Olympian Trish Porter unveils book: ‘Rekindle Your Dreams’
Trish's book has just come out.
W45 high jumper Trish Porter competed for Team USA in the 1988 Olympics, and has been a regular on the masters circuit for years, setting world records and winning four world titles. But it wasn’t a straight line from elite to age-group meets. “In 1994, I had a bad neck injury during practice on a trampoline, and had no choice but to retire,” Trish writes. “After taking 11 years off from competing, having two children — Connor (June 1997, a fencer), and Shannon (April 2001, an ice skater) — I started competing again. I have broken the world record four times for women 40-44 years old. I have jumped 5-9 1/4, which is the same height I jumped in high school, and higher than I went in college.” And now she tells the secrets of her comeback and stellar masters career in a new book: “‘Rekindle Your Dreams.”
In a biography circulated for book reviewers, Trish continued:
When I was in eighth grade, I had a P.E. teacher who told me, “Don’t ever become a high jumper because you’ll never be any good.” I was diagnosed as a “hyperactive and dyslexic” child, who caused my parents all kinds of grief.
I was a three-sport athlete (diving, soccer and track) at Menlo Atherton High School in California. I was fourth place in the State Championships my senior year jumping a best of 5′ 9 1/4″.
Even though I was awarded Athlete of the Year for Northern California in 1980, I received no college scholarship offers.
I competed for the University of Oregon my freshman and junior year, and gained too much weight to high jump well. In fact, there were a few occasions I had been mistaken for a shot putter; they are not known for being tall and thin. Even though the U. of O. was the number one college team in the nation, I left the team to train for the heptathlon (seven events). I was seventh at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in the heptathlon, but my second place in the high jump carved my spot on the Olympic Team.
My book, “Rekindle Your Dreams,” published by Bridge-Logos Foundation, (was) released in February 2010. I have contributed to The Olympian E-Newsletter Magazine, CBN.Com and the book “But Lord I was Happy Shallow” by Marita Littauer. I have had an article published with MomSense Magazine which was then selected to represent MomSense in the Woman Inspirational category for CTI’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.
I earned my Business, Marketing degree at the University of Oregon. I’ve received lots of exposure over the years on radio, newspaper and television. I have been featured on the cover of the “Boomer” section (A monthly insert) of the Albuquerque Journal, and have had articles written about me in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Eugene Register Guard, Christianity Today, and more.
Another thing worth noting:
Trish, who lives in Albuquerque, says 25% of the book’s net proceeds will be donated to the Care Net Pregnancy Centers, helping women and their children to have dreams.
I’ve requested a copy for review, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, best of luck to Trish and the book!
6 Responses
I had the opportunity to spend some time with Trish during the Worlds in Kamloops. I watched her win in Kamloops. She is an inspiration! I almost thought that I could high jump by just watching her!:) We spoke for about an hour after her win, but she never mentioned her book during our conversation.
I am looking forward to learning more about her journey.
Yes, Trish Porter is a good person to have at our meets, and she is entered in the high jump at Boston (meet is 2 weeks from this weekend). Willie Banks, the Olympian, is entered in the M50 high jump and will take on Bruce McBarnette, Mark Wiliamson, and other stalwarts.
Former road superstar Anne Hird, who was absent from competition for about 17-18 years (1987 to 2004 or 2005), will be competing in the W50 3000. Incidentally, 32 American women signed up for the 3000 (don’t know how many Canadian and European women signed up). That is the largest continent of women in the 3000 I can ever remember.
Yes, the big meet is almost here, and it might be the best US indoor masters ever.
I meant “contingent,” of course. But the issue I was raising was for one of the 32 women, Mary Harada. Wonder what they will do, Mary, if there are 2 foreign athletes in the 3000 and then 2 scratches, bringing the field back to 32? Even with 2 sections that would be some big fields.
Ha Ha – well lap counting is always like the wild west. I counted the numbers and thought – oh wow, this may be interesting. I am the oldest woman running the 3k – maybe not the slowest but at the back of the pack. Fortunately I can still count to 15 and run pretty close to 1 min or so /lap. Although my time in Kamloops was a personal worst – altitude took its toll as did having to lead the band (only 3 turned up for my heat) – I hope to get closer to 15 min or so. If they tell me to stop at 14 something – I will know they are kidding. There are no miracles for me these days.
Maybe Boston will have 3 groups of women – or use the chip, or 10 will scratch – but usually Boston is one place where I do not agonize over poor lap counting. I see large numbers of men as well so there will be several multi-age group heats.
Kamloops used the chip – but still messed up in a few heats as the lap counters were sitting down recording splits and not making much of an effort to contact their runner and some of the groups were fairly large. I saw a couple of men stop and then have to head back out to run another lap.
In my race I got to be leader of the band – so the lap counter was for me – that is not likely to ever happen again.
I have printed out some of the handi-dandy lap sheets USATF-NE has on line for the race walks and plan to recruit someone to get my splits and keep count. This is my no so secret weapon against miscounting laps.
Thank you, Mary. Last year (Landover) we actually had a slight injury related to the lap counting, as one of the younger women abruptly turned around about 25 meters beyond the finish line in the 3000 (I think she still had 195 meters to go and she did continue running after her mild case of lap-counting-induced “whiplash”). You are right, this will be interesting, but Boston, as you indicate, is one of the best at counting the laps.
What a meet this will be, as there are many new stars as well as returning elites in both the men and women. Sad to hear that the counting of laps at Kamloops was not excellent.
I do not mean to make the lap counting sound terrible – but I did see two men stop and then go back on the track. For some reason there were no hip numbers – they used the chip – for what purpose? And the lap counters were on the right hand side of the track sitting down holding clipboards and recording the splits. After several heats they started getting up to let lapped runners know what lap they were on. I did not see the 3k race walk so I have no idea how that worked. It is never perfect with multi-age groups on the track running /walking at a variety of paces.
However in Lahti they used the chip and they had a board that electronically recorded each competitors laps – spectators could call out to friends – the number of laps to go. That worked well in the 5k races- although I “run so fast” that I could not read the board! – just kidding – the type face was small enough that I could not focus on it! In my dreams I run fast – in reality – my engine is slowing down and my eyesight is not getting better.
Yes it will be a great meet at Reggie, with some of our Canadian friends coming down to the meet as well as many US athletes both those who went to Kamloops and those who could not make it.
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