Until now, it has been relatively simple for Jillian Drouin to pursue her two passions.

She is an athlete and a political activist; two lives, distinctly different and clearly separate.

Until now.

After scoring 5,890 points in the heptathlon at the Big East championships last year, the senior from Ontario sits just 110 points away from qualifying for the Canadian Olympic Team that is heading to Beijing this summer. The 6,000 points needed is a score she and her coaches believe is attainable in the qualifying period between May 25 and July 6.

But the games Drouin has dreamed of competing in since she was a child have already been marred by political activism months before they are scheduled to begin. The Olympic torch route to China has been halted, rerouted and may even be cancelled in several countries because of protests over the Chinese occupation of Tibet and other humanitarian issues.

‘I’m kind of torn,’ Drouin said. ‘Because being somewhat of an activist, I want to speak out and show my discontent. But at the same time, being an athlete and putting so much work in, it’s hard to say I’m going to give up this one shot at going to such a huge event to show my political views. So, it’s tough.’

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While she speaks, Drouin displays the two sides of her life that have just now come into conflict. She sits in Manley Field House, wearing Big East athletic clothing, with a backpack over her shoulder.

Six pins adorn the backpack strap, each showing her political beliefs. The obvious one calls for President Bush to be put in jail. The pink ribbon symbolizes breast cancer awareness, while the rainbow button shows she is an LGBT ally. A safety pin with a red ribbon attached promotes AIDS awareness, while yet another pin shows her pro-choice beliefs.

She wears a green ribbon against domestic violence, showing support for Take Back the Night, in which she is a member of the planning committee. She is also president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, founder and president of Student Athletes Across Borders, vice president of the Student Peace Action Network, and is a member of the planning committee for the ‘Ten Tons of Love’ charitable donation drive.

They have always been a part of her life, just like athletics.

But Drouin worries the politics could decide her athletic future. While it remains unlikely, activists have been pushing Canada and other countries to boycott the entire Olympics.

Drouin said this type of action would be unfair to the athletes because it eliminates their opportunity to choose whether or not they wish to attend.

‘This would be my best shot at going, and I haven’t decided if I want to invest another four years after working so hard to try to make the next one,’ she said. ‘So if I didn’t have the opportunity to go at all because of a government choice that would probably disappoint me.’

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Like many aspiring athletes, Drouin had dreamed of going to the Olympics since she started high jumping in fourth grade. But that dream had started to lose its luster when she entered college.

‘There was one point in time where I thought I didn’t want to do it,’ Drouin said of qualifying for the Olympics. ‘I had been doing sports for a long time, and if I don’t improve enough while I’m in college, do I really want to invest another 10-15 years of my life trying to reach that goal? And I didn’t know that I did.’

That point in time came during her first two years at Syracuse. She was practicing longer and harder than ever in her career, and the results just weren’t what she expected.

Inexperienced at multi-events – she had only competed at single events in high school – coincided with Drouin’s first real bouts with nagging injuries. She developed tendonitis in her knees and formed a habit of spraining her ankles.

Then came the Big East championships in May 2007. All the hard work finally paid off, and Drouin earned the league title in the heptathlon with a school-record 5,890 points earned.

SU assistant coach Enoch Borozinski approached Drouin after the competition and told her the score was an Olympic B qualifying mark (Drouin needs to reach the A qualifying mark to make the Olympic team). She was surprised and at first did not completely believe her coach. But after some research on her own, she discovered the Olympics might not be just a pipe dream after all.

‘I honestly thought that it would have taken a lot higher (score),’ Drouin said. ‘Not that that’s not a good score, but I was just assuming I’m not at that level yet. I was really amazed. I guess it was surprising that I could do that.’

And just like that, the dream was back.

‘It got me a lot more excited,’ Drouin said. ‘The fact that that was a possibility did get me a lot more excited for the prospects after the university. And that lasted probably through the entire summer and start of the school year.’

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Now comes the hard part for Drouin: actually qualifying for the Olympics after all the talk about her chances for the past year.

She had a strong indoor season, winning the Big East championship in the pentathlon in February. Her NCAA championships were less exciting; she earned 17th place in the high jump and did not compete in the pentathlon, but that was all part of the long-term plan, said Borozinski.

‘Right now it’s kind of like we’re on cruise control, just kind of waiting our time and fine-tuning some things until the Big East comes around,’ he said. ‘We’re barely halfway into the year right now where most kids are finishing up.’

Drouin needs to accumulate the 6,000 points in the heptathlon during a major meet to qualify for the Canadian team. Those meets include the NCAA regional and championship meets, the Canadian National Championship and some later European meets.

As the qualifying events inch closer, Drouin admits the pressure is on her mind.

‘I think, well, now that I’ve been talking about this and people know, what happens if it doesn’t happen?’ she said. ‘What if I don’t make the team? I start getting worried about that.’

If she doesn’t make the team this year, Drouin has not decided if she will continue to train for the 2012 Olympics. She plans to attend chiropractic school in either California or England, and she does not know if she will be able to keep up her training at a high enough level.

Drouin’s mother, Sheila, said her stomach will be in knots because she knows how much pressure her daughter will be facing at the NCAAs.

‘I said, ‘You know what Jillian, if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen,” Sheila said. ”You have nothing to be ashamed of. To be where you are at 21 years old, you’re a winner as far as anyone’s concerned.”

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Drouin said unless the situations in China and Tibet escalated dramatically in the coming months, she would not choose to boycott the games. This may be the only chance she has to qualify, and she wants to take advantage of it.

She doesn’t want to look like she’s sitting on the fence. She doesn’t want to look like a hypocrite for not acting on the beliefs she displays so proudly with the pins on her backpack.

She also doesn’t want to miss out on perhaps the best athletic opportunity of her life.

But Drouin thinks there is a way she can compete and display a prominent protest on an international stage.

‘People have done crazy things before,’ Drouin said. ‘Wearing a warmup T-shirt that says ‘Free Tibet’ or something would not be out of the question I don’t think.

‘There are still ways to participate and show that I don’t agree with what’s going on at the same time.’

bntahmos@syr.edu

Published on April 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm