athletes during practice at the 2004 Olympic Games but, out of the corner of his eye, began noticing a familiar face at the track. He tried to converse with her and she was always very pleasant, but he could tell that his new friend couldn't comprehend English.
Lemke had a strong desire to help because this girl seemed lost and she didn't have a coach on site to provide guidance.
“I was staying there at the village and, at the practice track, there was this girl – and it was Mariam,” Lemke said. “She was there by herself and she looked totally lost. She didn't have a coach with her. She couldn't speak English, but she was very nice and she always seemed to be there at the same time we were there.”
Lemke continued to be friendly, and he started to take notice of her throwing abilities as well. The “young girl” placed 16th in the preliminaries in the shot put with a toss of 49-5/15.06m. That year, she ranked No. 5 in the world for her age group. The coach put those numbers in the back of his mind – but not too far back.
“We'd always say 'Hi' to each other and that's about all she could say,” Lemke said. “I went home thinking that if I ever went back to the United States, that would be a girl that I would contact. She was so young at the time.”
RETURNING HOME
Coaches for national teams are often hired on an Olympic cycle so, following the 2004 Games, Lemke had a decision to make. Would he stay in Australia until at least 2008, or was he ready to return to the United States, where he had successful coaching stints at the University of Texas-El Paso and Arizona State University?
At both of those previous stops as an assistant coach, he joined the staffs of first-year head coaches, who had both followed the legendary Tom Jones.
Fast forward to 2004-05 when Jones was in his 13th season as the head coach of a highly successful Florida women's track and field program. Jones was looking for a new field events coach when he received interest from Lemke, who well understood his new boss' legacy.
“Contracts in Australia for national positions go on an Olympic cycle,” Lemke said. “It was basically, come back then or be there for another four years. It was just time to come back.”
Lemke quickly settled into his new office in the L. Gale Lemerand Center and immediately hit the recruiting trail. He didn't forget his promise to himself to contact that girl from Georgia who seemed awkward and out of place as an Olympic competitor at such a young age.
“It just happened to be that I got a job here at the University of Florida, and she was the first person I tried to contact,” Lemke said.
But it wasn't easy.
Lemke had no knowledge of the country and it's not easy to find someone who speaks Georgian, a language unlike any other outside of its region, to translate. He started with the basics, trying to find any contact number or address that would put him in touch with someone who knew Kevkhishvili.
“It's amazing because I didn't have a way to get a hold of her, so I sent an e-mail to their national federation,” Lemke recalled. “They sent me an e-mail back with her coach's home phone number. The coach didn't speak any English – none.”
A chance visitor to the home of Kevkhishvili's coach, Vaso Mchedlishvili, just happened to be on the other end of the receiver when it rang with Lemke's call.
“I didn't know this at the time, but what I found out later was that when I called, the coach's daughter was at the house visiting,” Lemke said. “She didn't live in the same town, but she just happened to be there. I called and they heard someone who was speaking English. The daughter spoke English, so they put her on the phone with me. Otherwise, it would have been a one-shot try and it would have been all over.
“But just because the daughter was there at that minute, she gave me Mariam's phone number. Mariam had been studying English since the last time I had seen her and that's how we made contact.”
Kevkhishvili couldn't remember Lemke from her experience at the Olympics. It had all been so much to take in for someone of her age, and the aura of the competition had been overwhelming. She had a hard time remembering specifics.
“I didn't remember Coach from the Olympic Games, but he remembered me,” Kevkhishvili said. “I had just graduated high school and then I came home. After about half-a-year, he gave me a call and asked me if I was interested in having an education in the United States and if I was interested in practicing there for the future.
“I said 'Why Not? It sounds like a great new opportunity.'”
Kevkhishvili was excited by the potential but not quite sure if she could trust a coach from clear across the continent. What were his intentions for her career? She had to be sure.
Other universities had contacted the thrower requesting that she make a visit, but she and her family just weren't comfortable with that idea. Lemke understood Kevkhishvili's concern and quickly volunteered to travel to Tbilisi, Georgia, to visit with her.
“I had an issue just because there was so much trafficking going on with other countries and outsiders doing things to people,” Kevkhishvili said. “My father was concerned just for me to get on a plane and go somewhere where I didn't know anyone. One day, Coach called me and said, 'I am coming to visit your country.' I was so excited and realized it was much more serious. He came and I was really glad. He met my family in person and we had a great time. He loved the country and the culture.”
Lemke quickly fit in with Kevkhishvili's family and made her feel at ease. He assured her family that he would take good care of its daughter in the United States.
“There's so much history in Tbilisi with so many old churches and it's a really interesting country,” Lemke said. “It is sort of a gateway to Asia and the rest of Europe. It's just starting to develop because they've only been their own country for a few years now.
“The visit was good, but her English still wasn't very good at all, so the whole time I was there visiting with her, we were just trying to communicate,” Lemke said. “Sometimes her English teacher was there with us translating, but even her English wasn't that good either. I think the idea of coming to Florida was a little scary to her, but the visit was just a time to get to know each other and let her family know that she was going to be taken care of over here.”
There was one other twist to getting Kevkhishvili to America. She was married and her husband Dato wanted to accompany her to college. Kevkhishvili would need to live in married student housing and her husband would need to get his paperwork completed in order to come to the United States.
“It was a great opportunity for her and her husband, Dato, but it was a huge sacrifice for her husband because he was a police officer in Georgia,” Lemke said. “He had a pretty successful career and for him to pack up and leave just to support his wife is pretty phenomenal.”
PLAYING CHARADES
A figurine of a woman donning traditional Georgian garb sits atop the file cabinet in Kelly Bradley's office.
It serves as a reminder for UF's Coordinator of Academic Support and the academic advisor for the women's track and field team of how far Kevkhishvili has progressed since that September day in 2006 when Bradley walked out of her office to greet Kevkhishvili and her husband in the lobby of Farrior Hall.
“I remember very clearly that she and her husband Dato were sitting on the couch and I came out of my office and I went to shake his hand,” Bradley said. “I think there was a bit of a culture shock in terms of welcoming people. But Mariam was very sweet, very nice and really, for the most part, all she could say was yes.”
Kevkhishvili had been a rising star in the track and field world in her home country, and the entire focus of her efforts had been on her throwing career. The opportunity for an American education excited her, but she was unaware of the work that would take.
“Her first year was just a learning experience with everything,” Lemke said. “It took an understanding that academics had to come first because if she didn't take care of that there was no sport for her. That's not how it is in her country.”
Bradley had worked with international students during her career in academic advising, but those students still used a Roman alphabet and most spoke dialects of the romance languages.
Things were very different in Kevkhishvili's world.
“I remember looking at the books she was reading, and we all thought to ourselves that there was no way we could see ourselves moving to Georgia and looking at that and being able to understand the language and alphabet,” Bradley said.
Georgia uses an alphabet called the Mkhedruli alphabet, which was created around the 11th century. Instead of letters, Mkhedruli uses a series of symbols for vowel sounds that look nothing like the systems of lettering used in Western countries.
The problem was magnified for Kevkhishvili, who was forced to use the new alphabet to make notes and create study guides for herself to prepare for college-level examinations.
“It was really hard going to class,” Kevkhishvili said. “I was used to writing and making notes in Georgian and now I am making them in English, which was really a big deal and a big difference for me.”
In addition to her difficulty understanding a new language, Kevkhishvili's living situation in married student housing wasn't helping her comprehension. Many international students live in dorms, where they are forced into full emersion of the new language. Kevkhishvili was speaking Georgian at home to her husband each night.
“She was trying to progress in English and she would often get two steps ahead during the day, but go home and speak Georgian and be two steps behind the next day,” Bradley said. “That was a really big challenge. It only made it more difficult for her to learn as time went by.”
On this Wednesday morning nearly three years later, Bradley reflects on Kevkhishvili's first semester that was filled with 18 hours of classes in order to allow her to catch up and get on track. One of the first courses that Kevkhishvili took was called Bugs and People, a class that had her questioning what place that had in academia.
“That first semester was such a challenge because she was wanting to go throw,” Bradley said. “She didn't understand why she had to take 18 hours, including a class called Bugs and People, and she didn't understand why she had to go to tutors when she wanted to go to weightlifting and conditioning and be out on the track. Coach Lemke and I just tried to make her understand that it was America and it was different. You have to do your class work.”
Bradley was determined to get through to Kevkhishvili. She was constantly thinking of ways to help the Georgian overcome the language barrier and become successful in her schoolwork and her communication. So she tried something different.
Bradley used a system of what she calls charades to demonstrate things to Kevkhishvili that she was having a difficult time understanding through the written and spoken language.
“One of her first classes was Bugs and People,” Bradley said. “That class had a lot of extra-credit opportunities, which really help your grade. There was one assignment where you had to get proof of bug damage. Mariam came to my office and she just didn't understand. I had plants in my office and I ripped a leaf off of the plant and poked holes in it and then tried to demonstrate bugs having caused the holes in the plant. A lot of people laugh when I tell that story, but the first semester was a lot about charades – improvising and trying to think of different ways to communicate.”
Making sure that Kevkhishvili understood her responsibilities took quite a bit of Lemke's time. There were times when his athlete would hide her inability to comprehend speech by pretending to understand what he was saying. Both Bradley and Lemke had to be thorough to make sure her class assignments were getting completed, team meetings were being attended and practices were successful.
“We had to make sure on important things,” Lemke said. “We'd have meetings in our office and we wanted to make sure Mariam understood. One thing Mariam could always say was 'Yes, I understand,' but we weren't always sure if she really did understand. I know it was a really tough first year for her.”
Kevkhishvili could see progress in her English as the semester went on, but she became increasingly frustrated when she would try to talk to her teammates at the track.
“I had studied English two years before I came here, but it's funny because when I came here and heard the way young people talk, you don't really study English that way,” Kevkhishvili said with a laugh. “You study the proper, proper English and when they were talking, I couldn't understand anything. I had a very hard time at first. All at once, I had to adapt to a new culture, eat new food and learn new traditions.”
Bradley said it was the willingness of Kevkhishvili's teammates to help her adapt that allowed her to improve her communication and understanding.
“I think the frustration for her was that she was learning the English and then other people were throwing other stuff at her,” Bradley said. “I know that teammates would reach out to her and kind of talk to her and say, 'We say this.'”
Kevkhishvili was a quick learner, but her impatience with the language was certainly understandable to her coach. After all, she was intelligent and wasn't used to struggling with the comprehension of information.
“I think the main thing was the English barrier,” Lemke said. “Mariam is a very smart person. She was eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse even though her English wasn't very good, which tells you she's very good in math. It really speaks well for our academic support staff once she got here. Kelly Bradley and the tutors did so much work to help her be successful academically.”
LIKE A SPONGE
Angela Mulkin was in her second year working with international student-athletes at the University of Florida when she first met Kevkhishvili. She had accustomed herself to helping students learn English and help fit into their new country, but she had never worked with anyone with Kevkhishvili's background.
“The biggest thing to understand, even though she was another international student, was that the difference was she came from a country where her home language is not derived from a classic language,” Mulkin said. “From a linguistic standpoint with most of our students, we can build off of classic language roots to help them understand. There was no other foundational basis to link her existing language to English.”
Though she may have been one of the biggest challenges that her instructor had ever worked with, Kevkhishvili quickly developed a strong relationship with Mulkin, who became a major inspiration in helping her overcome the language barrier.
“Angela Mulkin was like a mom, not just for me, but for my whole class,” Kevkhishvili said. “She would come and explain things multiple times. She always made extra appointments with me and sat down with me and asked what parts I didn't understand. She was really friendly and it really touched me how seriously important she took her job.”
Mulkin had been a student-athlete at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and understood the time commitment that was required to be successful both in academics and athletics.
“I think it was helpful that I played ball at UNC-Asheville,” Mulkin said. “I tried to share that with her so that she understood that I was aware that she has a tremendous amount of time already committed in addition to her studies. I think that kind of gave us an initial bond. In some ways, her personality can't help you but to be drawn to it. She is an amazing young lady and the fact that she wanted to be successful and was so committed to doing well bonded us together even more.”
It was a challenge working with Kevkhishvili and Mulkin said that at times, she would have to have her pupil ask a question four or five times before she understood. Still, the professor wasn't watching the clock during her extra sessions with Kevkhishvili.
Mulkin worked with Kevkhishvili to make sure she clearly understood each lesson and said her student's willingness to learn and improve was the difference-maker.
“She's like a sponge,” Mulkin said. “She just soaks up everything and is always very observant and attentive. If she didn't get something, she would always come right up and ask. It would have been so simple for her to give up and say that it was too hard. She could have gone home to Georgia and have an easier life and still have been very successful. But it means so much to her to be dedicated and continue working hard. She has always been great about finding resources that work for her to help her understand things.”
RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT
It wasn't only Kevkhishvili's difficulty understanding the English language that caused her problems in her first year in Gainesville, Fla. The people who comprised her support system would often overlook cultural norms that seemed commonplace to United States culture.
Kevkhishvili and her husband decided that purchasing a bicycle would aid their transportation around campus and give her more time in a packed schedule. She was riding her bike through campus when she crossed a busy intersection and was stopped by a bicycle officer.
She wasn't sure of what she had done and became nervous. Another new rule in a new country.
“They had bought a bicycle and she just ran through a stop sign on campus one day,” Bradley said. “She didn't know that it said 'Stop.' A police officer on a bike stopped her and had to give her a ticket.”
But from that experience, Kevkhishvili found another member of the Gainesville community who was willing to help her understand the norms of her new surroundings.
“He obviously knew she was international,” Bradley said. “He explained to her that the sign means stop and that you can't just go whenever you get to an intersection. He told her that it could cause an accident or cause her to get injured. I remembered her coming in here with her ticket and she was really upset because she didn't understand. Her translator, Olga, helped her get down to the courthouse so that Mariam could pay her ticket.”
Kevkhishvili's support system became more focused on informing her of things that might seem common sense in America and helping her understand societal norms.
“It was really super basic things that we didn't even think of,” Mulkin said. “I think, at first, because she was a college student, we made assumptions about things we thought she would know. She clearly had no understanding about the situation and was very upset by the situation and circumstance.”
TAKE IT INSIDE
No matter what cultural differences she was facing, one place always felt right for Kevkhishvili – the throwing ring at Percy Beard Track. Even so, there were adjustments that had to be made.
“She had to understand what it was like to be on a team and learn our system and way of doing things,” Lemke said. “At the time, the program was split (separate men's and women's teams), so most of the time, she practiced by herself – just her and me because we didn't have another female shot putter.”
As January approached, the 2007 indoor season was just around the corner. But, that only meant another new experience for the freshman thrower.
“It all started with that first year because she had never competed indoors before in her life,” Lemke said. “It was a new experience because the shot is plastic. It's not stainless steel, and it was a different size. The first year was all about learning to compete indoors.”
That February, the team traveled to Lexington, Ky., to compete in the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships. Kevkhishvili had notched three NCAA provisional-qualifying marks on the season and, even though she was new to the indoor experience, it was not unlikely that she would challenge for the league's shot put championship that season.
Kevkhishvili settled into the circle and launched her first toss. The flag went up – it was a foul. Two more fouls ensued, and the first-year thrower didn't even record a mark at the event. After a solid performance at the Iowa State Qualifer a week later, it was still uncertain if she would make the NCAA Championships.
A photo of Kevkhishvili accompanied the recap of the Iowa State Qualifier on GatorZone.com. The caption read “Mariam Kevkhishvili will find out on Monday if she made the NCAA field.” Monday came around and Kevkhishvili was among those who qualified for the upcoming championships.
She finished eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships despite being 15th in the nation entering the meet. Kevkhishvili placed higher than that year's SEC Champion, the University of Kentucky's Ashley Muffet, at that meet. The event was won by Arizona State's Sarah Stevens, a face Kevkhishvili would see often down the road.
“She had a terrible experience at the first SEC Indoor meet she was at,” Lemke said. “She had three fouls and didn't score a point. She barely made it into the NCAA Indoor meet but, when she was there, she had a pretty big personal best and finished eighth to become an All-American indoors.”
Shortly after the NCAA Indoor Championships, the Florida women's track and field program was forced to deal with tragedy. Jones lost a courageous battle with cancer and passed away on March 22, 2007.
Lemke was named the program's interim head coach. Along with assistant coach Todd Morgan, he was responsible for the entire 21-event women's program for the remainder of the season.
Kevkhishvili continued improving throughout the course of the season, capturing the SEC Outdoor Championship and finishing sixth at the NCAA Outdoor meet. She was in her element, competing outdoors and facing high-level competition every weekend.
The league's 11 other head coaches took notice, voting the rookie as the SEC Female Freshman Field Athlete of the Year.
“My freshman year was actually a pretty good year, looking back on it,” Kevkhishvili said. “I won outdoor SECs, had a personal best and was Freshman Field Athlete of the Year. I was really happy and it was a lot to accomplish in one little year.”
GAINING STRENGTH
On the surface, Matt DeLancey and Kevkhishvili are a perfect match. It's the dream combination of an Olympic-level strength and conditioning coach and an Olympic athlete.
DeLancey had trained 14 athletes who competed in the 2004 Olympic Games and is best known for his work with international swimming success and former Gator Ryan Lochte. Since 2003, from the strength and conditioning facility in the south end zone of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, DeLancey has trained the Florida field athletes, swimmers and members of the 18-time SEC Champion volleyball team.
“The first time I met Mariam, I knew that she had like a 300-pound squat and maybe a 300-pound bench,” DeLancey said. “She was cleaning about 205 and, for an athlete like that who wants to be world-class and national-champion caliber, she would need to get her squat up. When I first saw her, I thought there was so much potential there for her to be great.”
Kevkhishvili felt much more at home in the weight room than she did in the classroom. Lifting and conditioning were activities that she knew because they related to her sport, but DeLancey still had a hard time communicating weight room activities.
“The first three or four months I worked with Mariam, the language barrier was tough because she didn't understand some of the terminology I was using, so we weren't able to be as successful as we could have been,” DeLancey said. “She had done some weightlifting, so she wasn't devoid of any weight training.
“She just hadn't been pushed the way we knew we could push her.”
A CHANGE WILL DO YOU GOOD
Shortly after the 2007 season ended, the Florida track and field program underwent a change. A program that had always been split into separate men's and women's teams was combined on June 17, 2007, with Mike Holloway, previously the men's head coach, tabbed to oversee both programs.
The change was important because it provided more of a family atmosphere and support network for the track and field team. It also meant coaches could specialize in their areas of expertise.
Instead of coaching nearly all of the women's field athletes and overseeing the women's track and field program, Lemke would be coaching specifically the men's and women's throws. He had more time to devote to Kevkhishvili and, in turn, she added a whole new support network of male throwers who would now be practicing with her on a regular basis.
Holloway hadn't overseen Kevkhishvili in his previous role, but he was certainly familiar with her accomplishments and work-ethic.
“The first time I saw Mariam, I remember seeing this very imposing figure that didn't speak great English,” Holloway said. “What I saw was someone who worked very hard on a daily basis trying to get better in all areas.”
Holloway also understood the important bond between Kevkhishvili and her coach that helped facilitate her success.
“I think in any relationship, especially in sports, you have to have a tremendous amount of trust when you coach an athlete,” Holloway said. “Mariam and Steve have that. They have a tremendous amount of trust in each other, and I think that's what you see in competitions every weekend. When Mariam goes out there, if you watch them closely, before she gets into the ring and after she gets out of the ring, her first thought is what her coach is thinking.
“When Steve gives her instruction, she follows it to the tee. I think it's that trust and belief in Steve that allows her to do what she does in the ring. Steve is a tough coach. He puts her through a lot of demanding things, but I really believe it's that simple fact that she trusts him that allows her to be as successful as she is.”
More than a coach, Lemke was Kevkhishvili's life support during her first year at Florida. She wasn't sure who to trust and how to interact with everyone she encountered, but she placed her livelihood in the hands of the man who, a year earlier, had ventured to her home country to invite her to come to the United States.
“I have one number memorized,” Kevkhishvili said. “No matter what happens to me, I'm going to call coach. Even when I'm at home and I have a question about something, I just call him. I mean, there was just one man who brought me and my husband here and I trust this guy more than anyone else in the U.S. I am really thankful for everything he has done for me. He is like a second father and a friend to me.”
Lemke urged Kevkhishvili to think of the 2008 season as a new year and encouraged her to build on the momentum of the previous outdoor season to begin the upcoming campaign.
But it wasn't just in the ring that Kevkhishvili was picking up momentum. Kevkhishvili was improving in every area of her life and she seemed much more comfortable in her surroundings.
“I think just the fact that she was understanding the American world and campus life helped a lot,” Bradley said. “The second year, she was experienced and understood where to go and how to get to her classes. She became much more self-sufficient and was going up and talking to professors on her own and getting everything done.”
Not only did Kevkhishvili comprehend what others were saying, but she was able to understand them well enough to joke around and form friendships.
“Mariam's second year was really where we saw the most gains,” DeLancey said. “Definitely the language barrier was big to start off with, but in the second year, she had done a lot of work and now actually understands some of our jokes in the weight room.”
Kevkhishvili continued to excel on the track, notching her first 17-meter throw at an indoor meet at Iowa State. She came up just short to a pair of Arizona State throwers, including Stevens.
Kevkhishvili's studies were taking most of her energy around the middle of the spring 2008 semester and concerns about her performance in the classroom filled her mind. At the SEC Championship meet in Fayetteville, Ark., the sophomore dropped the SEC Championship to Tennessee's Annie Alexander, marking the second year she had failed to win the conference's indoor shot put crown.
Upon returning to Gainesville, Kevkhishvili succeeded in her academic pursuits and was able to clear her mind of all concerns. That made her more determined than ever.
One afternoon leading up to the NCAA Championship, she stopped by to see her coach and told him something that he was not expecting.
“She told me, 'Coach, I'm going to win the NCAA Championship,'” Lemke said. “Every day, she'd say, 'No one's going to beat me, I'm going to win the NCAA Championship.'”
Four days before the team was scheduled to travel to the NCAA meet, Lemke was convinced that Kevkhishvili could not be beaten at the NCAA Indoor Championships. They had grown to trust one another and the coach knew that if his top pupil was that determined that nothing could stand in her way.
Lemke made the short walk down the hallway to Holloway's office to inform him of what he thought was to come.
“I remember about four days before we left for Arkansas, I went into Coach Holloway's office and said, 'Mouse, I think Mariam's going to win.'”
Kevkhishvili was among the top five in the country, but her name wasn't even really being tossed around to claim the national crown. Stevens returned after winning the title a year earlier looking to defend her crown.
Holloway, who had always been careful to focus on the goal ahead and the next meet, prided himself on not looking ahead to championships – the end result. Instead, it was a single-minded focus on the things that the athletes had worked on that made them successful that was the head coach's main emphasis. His staff had adapted the same mentality, and he was surprised to hear what Lemke announced to him.
“I remember thinking, 'Wow!'” Holloway said. “We're not predictors on this staff, so when Steve said something like that, I knew he believed it. I don't think I've ever had an athlete say before that they were going to win a national title.”
That Saturday, Kevkhishvili registered an impressive throw of 58-6/17.83m on her second attempt in the women's shot put championship to claim the Gators' first-ever NCAA crown in the event on either the men's or women's sides. It marked Florida's first NCAA individual title in any event since 2005.
Her throw broke Florida's school record in the NCAA women's indoor shot put, eclipsing the school record of Olympian and two-time All-American Kim Barrett by three-quarters of an inch.
“Mariam deserves everything she got today,” Lemke said immediately following the meet. “She had been throwing great in practice all week and we felt like she was bound for great things today. She beat a really good field and did something that no one at Florida had ever done, so this was a special moment for Mariam.”
A NEW ATTITUDE
The weeks leading up to her first NCAA title were a test for Kevkhishvili. She faced struggles both academically and athletically but was able to overcome both of her obstacles.
“I think it did a lot for Mariam,” Lemke said. “Being from a small country, she had been to the Olympics and had been to the World Junior Championships, but she had never really performed well at a big championship. For her to go into a competition where there's a lot of good girls and to come out on top, I think just helped her self confidence. It kind of validated that everything we do here was working for her and it was the right choice for her to come here.”
Kevkhishvili's success gave her a new-found confidence not only in her track career, but also in the classroom.
“I could definitely tell a difference,” Bradley said. “From that point on, her confidence even in academics changed so much. Now, she comes in and has this persona about her and knows the ins and outs of what to do. You started to see that on the field with her other teammates. She is all about the entire team and you could definitely see that come out near the end of her second year.”
Kevkhishvili's throw indoors at the SEC Championships also qualified her for the 2008 Olympic Games. She would be headed back to the highest stage of her sport, but this time, she felt more like she earned the trip.
“It was really big because when she went as basically a young girl in 2004, every country can send a wild-card selection,” Lemke said. “Mariam didn't make the qualification standard, but they sent her because they knew she was someone for the future. I think on some levels she felt she was sort of given a free pass to go in 2004, but in 2008, she earned it. There was an outside chance of her making the final if she did very, very well in the qualifying round.”
That outdoor season, Kevkhishvili won the NCAA East Regional Championship and finished third at the outdoor national meet to earn yet another All-America honor.
Shortly after the NCAA Championships, she began working with Lemke and DeLancey to prepare for the upcoming Olympics.
“The Olympics were big for her,” DeLancey said. “She was here for part of the summer training for the Olympics. Then she went home for like three weeks and I gave her a day-by-day tailored training plan that she followed.”
The journey to get Kevkhishvili back to her home country of Georgia proved taxing. Finally, through all the red tape, she set out on her voyage home two weeks before she would need to arrive in Beijing.
Family and friends were delighted to see Kevkhishvili, who hadn't been back home in more than two years since making the voyage to the unknown United States of America.
“It was amazing because I hadn't been home in two years,” Kevkhishvili said. “I went there two weeks early before my team left for Beijing. There was so much emotion that started as soon as the airplane landed. When my mom first saw me, it was crazy. We had non-stop visitors at home. We had ceremonies with the president and the patriarch. It was a very, very busy two weeks.”
Lemke and Kevkhishvili's husband, Dato, soon arrived in Georgia to a large ceremony in the capital city, giving well wishes to the country's Olympic competitors.
“The ceremony they had to introduce the Olympic team in Tbilisi, Georgia, put everything on such a high note,” Lemke said. “She was home for the first time in two years to see her family. Her husband came with her to see his family. Everything was just so positive leading up to Beijing.”
Kevkhishvili enjoyed her stay at home but was happy to get to Beijing. It was in that city that she could focus on the task at hand with Lemke by her side.
“When we finally got there, just me and coach, we were able to start working out,” Kevkhishvili said. “We were just focused on competing.”
A COUNTRY AT WAR
Lemke had been named the head track and field coach for the country of Georgia and was sitting in the Olympic Village when one of her teammates announced that war had started in her home country.
“It was terrible,” Lemke said. “I was in the middle of all of it because they had me be the head coach of track and field for their country for the Olympics. There was just her and a boy that had qualified on the men's side. The night of the opening ceremony to find out [about the war] by friends calling from back home and watching on television - to be sitting in the Olympic village and see that your country has been invaded, the mood for the whole Olympic team just turned around to total disbelief and total concern.”
Though war hadn't broken out in her home city, the capital Tbilisi, Kevkhishvili immediately began thinking of family members who might be affected.
“We heard that war had started in Georgia,” Kevkhishvili said. “They were shooting every city's main buildings and there was a really high probability that they were going to shoot the capital city where my family lives. I was calling home wanting to know what was going on. One of my teammate's fathers died. Then someone's brother. Then someone's friend. Every time we were calling home to Georgia, it was not good news.”
Closer to home, Kevkhishvili was worried about her brother, Giorgi, who had just begun a required period of service to the army in Georgia. Was he going to be sent to war?
“Before I went to Georgia, my brother was in the army,” Kevkhishvili said. “Everyone has to go serve in the army. He was 21 years old. He just knows how to hold a gun and not even that. The president came on and said that everyone who could basically hold a gun had to go in the war. I said, 'Oh my God, my brother's going to have to go.'”
Giorgi was sent to war, but through all the dissention in his own country, he thought of his sister and wanted her to keep her focus on the Olympics. He stashed away a cell phone so that he could reassure his sister that all was going fine.
“I called my brother one day and he was in the war and I had no idea,” Kevkhishvili said. “He kept his cell phone because he knows I'm going to call and he's going to say he's at home because he doesn't want me to be worried about something because I have a competition. Something in my heart is telling me that something was not right.
“When I called, he said, 'I'm working in Tbilisi, everything is fine.' And then I heard some really loud noises and he said that he had to go. He said he would give me a call back and he hung up, but I knew that something was not right.”
Lemke was beside himself. He was there to coach Georgia's track and field athletes, but how could he motivate them to compete hard? He wondered if it was even right to push them to continue.
“That was really difficult,” Lemke said. “I tried to say, 'Mariam, you're here to do this job. It doesn't come around every year.' But how do you say that and have them not think about their country being attacked by Russia?”
Lemke decided that he would try to keep Kevkhishvili focused just for a couple of hours each day to give her the necessary time she needed to practice for her upcoming competition.
“We tried to focus just for two hours a day,” Lemke said. “I would tell her to focus for two hours a day on what we're here to do and then the rest of the time, of course, to focus on her family and her country. But even for those two hours a day, she had to have been thinking about that too.”
Holloway was in Beijing, coaching current Gator Calvin Smith, and kept in close contact with Lemke regarding Kevkhishvili's situation.
“I was very aware of what was going on because I had been talking with Steve,” Holloway said. “But I tried very hard not to talk to Mariam about it. I saw her once or twice while I was over there and I wished her good luck in the shot put. I've never had that happen to an athlete of mine before. I think it becomes an internal thing. She's obviously a very, very strong person with a strong will to be able to put that out of her mind to go out and compete.”
The president of Georgia was attempting to reach a cease fire while his wife was in Beijing with the athletes. It was decided that it was in the best interest of the country to pull out of the Olympics that year.
“She was the person that came into the Olympic Village in the middle of the night and told the whole Olympic team – all sports – that the decision had been made to pull them out of the Olympics and send them home,” Lemke said. “They went through a good part of that evening thinking that they were done – that they were going to get on a plane the next day.”
Lemke tried to comfort his athlete, but he just couldn't find the words to speak.
“We had a big meeting and Coach Lemke was there,” Kevkhishvili said. “I was crying because my country was in a really, really bad situation. Coach tried to help me, but he just was speechless. He could not say anything. The first lady said we were going to leave in four hours.”
It was brought to the attention of the Georgian government that if it pulled all of its athletes out of the Olympics that, due to the Olympic Charter, the team could be banned from the Games for eight years. That's when it was decided that Kevkhishvili and her teammates would stay in Beijing.
“After they thought about what was going to happen - that our country would have no future in sports - they decided we were going to stay,” Kevkhishvili said. “We just found out an hour before our flight home that we were going to stay and, in our minds, everything was done. At one point, we just wanted to go home to be with our families because it was so hard. Media just followed us every step we went and were asking us what was going on. It was really, really hard for us.”
Lemke knew that Kevkhishvili's mind was focused on her family back home. She was scheduled to compete in the second day of the track and field session and he could tell she was having a hard time.
“It was just a roller coaster of emotions,” Lemke said. “She was early in the Olympic schedule to compete and we could see every day, the performance in practice got a little bit less. The focus wasn't there, and how could you blame her?”
Kevkhishvili finished 15th in her qualifying group with a throw of 52-5.50/15.99m and saw her Olympic bid come up short.
“We were both very disappointed because we both just felt like it had been her dream – that's what the four previous years were leading up to,” Lemke said. “I wanted her to have a positive experience and she told me that the Olympics were ruined for her. Her whole thoughts of Beijing and the Olympic experience at that time will never be about the positives - they will always be about what happened in her country.
“When you look at it from that perspective, the performance is secondary compared to thoughts of her family and country.”
Kevkhishvili couldn't quite comprehend what caused all the turmoil in her home country but was ready for it all to stop when she boarded a plane back to see her parents.
“I don't want to know any politics, I just want it to be where people are happy,” Kevkhishvili said. “It's such a great country and I love it. It has beautiful culture and tradition, and I don't want it to just one day be gone. I just couldn't understand what was going on. It's just so painful. I'm sure many Georgians have Russian friends and I do. I just want the war to stop.”
THE HEART OF A CHAMPION
Kevkhishvili's trip to the Olympics had been disappointing, but she came back to the United States stronger both as a person and as an athlete.
“One thing we both took away from Beijing is that she's at a very high level and it's great to be one of the best in the NCAA, but that doesn't mean that you're at the top of the international level,” Lemke said. “She saw women that were stronger than her, fitter than her and she was very motivated when she came back here to get better in shape and condition. She started to look past being the strongest person who has ever worn the Florida uniform and she's looking past being an NCAA Champion.”
She began working diligently with DeLancey to acquire the necessary conditioning skills to achieve her goals on the international level.
“This past year, Mariam has surpassed every female athlete I have ever trained in the weight room,” DeLancey said. “She's got a 535-pound squat, she has done a 285-pound clean and she has done a 245-pound bench. She is without a doubt one of our strongest athletes – male or female.”
DeLancey was responsible for training 16 athletes who participated in the 2008 Olympics and said Kevkhishvili's drive is equivalent with that of the best athletes he has ever coached.
“I think our greatest Gator Olympian is Ryan Lochte,” DeLancey said. “I use him as a comparison for everyone else. I would say that her drive matches his.”
Not only was Kevkhishvili cracking jokes with DeLancey in the weight room, but she felt comfortable in her own skin. She could communicate clearly with her teammates, her coaches and her professors.
“Now, you'd think she had been speaking English probably half of her life,” Mulkin said. “She has picked it up that quickly. She really has started to get some of the nuances and idioms. She is much more aware of what people are saying and how they are saying it.”
In addition to thriving in her new culture, Kevkhishvili began sharing the tradition of her homeland with the friends she made along the way in America.
“I was helping her with one of her courses and it was geography,” Bradley said. “She brought back from her culture a little Georgian woman in the traditional dress and I thought that was awesome. Then she kind of told me about the traditional wear and how that works. I always want our student-athletes to have that feeling that they can be open to talk about their own culture, and Mariam and I really have a great relationship.”
Kevkhishvili thrived during the 2009 outdoor season, going a perfect 5-for-5 during the regular season and finally winning the seemingly elusive SEC Indoor Championship. She had notched an NCAA automatic-qualifying mark in each of her competitions during the regular season.
It couldn't have been more fitting that the SEC victory came in Lexington, where she had thrown three fouls two years earlier and had eliminated herself from even reaching the competition's finals.
All season long, Kevkhishvili and her old nemesis, Stevens of Arizona State, had been ranked first and second on the national lists heading into the NCAA Championships. They hadn't faced each other but knew that the national meet would provide the ultimate stage.
Kevkhishvili felt pressure to perform well at the national meet, entering as the competition's defending champion and fully aware of the target on her back. The night before at the NCAA's pre-championship banquet, she was named the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association South Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year.
“It's not easy going in as the defending NCAA Champion,” Kevkhishvili said. “Everybody just wants to beat you. There was a lot of pressure.”
Lemke and Kevkhishvili had designed a plan for her success. She would come out with a big throw early and distance herself far enough for no other competitors to be able to catch up with her. But things didn't happen that way on that Saturday in March at Gilliam Indoor Track and Field Stadium in College Station, Texas.
Kevkhishvili battled Stevens the entire way, falling behind after the first round of the finals.
“Things just got a little more interesting,” Lemke said aloud as he walked from the stands to the side of the ring to speak with his competitor.
“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” Lemke said. “I remember after the fourth round going up to Mariam and saying, 'You've said all year that you wanted competition. You wanted to compete with people who would bring out more in you. Now you've got your wish.'”
Kevkhishvili rebounded with throws of 58-6/17.83m and 58-6.50/17.84m on her final two tosses to claim the championship in dramatic fashion.
“I was going for a big throw,” Kevkhishvili said. “The first two or three didn't land as well as I would have hoped, but I had so much power. I was starting too early, so I was trying to fix that. After Sarah passed me, I thought, 'I don't care about my technique, I just have to throw far.'
“I'm a fighter and I knew I just couldn't give up.”
A STUDENT OF THE GAME
For the Georgian who just came to the United States with the intention of throwing the shot put to prepare her for the Olympics, things sure have changed in three years.
“Now that she has the English down, we are seeing the true Mariam come out, which is an amazing woman both athletically and academically,” Bradley said.
Kevkhishvili has more than a season left of collegiate eligibility but already has aspirations to attend graduate school and become a collegiate coach.
It's only fitting that the person who needed guidance to navigate an unfamiliar land would be looking forward to giving back to future generations of athletes.
“She is really interested in coaching,” Bradley said. “I think she would be fantastic because she tells it like it is. She also has that nurturing side of things, the reliability, even though she's from a different country. Her knowledge of the sport in itself is amazing.”
Even though Mulkin doesn't work directly with Kevkhishvili anymore, the instructor said she has found a lifelong friend with whom she can share in her success.
“We clicked from the beginning and that kind of stayed with us from the beginning college-level classes,” Mulkin said. “I truthfully expect a life-lasting friendship. She's just unbelievable. She's a wonderful, wonderful young woman. Her potential is definitely unlimited. If I could bottle that up and sell it, I'd make a fortune.”
And thanks to Kevkhishvili's dedication and that Australian National Team coach who just wanted to be friendly to the young girl who looked lost and all alone, she has unleashed more potential within herself than she ever thought possible.
“I think there is so much she can draw on from the personal experiences of where she has come from to how she has overcome a language barrier to how she has developed as an athlete and as a person,” Lemke said. “She's probably the nicest person I've ever coached.
“There's so much there for her to look back on with a lot of pride and just fill her with confidence for the future.”
END OF REPORT
