Menlo Park home to two current Olympians Menlo Park home to two current Olympians (August 25, 2004)

By Jennifer Nuckols
Special to the Almanac

Two of this year's Olympic contenders are from Menlo Park: cyclist Christine Thorburn and long-jumper Grace Upshaw.

Thorburn

A Menlo Park resident who didn't begin to cycle competitively until she was a student at Stanford Medical School, Christine Thorburn came within 20 seconds of bringing home an Olympic medal in the cycling individual time trial that took place in Athens on August 18.

She ended up in fourth place in the 24 km event with a time of 32:15.82, less than half a minute short of the bronze medal finisher from Switzerland. Three days earlier, in the 118.8 km road race, Thorburn, 34, placed 15th.

Thorburn's strong Olympic finish follows a two-year hiatus from competitive cycling during her residency at Stanford Hospital, and a 2002 knee surgery.

Thorburn was a cross-country and track athlete during high school and college and began to cycle during medical school when a knee injury inhibited her from running. Earlier this year, she won the national women's time trial championship in Redlands, California, which secured her spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

Thorburn, who is originally from Davenport, Iowa, is currently working on her postdoctoral fellowship in rheumatology at Stanford.

Upshaw

Grace Upshaw, also a resident of Menlo Park, will compete in the Olympic long jump event on August 27. One of her toughest competitors will be fellow American Marion Jones, who won bronze in the Sydney Olympics.

Upshaw, 28, never won a national tournament during her college long-jumping career, and has returned to competitive track after a two-year break following her graduation from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997. But she has returned with gusto, moving from 9th place in the 2000 Olympic trials to national champion in 2003.

The women's long jump final will be broadcast on NBC on August 27 beginning at 8 p.m.

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