When the Olympic torch reaches Beijing Olympic Stadium on Aug. 8, Penn State's Aleesha Barber and Kevin Tan will both march in with their national team as fireworks crack and sprinkle down.
But only Tan will compete under the United States flag -- Barber will enter with her teammates from the country of Trinidad and Tobago.
Barber are Tan are two of the numerous current and former Penn State athletes who tested their talents at the U.S. Olympic Trials, a preliminary competition that determines which athletes represent the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This summer's games run Aug. 8-24.
Shakeema Welsch, a 1999 Penn State alumnae, initially qualified for the U.S. in the triple jump with a wind-aided jump of 14.27 meters. But the selection committee replaced her after they determined it would have narrowly eclipsed the Olympic standard -- 14.20 meters -- without the wind, said Penn State women's track and field head coach, Beth Alford-Sullivan.
Tan, the Nittany Lion men's gymnastics assistant coach, was named to the U.S. Olympic team after an event-high score of 16.550 on the still rings at the gymnastics trials held at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on June 19 and 21.
Tan is expected to compete in the pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar.
"As long as I can go out there and represent the United States and show how hard this team is working and show that at meets, I'll be happy," Tan said.
Penn State men's gymnastics head coach and U.S. Olympic assistant coach Randy Jepson said the national team is getting back into its normal training routine, focusing on physical strength this week. He said Tan recovered well after the trials and is holding up well physically, but added the initial realization of making the team has not lingered in Tan's head.
"The goal is to do something there," Jepson said. "We have a team that we think can contend for medal. It is bigger than making the team."
In two weeks, the team will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to workout at the Olympic training center. There, the team will hold a competition, which will serve as a dry run on what it can expect in Beijing, Jepson said.
Tan is buying into the realization that a gold medal on the still rings is in reach. Yet he's humble enough to know anything can happen on any given day of competition.
"It's human nature," Tan said. "If you see a good routine and then follow that up with another great routine, you have to give a higher score."
Barber, the redshirt sophomore, qualified in the 100-meter hurdles with a winning time of 13.07 seconds on June 21.
She will return to Penn State on Monday for three weeks of classes before heading to Columbia in South America with the national team for a meet.
Barber sat down assistant coach Chris Johnson to discuss what her most attainable goals for this year were. The decision to try to qualify with Trinidad and Tobago came easy because of a lower Olympic standard.
"I knew when I went to high school that I'm gonna run in the 2008 Olympics," Barber said. "I don't care how I get there, I'm gonna get there."
Barber becomes the second Olympian from the Lions women's track and field team. Former Nittany Lion Connie Moore competed in the 2004 Olympic games.
Shana Cox was expected to be the third Olympian in program history. The 2008 NCAA champion in the 400-meter dash. Cox finished ninth overall at the U.S. trials with a time of 51.90 seconds -- 0.02 seconds from making the final heat and a shot at Beijing.
Cox's teammate on the national champion 4x400-meter relay, Gayle Hunter, failed to qualify in the long jump, finishing 19th overall.
Also, decathlete Ryan Olkowski finished 11th, putting him out of contention for a spot on the U.S. team. Olkowski set personal bests in the pole vault and javelin.
