Courtesy: UMBC Athletic Media Relations
BEIJING, China?Former UMBC track and field athlete Cleopatra Borel-Brown is set to represent the island country of
Trinidad and Tobago on
Sunday, Aug. 17 in the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China. Borel-Brown will begin her quest for an
Olympic medal in the shot put at 9:10 a.m. Beijing time on Sunday, 9:10 p.m. eastern time
on Saturday (Aug. 16). With an
appearance at the 2008 Games, Borel-Brown will become the first athlete from
UMBC to complete in two Olympics.
Borel-Brown graduated from UMBC
in 2002 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies/health psychology as the most
decorated female athlete. While
competing for the Retrievers, Borel was a seven-time Northeast Conference
champion, three-time ECAC champion, three-time All-American, and is to date the
only UMBC athlete that has won a Division I National Championship.
Borel-Brown claimed NCAA gold at
the 2002 Indoor Track and Field National Championships in the shot put one year
after becoming the first female All-American at UMBC, when she placed eighth at
the 2001 NCAA meet. The 29-year-old
holds the school records for the indoor shot put and weight throw, as well as
the outdoor shot put and hammer throw and still holds the NEC marks for the
indoor and outdoor shot put. Her ECAC
record in the indoor shot put still stands, while her outdoor shot put record
stood until 2005.
A two-time recipient of the NEC
Most Outstanding Female Field Performer award, Borel-Brown competed for her
native country of T&T in the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she finished
10th overall in the shot put.
Since those games, she has finished eighth at the 2006 World Indoor
Championships, and taken bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2007
Pan-American Games in addition to being named the 2007 Sports Woman of the Year
for T&T.
In 2008, Borel-Brown has repeated
as the T&T national shot put champion at the Sagicor Open in June and has
also added a Central American and Caribbean Championship title in the beginning
of July. Going into the Games at
Beijing, she is ranked 17th in the world for shot put in 2008 with a
mark of 18.87m, which she achieved in July at a meet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Borel-Brown is married to former
UMBC athlete and current shot put and discus throw record-holder Balvin Brown
and resides in Blacksburg,
Va. where she just completed her
sixth season as a member of the track and field coaching staff.