Youth Team’s Christina Kaigler Makes Her Mark at Junior Olympics
Less than a year after picking up the sport, Christina
Kaigler found herself standing in a spot most runners only dream of: lane four
of the storied Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, getting ready to run in the 400-meter
final at the 2023 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field
Championships.
"I thought it was pretty cool," the 12-year-old said a few
weeks after the race, listing off the names of athletes she's watched race
there. "Sydney McLaughlin, Athing Mu, Usain Bolt …" Heroes to the young runner.
Christina, a seventh grader at the Globe Academy and a
member of Atlanta Track Club's Youth Team, placed seventh in the race, capping
a season in which she won regional titles in the 800 meters and 400 meters,
placed second in the 200 meters and, most importantly she said, found her
sport.
She has her dad to thank for that. George Kaigler ran in
high school and picked it back up again when he and his wife moved to the
Atlanta area in 2004. He joined Atlanta Track Club and estimates he's run the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race about 10 times. It was Kaigler
who encouraged Christina to join her school's chapter of Girls on the Run. When
she found that she enjoyed that, the next step was signing up for cross
country. Christina excelled at cross country, consistently running in the top
third of her 80-person team, but Globe Academy doesn't have a track and field
team. So, she found Atlanta Track Club's Speed Academy. There, Coach Mike Brown
took Christina's natural talent and added in basic track and field strength,
conditioning and form.
"We could tell she was different," said Brown. "You could
see that if we tweaked a couple of things and fixed some mechanical issues,
she's got something."
Christina stepped on the track for the first time at the
Marietta Middle School Invitational on March 11. She ran 1:05.60 to take ninth
in the 400m and 2:53.18 for 21st in the 800m. Brown saw potential in
those performances and prescribed a mix of speed work, practice in the blocks,
a focus on form and a mantra to instill mental toughness. "He's always telling
me to believe in myself," said Christina. "He says 'see it in your mind,
believe it in your heart.'"
Two months later, Christina had lowered her 800m time by 14
seconds and was beginning to prepare for the USATF Regional meet, where she
would run the 800m, 400m and 200m. By the time the meet arrived on July 6, Christina
felt and looked ready. She warmed up to her favorite song, "Girl on Fire" by
Alicia Keys, and then proved herself to be just that. She took second in the
200m to another local star, Melanie Doggett, who is the world record holder in
the 100m for girls 12 and under. Then, she won the 400m title in 59.02, emphatically
breaking 1 minute for the first time.
"I was really happy, but I wanted to get 58," said Christina,
who won the race by more than a second.
By the 800m, Christina was feeling confident and it showed.
She won the race in 2:28.22, an 11-second personal best.
While her biggest gains came in the 800m, Christina prefers the
400m and said she thinks it's a tougher race. Heading into Eugene, she said she
was battling an injury in her lower leg but still followed Brown's advice to
"always fight for the win."
After a year of non-stop training, Christina is taking some
down time to recover. Outside of running, she likes to draw and enjoys abstract
art. She is deciding whether she will run cross country again in the fall or
use the time to continue to sharpen her speed and form for track season. Either
way, she plans to be working toward her goal of running 56 seconds for the 400m
by the end of the 2024 season.
Brown believes it's possible, but he will be coaching her to
make incremental gains and, most importantly, to keep having fun so that her
time in the sport and her improvements extend far beyond middle school.
"A lot of athletes have natural gifts and abilities," said her
father, adding that he is no longer fast enough to run alongside his daughter.
"But not all athletes are willing to put in the work, and she is dedicated to
her craft. I think that's the main reason she has had so much success over the
past year."
