A Pennsylvania grandmother has a chance to make the U.S. Olympic team in race walking

Michelle Rohl glanced at the clock three weeks ago, making sure she remained on pace to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials as she entered the race’s final laps. Rohl, a three-time Olympian who lives in Tioga County, retired from race walking more than 20 years ago but returned to the sport in her 50s.

The sport — once panned by Bob Costas as “holding a competition to see who can whisper the loudest” — is more grueling than it sounds. Rohl trains seven days a week, runs 45 miles a week, race walks with an 8-minute pace, suffered a concussion last year, and powers through nagging knee pain.

She was a distance runner in college before falling for race walking, a sport she mastered before stepping away to homeschool her five children.

The 58-year-old grandmother returned to race walking — “I was tricked into doing it again,” she said — and saw on that clock that she was closing in on the Olympic trials. But Rohl didn’t notice a dip in the road, tripped, and crashed to the asphalt. Her chin busted open, and blood soaked her shirt.

“You know the old phrase where you can tell you’re old when people go ‘Ohhhh’ instead of laughing when you fall,’” said Rohl’s husband, Michael. “Yeah, that was a little nerve-racking.”

Michael Rohl rushed to his wife’s aid, but she brushed him off. She was 4 kilometers away from reaching the Olympic trials. The grandmother, bloody chin and all, had a race to finish.

“I just said, ‘I have to stay on my feet and keep going forward,’” she said. “I was glad to be done, really. It would have been more rewarding if I wasn’t just trying to stay up for the last two laps.”

Rohl will compete Saturday in Springfield, Ore., in the 20-kilometer race walk with the chance to make the U.S. Olympic team this summer in Paris. Rohl is the oldest athlete in the field and does not expect to perform the way she did 32 years ago. But she picked herself up off the road three weeks ago in Toronto and willed her way to Oregon.

“I told her, ‘You have to do this because you might inspire some other people to keep going,’” Michael Rohl said. “‘Like who does this? The answer is, no one else has. So just go do it and have fun doing it because you can.’”

» READ MORE: U.S. Olympic track and field trials: How to watch, athletes to know, schedule of events

Rohl was born in Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and moved to Mansfield, Pa. — a small town near the New York border — in 2001. She was first introduced to race walking while rehabbing an Achilles injury in college. A few years later, Rohl’s coach urged her to try the sport again as it would give her a good route to the national championships. Three years later, she walked into the Olympic opening ceremonies with the Dream Team and race walked in Barcelona as an Olympian.

The sport is heavy on discipline, as it requires a competitor to have one foot on the ground at all times. It has been an Olympic sport since 1904. An American woman has never medaled in race walking. Rohl finished 20th in 1992, 14th in 1996, and 17th in 2000.

A four-time U.S. race walking champion, Rohl also holds seven individual age-group running records in distances from 800 to 10,000 meters. In January, Rohl set the American mile record for women aged 55-59 by finishing in 5:16.70.

“My middle daughter was like, ‘Mom, you were a really good athlete. Then you had kids,’” Rohl said. “‘And then we all grew up, and you’re a great athlete again. I think we were the reason.’ Well, I wanted to. I was ready for a break, and I wanted that part of my life.”

Rohl never planned to race walk as a Masters athlete — a division of competitors aged 35 and older — but her college coach, Mike DeWitt, urged her last year to go for the 3K record after she did a mile race. Then he urged her to chase the 5K record. Next, it was the 20K. Just when Rohl thought she was out, she was pulled back in.

“It’s fun to be around older athletes that want to compete at the highest level that they can compete at for as long as they can,” Rohl said.

Rohl spent her “retirement” homeschooling her five children — now aged 33 to 18 — while her husband was the track and field coach at Division II Mansfield University. They had moved all over the country before opting for a simple life in a small town.

“We’re not particularly materialistic people,” Michael Rohl said. “We don’t have a lot of things. We have a modest home. We live off one income, which is very different from people today. That’s just how we live. Instead of expensive cruises or expensive clothes, we shop at Walmart and save our money so we can go to Sweden. It’s a pretty simple lifestyle.”

The Rohls sold their home in Mansfield earlier this month after the university did not renew Michael Rohl’s contract after 23 seasons. The 59-year-old sued the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education in federal court last month for age discrimination.

The Rohls then drove across the country to Oregon, using 14 days to see the country and ease their minds after leaving Pennsylvania. They stopped at Badlands National Park in South Dakota and Pompey’s Pillar in Montana, where William Clark’s carved signature still remains from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

“We stopped at some random trail in Wisconsin and ran on that because it looked really cool,” Michael Rohl said. “We stopped at another random trail in North Dakota because that looked really cool.”

The Rohls arrived in Oregon and spent a week watching the Olympic trials. On Saturday, Michelle Rohl will compete again. Her career looked like it was finished last year after she tripped and struck her head on a curb near the end of a race. The concussion slowed her for 11 months. But she kept going. And her chances at the trials seemed at risk three weeks ago after she split her chin. That didn’t stop Rohl, who became a grandmother three months ago with the birth of her grandson, Peter.

“She’s an excited grandma,” Michael Rohl said. “We get pictures every day of our little grandson.”

The grandmother does not expect to be an Olympian. She said there’s no pressure in Oregon, and she’s just enjoying the moment. But Rohl never expected to be back at the Olympic trials. She’s still going. And she has a cut on her chin to prove it.

“She said, ‘Do you think this is going to scar?’” Michael Rohl said. “I said, ‘Yeah, it’s going to scar, but that’s OK because glory is forever, and guys dig scars.’ I’ve never known anyone who is as mentally tough as her. She likes to run, she likes to compete, and it’s a lifestyle for both of us. It makes her happy, and I’m just happy to be along for the ride.”