Colorado College Bulletin

The Lift of a Lifetime

By SAM MELLINGER

Associated PressIt’s late Wednesday afternoon, and Tara Nott is exhausted. Actually, exhausted doesn’t begin to describe how she feels.  

In the last four days, her fame as the United States’ first Olympic gold medalist in women’s weightlifting has taken her to public appearances in five states, three time zones, and six schools. 

Nott, Blue Valley High (Kansas) Class of 1990, just finished visiting her fourth group of students in five hours and was surrounded by fewer than 400 people for the first time all day. 

But before she could relax, the entire Louisburg Middle School girls’ basketball team spotted her. 

Nott immediately lost her exhaustion and spent the next 20 minutes flexing on cue and talking about everything from skiing to eating.  

“I get energized by that, I really do,” Nott said. “I’m so tired right now, all I want to do is go to sleep. But when you see kids like that and you look at their faces, that gives me energy.” 

Nott returned home for the first time since becoming Kansas City’s first gold-medal winner at the Sydney Olympics. Bulgarian Izabela Dragneva won the 48-kilogram division but later tested positive for a diuretic. Nott, who matched her U.S. record with lifts totaling 185 kilograms (407.48 pounds), was then awarded the gold medal, the first in weightlifting for the United States in 40 years.  

Nott, 28, attended Stilwell Elementary from the second through fifth grades and received a heroine’s welcome when she returned there Wednesday for the first time since she was a student. 

Students in grades one through six met with Nott for about 2 1/2 hours wearing plastic gold medals in her honor. She spent the last hour of her visit greeting each student -- some of whom were bigger than the 5-foot-1, 105-pound Nott -- with a photo opportunity, a hug, and a close look at the medal.  

“It was heavy,” first-grader Lauren Dobbs said. “That was the best thing I’ve ever done.”  

Photo by Kiersten Allen of the Louisburg HeraldStilwell had been preparing for Nott’s arrival since August and presented her various gifts, including a card signed by each student. She later appeared at Blue Valley middle and high schools before leaving town.  

“I wouldn’t miss these things for anything,” Nott said. “This is what’s important.” 

At every visit, Nott allowed anybody who asked the chance to touch, hold, and even wear the four-pound medal. Each time she met a group of students, a school administrator asked her whether it was too much. And each time, the smile on her face as she joked around with the kids was answer enough.  

“Man, she eats this up,” said Kevin O’Connor, Nott’s boyfriend. “To her, this is what winning the medal is all about. This is what she does it for, it’s not sponsorships. She’ll give up that medal in a second to anyone who asks and won’t think twice about it.”  

Nott doesn’t know what she’ll do next. She currently lives at the Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs, receiving free room and board and a monthly stipend. She said she isn’t sure whether she’ll compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.  

Right now, she’s still getting used to hearing “Olympic gold medalist” every time someone says her name. 

“That’s kind of weird,” Tara said. “I’m still the same person. That’s why I love meeting with these kids and showing them the medal. It wasn’t real to me until I saw the medal, and I’m sure it’s not real to them until they see the medal.”  

Nott doesn’t feel put out by the time demands. It’s nothing, she said, compared with the training. And she swears there’s something about meeting kids and the look in their eyes when they see an Olympic gold medal that “lifts you up.”

For instance, there was one little girl who stood out when Nott visited some students in Colorado Springs. 

“A total tomboy,” she said, “just like I was.”  

Nott sees herself in many of the kids she visits, even the ones who aren’t tomboys. Maybe a second-grade boy has a face full of freckles, just like Nott. Or maybe that girl in the fourth grade ties her pigtails with a bow, just like Nott did. 

She thinks about that and the exhaustion is completely gone, replaced by thoughts of the “more than overwhelming” greeting she’d received, especially the hundreds of hugs and glowing faces.

“How could you get tired when you see that?” Nott asked. 

“I’d much rather do this than make millions of dollars from winning. People go out there and make lots of money from this, but they don’t get the fulfillment that I get from meeting with these students.” 

Sam Mellinger is a sports reporter for The Kansas City Star. Article reprinted by permission of The Kansas City Star. Photo by Kiersten Allen of the Louisburg Herald.

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