Great athletes are born with talent. It is not something that can be taught or learned.
Dedication and an unwavering work ethic is what an athlete must possess to push that talent to unthinkable limits. An athlete’s dedication is what must be put to the test.
Lady Tiger sophomore Kimberlyn Duncan, an All-American sprinter from Katy, Texas, is a perfect example of the greatness achieved when combining one’s talent and dedication.
It is a story that begins like most in elementary school when one of Duncan’s teachers could see that her pupil was really fast, much faster than all of the other kids at recess. When speaking with Duncan’s parents, she had the idea of entering the child in a weekend track meet at school. Little did her teacher know that Duncan had just opened the door for a future All-American.
“One day, I stayed after school and the teacher said there was a track meet that weekend. I didn’t even know what track was at that time,” Duncan said. “She wanted me to participate and talked to my parents. I had my first track meet in the fourth grade, and started running again by the seventh grade. I just kept going up from there.”
Duncan dedicated most of her time to the track in middle school and joined a year-round training program that laid the foundation for a prolific prep career at Cypress Springs High School.
“In high school, I trained throughout the week and ran in meets on the weekends. I always trained throughout the week during summer track and continued with meets on the weekends,” Duncan said. “I always ran summer track, except for my senior year in high school when I finally came to LSU early to start school.”
But Duncan’s rigorous training regimen failed to take her attention away from the classroom after combining her valuable experience from the track and using those same lessons in the classroom. She graduated Cypress Springs High School with an impressive 4.85 grade-point average and still continues her academic excellence at LSU.
“You have to be able to separate school and track. I had to be able to focus in. It does get hard for doing your work and traveling,” Duncan said. “In high school, I had the week to do my homework and then run on the weekends. In college we travel throughout the week during school all the time. You have to be responsible and keep up the work. If you have time management and do everything when it is supposed to be done, you don’t have to worry about it later.”
While focus is required for optimal performance, Duncan believes that too much attention with an upcoming meet can be detrimental.
“Before a meet I have to be focused, but not too focused because if I am too focused, things don’t work out correctly,” Duncan said. “This is what I have to do. I have to remind myself that I’ve done this every week since I was in the seventh grade. I know what I’m doing. It’s just putting the hard work that I do in practice and executing it on the track.”
Duncan saw during her high school career that she had a chance to parlay her success on the track into a major Division I scholarship offer.
“The times I was running early in my senior year made me nervous. I wondered if I was ever going to be able to get into schools,” Duncan said. “But during my regional meet my senior year, I ran a 23.46 in the 200 meters and that’s when I realized that I felt like that I will actually be able to be in a Division I school. I felt like I would earn a scholarship somewhere. At that point in time I realized that I had really done it.”
After wrapping up her senior season with a Class 5A state championship in the 200-meter dash, Duncan decided to leave the state of Texas for one of the most prestigious track programs at LSU.
“I came to LSU because since I was little, LSU has always been on top, especially with their track program,” Duncan said. “I knew that even if I wasn’t the best sprinter at LSU, I would still fall among the top athletes in the world.”
After just one season at LSU, Duncan has already seen how the team’s coaching staff has helped improve her sprinting. She finished her freshman season in 2010 with a new wind-legal personal best of 23.08 seconds in the 200-meter dash, while competing at the NCAA Championships in the event and earning All-America honors as LSU’s NCAA runner-up 4×100-meter relay team.
“The coaching staff has helped a lot compared to where I was before college to where I am now,” Duncan said. “There are goals that I set for myself that I’ve already gone far beyond. Coaches tell you what their goals for you are. They tell you that because they see the talent you have. They see the talent before you do. They let you know that they see it so that we can both move on together. They are doing everything to help you move forward.”
Duncan has her sights set on adding to her lone All-America honor from her freshman campaign. She is already well on her way during the 2011 indoor season as she currently ranks tied for No. 4 in the NCAA in the 200-meter dash with a lifetime personal best of 23.01. She has also run a new personal best of 7.30 in the 60-meter dash that currently ranks No. 15 in the NCAA this year.
Duncan is poised to compete in both events at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships that are set to run in just two weeks on March 11-12 in College Station, Texas.
“Right now my goal is to be a multiple All-American, hopefully during my sophomore year,” Duncan said. “I was an All-American last year on our relay team. I want to be an All-American in an individual event. That’s the goal that I have set for myself this year.”
Talent, dedication and an undeniable work ethic is a combination that has led Duncan from being a fourth grader faster than the other kids on the playground to being an All-American and a leader at a major Division I university and one of the nation’s most prestigious track programs.
Her message to aspiring sprinters is simple.
“Keep working hard,” Duncan said. “The hard work does pay off. Some days, you don’t feel like pushing it, but you have to get up and do it because one little thing can mess up something great. If you work hard, it will pay off in the end.”