On Sunday in the women's kayak sprint competition, Dartmouth graduate Dana Chladek '85, of Kensington, Md., came back from twenty-ninth place to grab a silver medal in the final round for the U.S. Olympic team.
As 14,000 Olympic fans lining the course cheered her on, the French major and former Ledyard Canoe Club vice president raced through difficult rapids to finish in 2 minutes, 49 seconds in her second run, equaling the best time of gold medalist Stepanka Hilgertova.
The judges ruled that Chladek touched a gate towards the end of the course, resulting in a five point penalty and second-place finish for the two-time Olympian.
Chladek, the only American ever to medal in the women's kayak sprint competition, has now medalled twice in the event. She also took home a bronze medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Chladek was ranked last going into the race because rotator cuff surgery kept her out of most of the 1995 World Cup season.
She capsized early in the first of her two runs down the 25-gate course and missed four gates. But she pushed nearly flawlessly through the tricky gates and churning rapids on her second run to clinch the medal.
Gold medalist Stepanka Hilgertova of the Czech Republic has a shared background with Chladek. Both of Chladek's parents, also from the former Czechoslovakia, were members of the 1963 and 1965 World Champion Czechoslovakian national teams.
France's Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, the world champion in 1989 and 1993, earned the bronze.
While Chladek was expected to be among the medal contenders in the race, other favorites did not fair as well on the difficult Ocoee River in Tennessee.
Lynn Simpson, the reigning world champion, washed out in her first run, capsized early and missed four gates.
The British paddler pulled together an excellent second run, but judges penalized her 50 points for missing a gate.
Simpson appealed the decision, saying she got her head under the pole. After reviewing a videotape, the judges stuck to their decision and placed her twenty-third.
Hilgertova, who won the first World Cup race ever this year on the Ocoee River, jumped for joy after top-ranked Kordula Striepecke of Germany failed to beat her time.
"I have never won a big race before, so this was very exciting for me," said Hilgertova, who finished twelfth in the 1992 games. "I think I have more experience and I was not as nervous as I was at Barcelona."
