Zollitsch’s Olympic hopes boosted

Orono native Mark Zollitsch’s Olympic hopes got a big boost last Sunday.

Zollitsch and three teammates won the four-man, 1,000-meter kayak race at the 1991 Olympic Festival in Los Angeles at Ballona Creek near Marina Del Ray. He and Mitch Kahn from San Clemente, Calif., and Greg Jordan and Patrick Richardson of San Diego battled stiff winds and high water to finish ahead of the rest of the field.

Zollitsch also took home silver and bronze medals for second- and third-place finishes in the K2 500-meter and K2 1,000-meter races, respectively.

The kayaking portion of the festival schedule was held last Saturday and Sunday.

Next up for the 23-year-old kayaker is the National Championships at Indianapolis in mid-August. Zollitsch made a brief stop home before leaving for Quebec to compete in a two-stage, 70-mile race Saturday and Sunday.

If he has a great outing at the National Championships, Zollitsch could bypass the pre-Olympic trials in early April and qualify to compete in the Olympic Trials later that same month.

“I think I have a good-to-fair chance at making the 1992 Olympic team,” said Zollitsch. “I think I’ll have a better shot for Atlanta in 1996, though.

“I know that I can make the team if I put all my energy into it and give up everything else…. social life, job, everything, but the question is whether I want to or not.”

Zollitsch is weighing a job offer as vice president of a new company in Hawaii. If he takes it, he won’t be able to train as much as needed and may bypass trying to make the ’92 squad.

Much of his decision will be based on his performance at the National Championships. Until then, he’ll continue weighing the positives and negatives and keep up his busy racing schedule.