JILL KINTNER 2008

Name: Jill Kintner

Profession: Mountaincross/BMX rider

Birth date: Oct 24, 1981

Hometown: Seattle, Washington, USA

Current Residence: Seattle, Washington, USA, and Blue Mountains, AUS (Winter)

POST OLYMPIC

After capturing the 2008 USA Cycling BMX National Championship title, Jill Kintner went on to win the bronze medal in BMX racing in the sport¹s Olympic debut this summer in Beijing.  Kintner started racing BMX locally in Seattle at age 8, and by 16 was competing professionally all around the world. As a BMX racer, Kintner has an estimated 70+ career wins, including, in 2002, the National Bicycle League Women's pro title and American Bicycle Association World Championship. After accomplishing most of her goals with BMX racing, owning nearly every major title, Kintner decided to change course in 2002 and switched to the larger wheeled sport of mountain bike racing, mainly competing in the gravity event of "mountaincross" aka "4x"‹where she is the three-time U.S. national champion, two-time UCI World Cup Overall Champion, and the three-time UCI World Champion in '05, '06, and 2007.  

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JILL KINTNER

MOUNTAINCROSS/BMX

2007

GOING FOR GOLD

When it was announced that BMX would be part of the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, Jill Kintner had a dilemma: Should she jump back on the 20-inch wheels and go for gold, or stick with Mountaincross (also known as 4 cross or 4X), the mountain bike discipline she’s dominated hands-down since 2005.

Kintner first had an impressive career as a BMX racer, with over 70 career wins including the NBL National Series pro title and ABA World Championship in 2002. But that was before she discovered Mountaincross, then a relatively new mountain bike discipline in which four athletes charge down a slope head-to-head, trying to out-think each other on a gnarly, obstacle-ridden course—mountain bike’s version of Boardercross.

In 2007, Kintner won the UCI 4X World Championship title – her third in a row. It was time to decide whether to remain dedicated to 4X and defend her title, or jump back to her roots to achieve the only goal she has left in BMX: earning an Olympic medal. Thanks in part to a comprehensive training and support plan put together by Red Bull and GT bicycles, and an invite to live at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in San Diego, Kintner decided to throw it all into BMX for 2008.

BMX – THE START OF A DREAM

Growing up in Washington State, Kintner played at an elite level in soccer and tennis, but bikes were always part of the picture, too. “I was the only girl in our neighborhood, and I would go on these little bike missions with the boys,” she remembers. By the time she turned eight, racing had become an outlet for Kintner’s competitiveness. “We had a BMX track ten minutes from our house, so it was a pretty accessible thing for my family to do together,” she explains. “Eventually my brother and I became full-fledged racers on the National circuit.” 

Kintner started competing with pros at age 14. She graduated high school when she was 17 and moved around the country to race full-time while also studying fine arts and design. “After a while, I’d accomplished most of my goals with BMX, and held most every title,” Kintner says matter-of-factly, “including Nationals and the World Championships. But ever since I was a kid, I had this vision of racing a mountain bike. It always seemed like the most challenging and rewarding type of bike riding – the kind that keeps you scared and pushes the limits.”

MOUNTAINCROSS DOMINANCE 

Kintner made the switch from BMX to 4X in 2002, and after financing most of her own World Cup chase, she signed with GT Bicycles in 2005. Kintner is now the undisputed queen of Mountaincross. She’s the four-time U.S. National Champion and three-time UCI World Champion, two-time UCI World Cup Champion; she won almost every race she entered in the summer 2006 season, including four out of five World Cup events. In 2005, she won three major titles in three weeks: UCI World Champion, World Cup Champion, and U.S. National Champion. 

When GT signed Kintner, they knew her primary value in 4X, but they were also looking ahead to the role she could play in the 2008 Olympics. Kintner wasn't so sure; her passion for 4X was tough to shelve. She was also concerned about the level of support she'd receive; there was no U.S. National BMX training program back when she was racing, and she knew that if she were to make a bid for the Olympics, everything had to be 100%. "USA Cycling, the Olympic Training Center, and GT have put a lot of resources into it now, but Red Bull's performance plan support was the deciding factor," she says. "I have a coach, I have a plan, we have an athletic trainer and all this staff to support us. We now have a much different approach to a sport that really hasn't been developed."

RE-LEARNING CURVE

One of the toughest challenges Kintner faces is the difference in the bikes. The BMX bike, with 20-inch wheels, handles completely differently than a 26-inch mountain bike with full suspension. "It's easy to switch from a BMX bike to a mountain bike, but it's tricky to go the other way," she points out. "Mountain bikes are more stable and roll smoother; you can hit jumps without being perfect, but on a BMX bike you have to be perfect."

The approach is different, as well. In BMX, it's all about explosive acceleration. Most of Kintner's previous training regimen consisted of simply riding, honing her bike-handling skills in the saddle rather than the gym. She now has more gym time and lots of short-burst sprinting drills to contend with, to keep ther training very sports specific. She doesn't see it as an obstacle, though, only as more motivation. “I’m really competitive, and I put my heart into everything,” she claims. “If I'm going to do something, I want to be the best at it.”

Kintner is one of four Olympic BMX hopefuls living at the OTC in San Diego; the U.S. will send at least one female rider to Beijing, possibly two, depending on the points the riders in each nation earn over a year of UCI-sanctioned races leading up to the Olympics. She says that living and training with them while competing for one or two coveted spots is difficult, but it's ultimately making them all better riders. 

LOOKING AHEAD

The only non-Olympic thought Kintner has had time to entertain lately is about when she'll get to see her boyfriend and GT teammate, Bryn Atkinson, and return to the house they own in the Blue Mountains of Australia (their separate training schedules have kept them apart for months). Whether she'll return to 4X or remain in BMX is unknown, but wherever she ends up, she'll be even faster, which is enough to make all the women on either circuit nervous.

For now, she's focused on doing everything it takes to make the U.S. Olympic Team. No matter what wheels she's riding on, Jill Kintner is a champion, and she intends to prove that without a doubt in August in Beijing. 

BIO Courtesy of RED BULL USA

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STORY FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES- 2005

BY TERRY WOOD

At age 24, Jill Kintner rules her sport.

Kintner is the undisputed queen of women's 4-cross (aka 4X, or mountaincross), a very fast, often furious sprint on a mountain bike (typically lasting around 60 seconds or so) down hilly, twisting, obstacle-dotted courses involving four riders racing head-to-head. 

Essentially a hybrid of BMX and downhill mountain bike (MTB) racing, 4-cross is an abrupt, frantic test of agility, thrust and savvy - sort of a muscle-powered, two-wheeled version of sprint-car racing on a bad dirt road. 

During the 2005 racing season, not quite four years after she made the transition from being a champion BMX racer (winning 70+ professional victories on 20-inch wheels) to racing 4-cross on 26-inch MTB wheels, Kintner made it vividly clear that no woman in the world is better in this cycling discipline. 

Within a three-week span in September 2005, Kintner won three major titles. She was crowned the 4-cross world champion -- at the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Championships in Livigno, Italy, and then the World Cup Champion the following weekend in Ft. William Scotland. 

Then at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., she completed the trifecta, becoming the U.S. 4-cross champion for the second time in three years. 

She is ranked No. 1 in the world by UCI in 4-cross among elite pro women, and her former coach, Scott Sharples, sees no reason why she can't hold that position for years to come. 

"She deserves to be No. 1, by a long way," the Australia-based Sharples said in an e-mail interview. "She is a great competitor, athletically gifted, mentally charged, calculated and very skilled. Having said that, she also has a lot of untapped potential." 

So what is it that enables Kintner to pull away from the pack? 

"Jill has few faults as a competitor," Sharples said. "Her determination is her greatest strength. It really comes through in her work ethic and focus. When she puts on her 'race face,' you better be ready for a tough battle, even if you're a male." 

Where does Jill think she finds her edge? "I think my work ethic is just really high, I know I have to give my training everyhtin I possibly canto be the best, and I'm very goal-oriented," she said. "I travel the world, ride my bike and have fun. The least I can do is put in the effort. There's no reason for me to be lazy. I have been given a great life." 

Kintner won her first cycling title at age 9 and has since won every national and world title offered in BMX and 4-cross racing. Now BMX has a new crown that has caught Kintner's attention: It has been added as a medal sport for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. 

Kintner would not hesitate to switch back to BMX to have a shot at Olympic gold. "I have to qualify first," she said. Her coach likes her chances. 

"I don't know anything about the depth of quality in BMX," said Sharples, who coaches 10 elite MTB riders. "But having said that, if Jill put her mind to it, I have no doubt she could win an Olympic gold medal. That would be precious." 

Even with the ascending popularity of X Games culture, fame and fortune can be elusive for a 4-cross champion. She points to a $10,000 purse earned for winning a Jeep-sponsored race this year as one of her better paydays. "It's nothing close to motocross, cars, snowboards basketball or any other sport, we have national events sometimes without any purse at all," she said. 

"The only real motivation for being well-known, for me, is so that more people will get involved and see how positive biking is. To say hello to some little girl who came out to watch her brother is nothing for me, but it could change her life, you know? Things like that are cool to see." 

Kintner also loves snowboarding, tennis, golf and ping-pong. Pretty muh any competitive outlet. She's also attracted to graphic design, drawing and photography, and she's making time to design her own Web site -- after wrangling with her mother's opportunistic trash collector to finally obtain the logical domain name (jillkintner.com) that he first registered. 

"Learning and progression are some of the most important things I have experienced," she said, "but there are so many other things. Bike racing is bike racing. I make my living at it, but it is important not to get tunnel vision and forget that there are many facets to life. So as long as I have a challenge and I'm learning, I will race." 

And likely race well. "I was sitting on the side of a track in Italy," recalled Sharples, her coach. "She was practicing a big jump that no other girl could do, and very few men could do. 

"There were two men behind me, giving her a big cheer as she made the jump. Then one of them said, "I think that was a chick.' The other said, 'Nah, it couldn't be.' A couple of minutes later she passed again, and one of them yelled out, "Holy ----, it IS a chick.' Check her out!' 

"She is great," Sharples added. "I wouldn't have worked with her if she wasn't. She's fun, joyful, spirited, has integrity and is feminine, which is respectable in a sporting arena dominated by men. I could go on, but I have to keep her ego in check. "I do think Jill is going to show us a new level of competitiveness for a quite a few more years to come," he said. 

Jan Kintner, her mother, agrees; "I'm astonished beyond belief that my daughter is so driven to be outstanding. She's not a goofy biker slacker. Her standards are much too high for that, and she won't give you the time of day if you're not ethical. In sport and in life, she simply knows what she wants and how to go after it." 

BY TERRY WOOD

Special to The Seattle Times