When Nicole Bonk began college three years ago, probably the last thing she might have expected to accomplish was to become a national class walker. A pilot, perhaps; that is, after all, her major at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. An increasingly accomplished distance runner, certainly; Peter Hopfe is her track and cross country coach. But earning an invitation to the 2012 Olympic Trials? Not even on her radar…even though, as a junior, she is already well-read on that subject. So the obvious question remaining is: how did one of this most cherished of athletic honors come about?
Nicole: “At practice one day—during my sophomore year--some teammates—Alex Frazier, John Brash, and Russell Snyder--were telling me about the walk. They said, ‘you should see them race walk at the (NAIA) Nationals.’”
Coach Hopfe: “So we’re in the weight room, and she’s race walking back and forth, and says ‘Coach, look at me race walk!’”
Nicole: “I asked Coach (Hopfe), ‘If we do a time trial, and I hit a standard, will you train me?’”
Coach Hopfe: “I said, ‘Sure. We’ll do a time trial….’”
Nicole: “…but I don’t think he was expecting anything to come out of it.”
Coach Hopfe: “She went out on the track one afternoon, and did it,” confirmed Hopfe. “So I started coaching her.”
But with no previous experience, perhaps Peter was a fish out of water.
Hopfe: “I can train people to improve their aerobics, and that’s what race walking is all about. I can make her an aerobic racing machine…but (of course) I was also still learning about the race walk. It’s interesting. I’ll ‘beat her up’ in a running workout, and her legs will be sore, but the next day she’ll come back and be fine for walking. She now race walks faster than she was running.”
That following indoor track season, in her first “official” race--the February 18th, 2011 Last Chance Meet (meaning, last opportunity to qualify for the NAIA Indoor Championships)—Nicole finished first in the 3000 meter race walk in 16:54.60, thus qualifying. At the Nationals, on March 3, she shaved nine seconds off that time to finish ninth overall (16:46.44).
After qualifying at the 2011 Sun Conference Outdoor Championships in a 5K winning time of 26:40.92, she went on to lower that time to 25:52.63 at the 2011 NAIA Outdoor Championships.
“I got fifth.”
Entering her junior year….
“Coach and I went over the goals I wanted to reach, both realistically and long range. My immediate goal was to make All-American, and my ultimate goal was to qualify for the Olympic Trials.”
Bonk continued to train, running cross country in the fall, and track over the winter.
“I did both,” she explained. “I raced and walked. I started with the 800, and then the walk (3000 indoors and 5000 outdoors). They also put me in longer races to help my walk. I started indoors….”
In her first meet, on January 28, 2012, she dropped two minutes off her previous year’s finish, winning the Indoor/Outdoor Meet—indoor events on an outdoor track—in 14:54.19. Next came the NAIA Nationals on March 1st, which she won in 14:41.95. (She also did one 5K, a 25:34.70 PR at the March 23rd Spikes Classic.)
So much for one of her “immediate goals.” Next, it was time to reach for her “ultimate goal.”
With few race walking venues in Florida, Coach Peter Hopfe, in conjunction with several race walking organizers—the most noteworthy being Don De Noon--staged a 20K race walk on the Embry Riddle track, April 27, 2012.
Coach Hopfe: “Vince Peters”--Miami (Ohio) Valley Track Club--has an e-mail database, and I submitted the date to him, and he sent it all over the country. Eight walkers came, including Ian Whatley (four time Olympic Trials Qualifier, and four time U.S. National Team member).”
Nicole: “Besides Ian, there was also Maite Moscoso (who has made the U.S. Junior team that will be competing this summer), and her mother, who has already qualified for the Olympic trials. She raced as well.
“We raced at 7:30 PM. It was cooler then, also later, because some of the people were coming from Georgia.
“I remember it like it was yesterday; probably one of the hardest races I’ve ever done. I did a 20K last year at the U.S. Nationals”—June 26, 2011; she was ninth in 2:07:01.25—“but this was definitely harder.
“Coming in to that day, I felt that I was ready. I felt that the training had prepared me, so I was mentally prepared. I made sure that every split was where it had to be. (A teammate shouted off every 400 split.) If it wasn’t, I’d take the extra time off the next one.
“To my teammates, I might have been the most important person out there. But to me, I was racing against the clock, and the athletes were top-notch. We had two athletes from the U.S. Junior team.
“I never knew I had it until the last 5K. I thought, ‘I’m not going to let a 5K shut me out.’ But anything could have happened; I could have been disqualified—there were four referees, one on each corner—I could have cramped, or just broken down.”
In the end, with a finish time of 1:46:29.2, she “cruised” under the 1:48 necessary for the June 21st to July 1st U.S. Olympic trials at Oregon’s Hayward Field. According to Vince Peters, National Chair of USATF Race Walking Committee, she is one of only 14 American women to do so.
“I have to thank my Embry Riddle teammates. Without them, I would have never made it. Pretty much the whole team was there, for two hours, cheering me on. I’m pretty blessed to have them, my family, and coaches for the support…especially Coach Hopfe, who is a race walking coach in progress.”
When asked about the possibility of coaching other walkers, Hopfe grinned.
“I’m considering it,” he said. “I’m not sure about that.”
“I race on July 1st,” Nicole continued, “which I think is the last day. Right now, I have to live and breathe it; eat the right things, train the right way, and mentally prepare for it.
But no matter what happens on the track in the coming weeks, Nicole Bonk is way ahead of the curve. At 22, she will be the third youngest qualifier in the trials, behind Erica Shaver, who is 19 (qualified with a 1:47:47), and Rachel Zoyhosski, 21 (qualified with 1:47:45).
“Race walking comes with time,” explains Peters. “First you have to develop the technique, and then the speed and strength to go with it. The prime time for a race walker is their late 20s and early 30s. However, we have several older women who will be in the 2012 Olympic trials race. Theresa Vaill (49), Joanne Dow (48)—a 2008 Olympian who started walking in her 30s (she was a late bloomer)--and Jill Cobb (37) will be the oldest.”
Compare Bonk (born on August 24, 1990), who graduated from Central Buck South (Pennsylvania) in 2009, with one of the nation’s top female race walkers--Theresa Vaill. Theresa (born on November 20, 1962) graduated from Seymour Smith Senior, in Pine Plains (New York) in 1981, and Vaill is still one of the top female race walkers in America.
Granted, when Vaill qualified for the 2004 Olympic team, she was, at 41, the oldest female athlete in Olympic track and field history, but the fact is that her early career roughly parallels that of Bonks: a national indoor champion three years out of high school (1984), the first of seven. Vaill went on to win four outdoor 10K championships (2004, 2005, 2007, and 2009), and set the American Women’s 10K record (1:33:28 in 2005) at the age of 44. But there is one noteworthy difference in the two; New York State has race walking in high school, and along with another national-class walker, 26 year old Maria Michta (a graduate of Sachem North High School in 2004), each had eight years of walking experience—high school and college combined--by the time they had reached the same age (22) as Nicole Bonk. Nicole has had only 15 months and a handful of actual races.
“She has exceptional form,” says Don De Noon, who has decades of experience, both as a walker and a coach. “She started out with a natural ability to race walk, and perfected it from the get-go. With her distance running ability, that enhanced her ability to be competitive.”
De Noon pointed out that “There will be walkers in that trial who can finish as much as ten minutes ahead of her, but some of them might be disqualified.” Plus, “It might be an advantage of a good distance runner with a good cardiovascular system to race walk.”
Bonk has since added a second national title to her race walk resume, the 2012 NAIA Outdoor 5000, which she won the last weekend in May; 26:43.05.
With such a meteoric rise to national recognition, can the future look any brighter for the young star? Only time—and her times—will tell.
Nicole's Athlete Profile