Sport: Track (steeplechase)
Age: 21
Local connection: CU student
Previous Olympics: Her first.
How made Team USA: Finished third at the Olympic Trials June 29.
2012: Won NCAA and Pac-12 titles.
Career highlights: Kipp finished fifth as a freshman at the NCAA championships and third as a sophomore. This year she became the first CU athlete to claim a Pac-12 title, winning the conference steeplechase at Oregon’s historic Hayward Field in 9:57.39. Four weeks later she won the NCAA steeplechase title — the fifth in seven years for CU runners — in 9:49.02.
She but had to do more than finish in the top three — she had to run 9:43 or better to get the Olympic A standard. That brings a lot of pressure with it, but she pulled it off, finishing in 9:35.73. She follows in the great tradition of female steeplechase at CU — Jenny (Barringer) Simpson won NCAA titles in 2007-2009 and Emma Coburn won in 2011.
