Karla (Kak) Calderon: “Karting was a sport I never thought about. In Mexico, we didn’t have the TV exposure, the newspapers, the magazines that American girls had, so I didn’t really follow it. … When I went to U.S. school, I had always wanted to study abroad, so when you go to boarding school it’s always more competitive, and people are always just ahead of you. That’s what made me decide to go for the States and go to track at West Point. I didn’t know anything about track before I was there, and I was very surprised at how much athletic ability there was — how many girls wanted to go, and how hard they worked to try and get there.”
Michelle Barr (Kak’s road coach): “When Karla came here, that was the first year we had a woman’s team. She was my one person that I recruited that year, and in track she was already a national champion, so I was thrilled.”
Megan Hamill (Kak’s road coach): “It’s easy for me to see her drive her car because she runs so fast. So I’m sure she has her eyes on the road, because she can see the car coming. But you can see that it’s also more important for her to be in good shape and to be doing a good job than to get the top score. When she comes on the track, she wants to get her time up.”