BY KATHI STEARNS

Staff Writer

LAGRANGE--Most Olympians don't just walk their way into the 1996 Summer Games.

But that's exactly what Michelle Rohl, a parishioner at St. Peter's Church, did in late June when she qualified for the U.S. Olympic women's 10-kilometer race walk team.

This will be the second Olympics for Rohl, who competed in the Barcelona Games in 1992. She is currently the U.S. record-holder in this event with a track time of 44:41 and a road time of 44:17. During the Penn Relays in April she also became the U.S. record-holder for the 5-kilometer race walk. She will defend her records July 29 during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Despite her recent strong showing, Rohl is not focused on medaling. "My coach wants me to be concentrating on what's important, what I need to be thinking about during these last few weeks," she said in a June 30 interview. "I have started to center on running my own race rather than worrying about what the other racers are doing. If I have a good day, I may be talking about a top 10 finish. Anything could happen from there."

However, Rohl realizes that the expectations are much higher than they were in 1992. "The first time I competed in the Olympics, I was new to the sport and really unprepared," she said. "I didn't have any idea of how things might go or what people expected of me. I finished 20th and was really happy. This year the Games are in our home country and I've got a lot more experience. I am really hoping to finish in the top 10. But in reality, the outcome of the race is out of my hands."

Rohl, 30, has been training in LaGrange since 1993 when she and her family moved to Georgia so that she could acclimate for the 1996 Games.

"I'm hoping that my three years of training in this heat and humidity will end up being an advantage for me," she said. "The heat here can be overbearing. Those who are accustomed to the altitude and humidity here will definitely have an advantage over those who are just coming off high altitude training."

Rohl began competing on the race walking circuit in 1989 after her cross country and track coach from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside suggested that she might have a better chance of qualifying for the 1992 Games as a race walker rather than a runner.

"Part of the reason I made the transition was that while I was running I didn't have a sponsor," she said. "It was really expensive for me to get to the races that I needed to compete in; however, it was only by competing that I could get the times that I needed so that I could get a sponsor."

The transition between the two sports was a little more challenging for the Madison, Wisconsin native than she expected. "In the beginning it was very hard for me to hold back," she said. "The first couple of years were very frustrating because cardiovascularly I was ready to go out faster; I had to learn to wait for my technique to catch up with me."

The mother of two children, Sebastian, 3, and Molly, 6, Rohl says that the financial sacrifices her family has made to enable her to compete have been extensive. Between meets and training she has worked part-time in a nursery. Her husband, Michael, is a personal trainer for the Mainstreet Athletic Club and is a coach for the LaGrange Sports Authority.

"Both of us could be earning a lot more," Rohl said. "But making money has never been a priority for either of us, as long as we can feed our kids and pay the bills. We're not real concerned about material things; we're concerned about teaching our children values and letting them know that if they have a dream, we'll go after it together as a family, making whatever sacrifices need to be made."

Rohl said the cost of the opening ceremony tickets will keep her family at home while she is in the procession of athletes.

"My family will be watching the opening ceremonies on television," Rohl said. "At $625 a ticket it is not feasible to bring the family along." On the other hand, her competition is one of the few the public can observe free since it will take place largely on the streets of Atlanta.

"Luckily my race is one of the only events that is free and open to the public," she said. "So I hope everyone in my family and the people in LaGrange who have been so supportive can come to watch me compete."

Rohl, a lifelong Catholic, says that the Catholic community of St. Peter's has embraced her family during the last three years.

"Everyone is always offering to help," she said. "When I've been away from the parish for a competition, people always ask how the training is going or how the race went when I return. We also have a host family from St. Peter's who have really gone out of their way to help us. They've invited us over for picnics and helped out on numerous occasions with rides to the airport."

Rohl says that her Catholic faith is essential to her and in competition it helps her keep her perspective on what is truly important.

"My faith has been there since I was baptized," she said. "It's what I grew up with, and I can't picture my life today without it. It helps me to understand people and gives me a greater appreciation for why people do the things they do."

"But my faith has also helped me to keep the proper perspective on things in my life," she continued. "For example, I've never been one of those people who prayed for an outcome in a race. You have to remember even at this level that this is just a sport. I guess you could say that I save my prayers for the things that really matter like family, friends and the important stuff in life. No medal or first-place finish can ever replace things like that."