Baby Gymnast Photos

Greatest Athlete #13: A two-time NCAA champion, Amy Linnen always seeks adventure

“RIP CURRENTS. You could be swept out and drown,” warns one sign. Directly below it, another sign depicts a wave about to crash over a man whose falling to his back, his left arm held up toward the curling crescendo of water as if it serves as any kind of defense. “WAVES ON LEDGE” it says below, for those somehow unable to interpret the image.

Amy Linnen pays no heed to the warnings as she climbs the rocky cliff of an area called China Walls in the southern tip of O’ahu, Hawaii in late 2007. The picturesque waterfront sits on Maunalua Bay, which flows into the Pacific Ocean, a setting so tranquil it served as the backdrop for several scenes of the ABC show “Lost.”

Atop the cliff, roughly 10 feet above the bay, Linnen stares out at the never-ending expanse of blue water as her friend and training partner Morgan Hoesterey readies the camera equipped with a brand-new “fish-eye” lens. On a rare day off from training for what she hopes will be one last shot at the Olympics, what she is about to do may seem unnecessarily risky.

Wearing a black bikini, and with her blonde hair tied in a pony tail, she steps to the edge and jumps.

She dives into the water and patiently waits for the rolling waves to pass over, allowing her an opening to swim back toward the rock wall. “The first time I never thought I would get back up,” she would say a year later. Reaching for the wall filled with sea urchins ­— which have round, spiny shells — she hoists herself up and climbs back atop the cliff. And then she jumps again, about 30 times in total. Swan dives. Back flips. Anything she can think of as Hoesterey snaps away.

Crazy? Perhaps.

But to think so is to not understand Amy Linnen, a woman who never let fear stand in the way of her dreams. She never faced an obstacle she didn’t believe she could overcome.

Each day for Linnen presents a new challenge, one she approaches with an overwhelmingly positive attitude. Always smiling, she exudes charisma that can’t help but rub off on the people around her, making them too believe they can accomplish the impossible.

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Amy Linnen is home now, back at Mount Sinai High School where it all began. She’s a physical education teacher in the middle school and coach for the girls track and field team, the perfect profession for the 29-year-old to share her expertise.

When Linnen began coaching at Mount Sinai during the winter season in 2009, the Mustangs fielded a veteran team. Most of the girls were well aware of Linnen’s accomplishments as a pole-vaulter and were left in awe that she was now working with them. As some of the younger girls come up through the program now, they’re further removed and less cognizant of what Linnen is all about.

USA today

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