Watch Chyna Soar

Chyna Ries…Mission “The Podium Times 3″

As a young child Chyna Ries was hospitalized multiple times with asthma including her most serve case on 9-11-01,in the emergency room of Childrens Hospital on oxygen  to help her stabilize her breathing.

Initially her parents thought sports would not be a option for her, but as time went on they found out that wasn’t the case. At 8 years old Chyna was a litttle taller than most of the girls her age and pretty muscular.  A friend of her families had a boy’s soccer team and he needed another player and he asked if she could play. He placed  her at fullback postion and she responded by continually dribbling the ball from one end of the field to the other while out running everyone on the field.

People observed almost immediately how fast she was and began saying “Wow she’s fast”. The next game she was put at forward and continued to out run everyone on the field. Another friend observed her performance on the soccer field and asked if Chyna had ever ran track and that was the beginning of her journey.

At first, track was the secondary sporting activity that she did once basketball and soccer were over, she would routinely show up for Colorado State Championships and just run with limited or no training.  Chyna’s times were fairly competitive on National level so in 2007 we decided to go to the AAU Nationals in Knoxville Tennessee. She ended up 20th in the 100m and 17th in the 200m. Confusion on the schedule and inexperience on the National Level led to us showing up late for the long jump (LJ) and Chyna was unable to compete in her best event there.

In Knoxville Chyna’s Dad befriended the Cunliffe’s out of Seattle and this is where there friendship began,Their family growth and understanding of the sport of track really was ignited. The Cunliffe’s have been great friends and Coach Mike has been a great source of knowledge and advice that has helped Chyna mature in her pursuit. 

Late In the summer of 2008 we joined the Legendary Coach Tony Well’s Colorado Flyers, Chyna was still juggling basketball and soccer and fitting track in when we could. This was perhaps the greatest opportunity of Chyna’s track career.  Coach Tony’s skill building and training has been instrumental to her success on the track.  In Omaha at the 2009 USATF Junior Olympics National Championships Chyna made the podium in 3 events placing 7th in the long jump and 8th in the 100m and 200m.  Her nerves clearly got the best of her and  her dad reports she did not perform even close to her personal records (PRs) in any event. This is the moment when Chyna decided that she wanted to be more than just not good in track, but great and wanted to dedicate more time to the sport.

The Ries family have become essentially fully immersed track family with Chyna’s sisters Raja and Maya both competiting and having their own successes. Maya for the first time made it to nationals and will compete in Sacramento in the 80mh.

It truly was tumultuous season for Chyna in 2009, First a groin strain sidelined her for much of the Indoor season and put her behind in training. The weather in Colorado, is commonly extremely poor and erratic for much of the summer and  this really put a hamper on our season. The 2009 the USATF Nationals were in Greensborough NC and for the first time Chyna performed close to her PR level and actually matched it with a jump of 17’11″ in the LJ to take 4th and another stand on the Podium.

In 2010 Chyna showed a great determined dedication and really attacked the workouts. Her first Long Jump of the indoor season was 18’9.75″ the top indoor mark for a Youth girl in the US. During this time Chyna also was averaging over 22 points a game and was named Denver Prep Sports all star for basketball. As an 8th grader her indoor season took her to some premier high school meets, Simplot Games where she finished 4th, and to Boston for the Nike Indoor Nationals where she placed 9th against the top high school girls in the nation. The summer track season started off with the Ries family making thier first trip to the Phoenix Invitational, Chyna placed 4th in the 100m and broke a 35 year old Phoenix Invitation record in the long jump winning it with a jump of 18’6.5″.  At the State Junior Olympic’s on June 19th Chyna reached a goal she had set or herself and became a 19 foot long jumper by going 19’2″ to win state, she also won the 100 and 200 for Colorado.

Chyna enters the Sub-12 Club

Regional’s were next and she stayed on a roll winning the Long Jump with a 18’3.25 and the she dropped the current fastest time in the Nation for Youth girls by opening up with a 11.95.She ran to a silver finish 2nd  in the region a 12.24 into a -2.8 and gained valuable experience of running in a big race with a  formidable competior and learned a lesson all track athletes need to learn run your race. In a hugely anticipated 200 Chyna matched up with her Arizona rival and a multiple time national champion from Colorado in the 200. She bested her Arizona rival but ended up taking 2nd once to her Colorado counterpart, once again she gained valuable experience and was taught another lesson about running your race.

 Her current PR’s in the 100m (11.95), 200m (24.67) & Long Jump (19’2″) have her in line to once again make the podium  this summer in Sunny Califonia with hopes of moving up  to the top of the podium becoming a National Champion  in these three events.

Here is a Video of her 11.95 PR

Chyna truly enjoys spending time with her family and friends and enjoys texting other athletes across the nation that she has befriended through competing with them.  A pretty typical teenager — she likes facebooking, texting, listening to her ipod, playing her Wii, watching iCarly and Victorious with her little sister Maya. She was on the Honor Roll as and 8th grader and took part in a leadership program called STARS.  She will move into the AVID program at Denver’s George Washington High School next year.

There is no true formula for success all though some ingredients arguably could be perseverance, determination, confidence, attitude and hard work. With these attributes Chyna has evolved to become one of the top youth girl track and field athletes in the nation. Her favorite saying is “Hard Work Beats Talent when Talent doesn’t work hard.”

Best wishes to Chyna and her family as she runs toward her dream later this month. 

Thanks to *Doug Ries for contributing to the content of this article.

Until Next Time

TrackMom

(*For those of you that don’t know, Doug was a very big part of helping me last summer fight to have the Bantam Girl long jump even though not really knowing him personally,taking his own time and energy to find the pictures that would prove what we knew to be true.He was in North Carolina and felt compelled to help.)