Coming now, from one of the nation's top female distance-running prospects, the statement wouldn't prompt a second thought.
Coming then, from a relatively unknown eighth-grader on a fact-finding trip to a private high school, it almost seemed comical.
I want to run in the Olympics someday.
That was Jordan Hasay's reply when Leslie Monaco, coach of the cross-country program at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo, asked what her goals were.
"I remember seeing Leslie's face," recalled Joe Hasay, Jordan's father. "She must have thought, 'She's a stupid little girl.' "
Little maybe. Hasay was a wispy 5 feet tall then and has grown only four inches since. But definitely not stupid. She has maintained a 4.53 grade-point average and is in the running to become her school's valedictorian.
Hasay was right about her running talent too, even if she might have come off as a bit precocious.
"I look back and laugh at myself for saying that," she said. "I really didn't have any idea what going to the Olympics would take."
Hasay nearly reached her Olympic goal in 2008, making the finals of the U.S. Olympic trials. Today, she will run in the 3,200 meters in the state high school championships at Clovis, trying to become the first four-time champion of the event.
Last year, she won the race in a personal-best time of 9 minutes 52.13 seconds, the second-fastest finish ever for an American high school girl.
Hasay already is a four-time Division V state champion, a two-time winner at Foot Locker's cross-country national championship (in 2005 and 2008), and winner of two USA Track and Field titles -- in cross-country in 2007 and the 1,500 meters in 2008.
Those accomplishments, it seems, have only made her work harder. She trains by running between 40 and 60 miles a week, waking as early as 5 a.m. to begin her lifelong passion.
"I'm kind of a Type A personality, so it fits me well, the demands of running," Hasay said. "Everything is nice and scheduled."
The "rock-star attention" Mission College Prep track and field Coach Armando Siqueiros says Hasay attracts at meets suggests she already has legions of fans.
At the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Eugene, Ore., Hasay recalls the "whole stadium clapping for me" every step of her race. And she didn't disappoint them. To shouts of "Go to Oregon!" she set a national high school record of 4:14.50 in the 1,500 in a fifth-place semifinal finish.
