Once their collegiate careers conclude, most UW athletes move on to lives that do not revolve around constant training and high-level competition. There are a select few, however, who move on to professional and even Olympic competition.

These are just a few of the stories of former Wisconsin athletes who spent their summers competing at the Olympics in Beijing, China

Matt Tegenkamp, Track & Field

As a freshman at the University of Wisconsin in 2001, Matt Tegenkamp began to realize his dream of becoming an Olympic runner.

Well, dreams can come true.

After three years of grueling training, the man known as “Tegs” swapped out the Cardinal and White Wisconsin jersey for one of Red, White and Blue, representing the United States in the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Tegenkamp, with a time of 13:33.13 in the final, finished as the 13th fastest runner in the world at 5,000 meters. Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele took the gold medal with an Olympic record-breaking 12:57.82 mark in the final.

“I just didn’t have it. It was a slow first mile, and then they started going. At the mile we were seven seconds off 12:55 pace, but he still ran 12:57,” Tegenkamp said in his blog on KIMbia.net. “I thought I was ready to roll. They were messing around with the pace. It took a toll. It was tough. I might have forced myself too hard to cover the moves. I should have run more patiently to get back in it.”

To qualify for the 5,000-meter finals, Tegenkamp won the first heat with a time of 13:37.36—the fastest time in any qualifying heat.

Despite a somewhat disappointing final, the 2005 Wisconsin grad is already looking to next year and London in 2012.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ve got to get a lot stronger,” Tegenkamp blogged. “I know I have the finish. Now I have to get close enough to use it. I have to work on the important part of the race, the first 3K. I hope to close the gap…I’ve got the anaerobic system. I can kick with gusto. I’ve got to get more miles in to get stronger, but I have to be smart about it. My coach and I have a plan. We’re going to switch things up a little next year.”

Beau Hoopman & Micah Boyd, Men’s Rowing As the oldest sport at the University of Wisconsin, rowing dates back to 1878 when it became a part of intramural competition.

How fitting that two former Badger rowers helped earn the only American men’s rowing medal of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Wisconsin duo of Beau Hoopman and Micah Boyd, who graduated in 2003 and 2004 respectively, reunited as part of the crew of the US men’s eight boat. That group went on to claim the Bronze Medal with a time of 5:25.34—just 23 hundredths of a second behind silver medalist Great Britain. Canada took the gold with a time of 5:23.89.

After a disappointing second place finish in the qualifying heat in which the US rowers were out-stroked by the British, the Americans were sent to the repechage to earn their spots in the final.

“I don’t know if it was the extra day, or the eerily flat conditions, but we didn’t have a super efficient race,” Hoopman, a Plymouth, Wis. native, blogged to the Sheboygan Press. “We got out with everyone, but couldn’t hold our own in the second 500 meters of the race against the Brits. They had a massive move that we didn’t respond to, and the majority of the race felt like rowing on a Nordic Track, a lot of movement but not a lot of resistance. We rowed about 2 strokes per minute over our usual pace and there wasn’t a lot of pressure behind the blades.”

The American boat finished in first place with a time of 5:38.95 which sent them to the A Finals.

“Today we corrected the pace of the piece and came out on top in a very well contested rep,” Hoopman blogged. “With so few boats (eight) in the event, it meant that the medal hopes for two crews was over at the finish line, so you can imagine every crew out there was pulling their minds off.”

Amy Vermeulen, Women’s Soccer

Amy Vermeulen, a 2005 graduate from Wisconsin, represented her native Canada as an alternate soccer player in the Beijing games, of which Canada did not earn a medal. Though she saw no playing time in Beijing’s National Stadium, Vermeulen excelled as a two sport athlete in soccer and hockey at Wisconsin.

—KIMbia.net. and the Sheboygan Press contributed to this report.