The Beauty Is a Beast

"We all felt a lot of skepticism that this wasn't going to last, that she wouldn't really stick with it," said Traci Allan. "We thought her attention would get diverted -- a boyfriend, another sport, something like that. But she has literally put judo as the first priority over anything else, even her social life."

Kristen makes for a disarming judoka, male training partners said, because she can steal their breath twice. She's a good-looking, long-haired blonde with an easy smile. She's also an aggressive, attacking competitor who sometimes knocks the wind out of 170-pound men in practice with her fierce throws.

Kristen worries about problems that most judoka hardly notice. She hates it when the combat sport leaves her knuckles gnarly and bruised. A doctor drains the blood clots that form in her ears to prevent cauliflower ear, an uncomfortable and unsightly deformation. She worries that her skull will change shape because it takes such consistent beatings.

"I call her a real girlie girl," said Andy Smith, Kristen's active release technique chiropractor. "She's always worried about how she's going to look, if her ears and her forehead are going to look different. She's kind of delicate like that."

She's also ferocious, especially when it comes to her training. Kristen runs about four times each week, lifts most mornings and practices judo and jujitsu almost every night. She's morphed, over the past three years, from a self-described slender, 110-pound "cheerleader type" to a compact 138 pounds. "She's like a brick," Traci said. "When I hug her, it's like grabbing a tree. There's no give in her body."

Maurice has taught Kristen to fight in his image, which means she is almost always the aggressor. In the 63-kilogram division, Kristen has ascended to second in the United States largely because of her relentless, attacking style.

"She gets in people's heads because she never stops coming at you," said Katie Mocco, ranked first in the United States in the 70-kilogram division. "When you're fighting her, it's really annoying. It's like, 'Geez, just relax and take a break for a second.' "

Kristen's competition for the 2008 Olympics essentially boils down to Ronda Rousey, a 2004 Olympian widely considered the country's best judoka. Kristen has lost all four of her career matches against Rousey, but each became more competitive than the last. To eclipse Rousey, Kristen's schedule consists of a mad scramble for experience. In the last year, she trained in Belgium, France, Canada, Colorado, California, New York, Texas and Boston.

"I'm trying to catch up because I haven't been doing this for half as long as everybody else," Kristen said. "A lot of these other girls have been doing judo their whole lives. It's kind of like I'm rushing to get there. For me, everything has to be a little more intense."

Said Maurice: "The most important thing for her is to be exposed to as many great players as possible. The better she becomes, the more we know what she's really capable of. She's already proven that she has the natural talent. She picks everything up so quickly it's like she was meant to be doing this."