For track athletes aiming for Olympics, finding a place to train can be a hurdle

In the weeks since his professional middle-distance running group was kicked off the track at the University of Texas, Olympian Leonel Manzano has run when and where he can. Sometimes he and his training partners work out on neighborhood tracks, often when regular folk are getting in their daily jogs. Unlike the state-of-the-art oval at the Austin campus, the tracks are generally hard, sometimes weather-beaten and rarely Olympic size.

On some days, when no track can be found, there is no practice at all.

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The group of Olympians and Olympic hopefuls, coached by Ryan Ponsonby and George Mason University Hall of FamerJohn Cook, worked out every morning at the university until about six weeks ago. That’s when someone tipped off university officials that the school was technically violating state law, which prohibits outside coaches from providing paid services on public property.

The training group’s plight is part of an increasingly difficult problem in Olympic sports, as growing numbers of athletes seek to extend their careers well beyond college. Even as they achieve unprecedented financial security through apparel sponsorships, prize money and U.S. Olympic funds allocated for post-grads, the pros often struggle to find suitable places to train.

Beyond the track ovals on big-time college campuses — whose access is usually restricted and can be taken away at any time — there are few high-caliber venues where the sport’s elite can hone their skills. There is virtually no professional infrastructure in most Olympic sports.

“These are elite athletes,” Ponsonby said. “Everybody’s trying to . . . race for a medal in the world championships [in Daegu, South Korea, this summer] and in the Olympics in 2012. We certainly have our work cut out for us without having to deal with facility usage.”

USA Track and Field’s “goal is to win 30 medals in 2012; meanwhile, we’re trying to get on a track.”

Unwelcome on campus

The dearth of Olympic-owned training facilities has for years pushed athletes in many Olympic sports onto college campuses or other non-Olympic property, where they work out individual arrangements. The U.S. Olympic Committee and various sport national governing bodies have long tried to maintain good relationships with the NCAA, recognizing its crucial importance in building and developing U.S. Olympians. Yet officials say they know the situation is not ideal.

Athletes who train on college campuses must work around NCAA rules, collegiate team schedules, liability concerns and many other issues, including occasional conflicts with on-site coaches and officials.

Four-time world champion hurdler Allen Johnson, a Lake Braddock High School graduate who won an Olympic gold medal in 1996, trained at the University of South Carolina from 1997 through the spring of 2007, when he and fellow runners including Lashinda Demus, Tiffany Ross-Williams, Otis Harris and Demetrius Washington were abruptly barred. They were told, Johnson said, their presence was interfering with the collegiate program.