Racing with the title Olympian now, Sachem alum and Nesconset, N.Y. native Maria Michta captured her first victory since competing in London at the Olympics in August.
Michta won the USA 30K Racewalk championship held last Sunday at Rockland State Park in Valley Cottage, N.Y. She finished in 2:40:44, just ahead of Katie Burnett and Susan Randall.
Michta’s journey hasn’t stopped since London. Aside from heading back to school at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and adjusting to post-Olympic life while obtaining her Ph.D., she also made time to meet President Barack Obama and be honored at a New York Giants game with other U.S. Olympians.
“Life was back to normal, lab work was picking up again and I had resumed more structured training so this excitement was fleeting as I had many other distractions to focus on in the meanwhile,” Michta wrote on her blog, MariaMichta.com.
Michta also earned a White House visit in 2004 as an Intel STS Finalist as a student at Sachem High School.
After getting a hug from Michele Obama, speaking with Vice President Joe Biden and taking a photo with Olympic legend Michael Phelps, it was a pretty good day for Michta.
Later in October, accompanied by fiance and Sachem East teacher/coach Joe Coffey, Michta went to MetLife Stadium for a Giants-Buccaneers game with other U.S. Olympic athletes. They enjoyed warmups and a halftime show on the sidelines and were honored with a rousing applause from the crowd after the first quarter.
“It was in this moment that it hit me again, it was me that they were cheering for,” Michta wrote, “I Maria Michta had done it, I became the Olympian. Normally I would have been siting in the crowd, in seats that would have cost a fortune, and been loudly applauding the Olympians getting chills as a pang of nervous excitement would rush through me. Today I was the celebrated Olympian.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro