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OLYMPIC RACE WALK: Eastler will call it a career after Beijing
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BY BILL STEWART, Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 07/08/2008

By Bill Stewart
Staff Writer

There was a time when Kevin Eastler wouldn’t listen to his body. Now, the Olympic race walker from Farmington is all ears.
“My body is trying to tell me it’s time to hang it up,” said Eastler, 30, a 1995 Mt. Blue High School graduate. “I’ve had a great career, but I don’t see why else to go on. After the Olympics, I will be done. At this point, I know this it for me.”
Eastler, the three-time USA 20-kilometer race walking champion, is preparing for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, which start in August. He earned a spot on the team after he won the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. last Saturday. He finished the 20-kilometer walk in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 7.1 seconds.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said in a phone interview Sunday night. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
It’s Eastler’s second Olympics — he competed in the 2004 Games in Greece — but this time around he’s older and fighting through more pain.
After having successful surgery for a sports hernia in December, a key month for training, Eastler rested his aching body.
“Another month after the surgery I started training again,” he said. “I had to do some physical training, some manual work, to help fix the problem. But I was ready to go.”
Or so he thought.
Weeks after resuming training — he’ll run and walk a combined 100 miles a week — Eastler began suffering from right knee tendinitis. The pain derailed his training again and threatened his Olympic aspirations.
“My body couldn’t hack it,” said Eastler, who lives in Aurora, Colo. with his wife Sarah and 4-year-old daughter Savannah. “It’s been a rough season with the injuries; the hernia surgery put me off for awhile. And then the knee tendinitis put me off again. It’s been a touch-and-go season, particularly in the last three weeks. I just wasn’t sure how it would go. Several times this season I thought of packing it in. I just felt it didn’t work out. But I had good support, and then realized I had nothing to lose.”
So Eastler decided to train through the pain with the hopes of earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic track and field team.
On Saturday, Eastler became the lone American to earn a spot on the 20-kilometer race walking team.
Earlier this season, Eastler became the only American to finish a 20-kilometer race walk in an Olympic ‘A’ qualifying time of 1:22.56. Although he didn’t need to reach a certain time Saturday in the trials, his victory clinched his spot in the summer Olympics.
The victory not only compensated for an injury plagued year, but also ensures he will leave the sport as the nation’s top race walker. Eastler last year won the 20-kilometer and 50-kilometer race walking national championships. In 2006, he set the national record in the 30-kilometer race walk and turned in the three fastest 20-kilometer times by an American.
“I’ve been a national champion for the last two years,” he said. “The last two years went according to plan. In 2006 and 2007 I hit my goals for the seasons. I was definitely on top of my game. This one was not how I wanted to end my career. It was definitely disappointing start to this season as everything was going so poorly. I’m just glad I was able to pull it out.”
Eastler finished 21st at the 2004 Summer Olympics with a time of 1:25.20. He said he isn’t concerned where he finishes in Beijing. For now, it’s just trying to squeeze in enough training to get his body where he says it needs to be.
“Physically, I’m not in as good shape as I was in 2004,” Eastler said. “I still have five weeks to get my last push in. But mentally, I’m probably better off now than in 2004.”
After graduating from Mt. Blue in 1995, Eastler went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Col. Although he put off competitive race walking in college, he graduated in 1999 with a degree in mechanical engineering. It was also in 1999 when Eastler began training again with his sights set on the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. He finished second in the 20-kilometer time trials, but didn’t make the team because of qualifying standards set by the International Association of Athletics Federations. In 2001, Eastler joined the World Class Athlete program, which the military offers to athletes who have a strong shot to compete at the Olympic level. The program essentially allows an athlete to train full time.
His training paid off in 2003, when on Aug. 3 he became the first U.S. athlete to walk the Olympic ‘A’ qualifying standard of 1:23 when he finished in 1:22:25 at the World Outdoor 20k championships in Paris. His performance all but ensured he would compete in the 2004 Olympics. In July 2004, he officially earned his spot on the team when he finished the Olympic Trials with a time of 1:28.49.
Now he’s back in the Olympic spotlight again, only these Games will serve as an ending, not a beginning.
“Basically, I capped off my career with an Olympic trial victory,” said Eastler, whose parents will join him in Beijing. “It’s a good way to end things.”

Bill Stewart — 623-3811, ext. 515
bstewart@centralmaine.com

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