JUNIOR NATIONAL CYCLING : Her Wheels Just Kept on Turning

SAN DIEGO â€”  There have been cyclists at the U.S. Cycling Federation Junior Nationals demanding to be allowed into events for which they did not qualify. There have been other cyclists arguing openly with officials.

There has been enough dissension to force officials to wonder why they are putting on the event? Is it really worth it?

Yes, it is, they say, because, outside the few who use their mouths to attract attention, there are many young racers developing into future Greg LeMonds, into future Olympic stars. And into young adults.

One of those rising stars is a local girl of 14, Crystal Waters. Waters was adorned with the stars and stripes jersey and a gold medal on Sunday for winning the criterium for girls 13-15.

That was just a start. The following day, she won the 500-meter time trial in 40.28 seconds. On Tuesday, Waters finished with the fastest time in the 200-meter flying time trial, 13.69.

Talk to Waters about her accomplishments, though, and somehow the conversation goes off on tangents.

She begins talking not about her own feats, but about her coaches, her family, race directors and organizers.

While being interviewed by reporters after winning the criterium, Waters quickly credited her coaches, Grylls and Doreen Smith with devising the winning strategy.

After thanking her coaches, Waters remembered the people putting on the race.

“And if you can get this in the paper,� she asked, “I really want to thank the organizers. The organization for this was really good.�

What Waters failed to mention was that she spent the previous week helping set up the nine-day meet as a volunteer.

“She spent all week getting numbers and medals organized,� Smith said. “How many 14-year olds can you rely on to do that?�

Probably just 14-year olds who are obsessed with the sport. But that isn’t the case with Waters.

Smith, for one, won’t allow it. She stresses academics as well as athletics and even gives cycling equipment each year to two cyclists on her club, the one with the highest grade-point average and to the one with the most-improved grade-point.

Waters will never win the latter. Can’t improve much on a 4.0. In fact, she fears her cycling may some day hurt her GPA.

“School has to come first,� Waters said. “But I barely made a 4.0 last semester because of cycling.�

If Smith can’t convince Waters to go easy on the sport while she’s young, Waters’ mother, Ginny, is right there to back up the coach.

Although Ginny moved her family to San Diego from Oregon 2 1/2 years ago because of the cycling community and support here, she does not want it to become Crystal’s main focus.

“I don’t want a kid’s whole happiness to be contingent on winning a bike race,� Ginny said. “Once you become like that, you’re just like a businessman, stepping on people’s toes and losing some dignity.�

Smith doesn’t see that happening with Crystal.

“Here’s a kid you want to take and use as an example and say, ‘Why can’t adults be like this?’ � Smith said.

Besides, Waters has other interests. She plays the classical guitar and will be a member of the Madison High band when school starts next month.

She is also gaining interest in her mother’s work. Ginny is a microbiologist at UCSD Medical Center. Crystal spent her Christmas vacation last year in her mother’s lab doing a science project on DNA. She found a bent segment of DNA that several months later a German research team also found and reported in a medical journal.

Besides getting an A+ on the project, Waters won first place at the San Diego Science Fair and a genetics award from San Diego State.

But more important, she said, she had some fun with her mother, who has raised both Crystal and son Rocky, 18, alone since Crystal’s father left the family when Crystal was born.

“It was great,� Waters said of her project. “I’d get an idea, and my Mom would get really excited and start yelling, ‘Yeah, we can do that!’

“She’s a really cool mom.�

Cycling Notes

George Hincappie of Farmingdale N.Y. beat Mark Hanlon of El Toro for the gold medal in the 3,000-meter pursuit in the boys 17-18 division with a time of 3:39.96. Jessica Grieco of Emerson, N.J. took the gold in the 2,000-meter pursuit for girls 16-17 by beating Kiersten Johnson of Macungie, Penn. with a time of 2:41.20. . . . Hincappie and Hanlon also placed one-two in the kilometer late Monday night with respective times of 1:10.21 and 1:10.57.