USD Magazine, Summer 2001

Twins Paddle for

Matchin

Gold Medals

STORY BY SUSAN HEROLD

PHOTOS BY GARY PAYNE '86 l t is much too early on a gloomy Saturday morning when I walk into the drafty, cinder block boathouse on the edge of Lake Oray. In th e Arco O lympic Training Center building are about a dozen hard-bod– ied men and women in sleek long-sleeved spandex jerseys, each in their own wo rld of athlete concentra– tion, Walkmans on, eyelids shut. I ask one fell ow who looks friendly enough if he knows which ones are Jea nn e and Marie Mij alis. I should know this, since they are identical twins and I have met them once before, but on that day they were just college girls talking about college life, bub– bly, giggling, funny sisters teasing each other about the time they pretended to be th e other to trick Jeanne's boyfri end. In this place they are world-class kayakers and, strangely, all th e athletes look the same, hidden under sunglasses and ballcaps, concentrating on the gruel ing two-hour workout before th em. The fellow shrugs, and I wander around a bit more befo re practically running into the twins as they carry their kayak down to the lake. They offer me a nod as they settle inside their poin ty craft and onto the lake's glass, two identical girls movi ng in perfect uniso n, two faces set in pure concentration. If you ask Jeanne and Mari e Mijalis what they hope for, Jeanne hopes to become an ophthalmologist and Marie an anesthesiologist. T hey likely will - the sophomores are pre-med majo rs and carry an impres– sive 3.5 GPA on a 16-credit semester load. But if you ask them what th ey want th ey tell yo u straight up: gold medals from th e 2004 O lympics in Athens. When you see them on the water, a gracefu l yet powerful synchron ized engi ne, one perfectly mi rroring the other, you don't doubt them. "A lot of people say their goal is to go the Olympi cs," says Jeanne, who describes herself as the more responsible sister, even though technically she's younger by two minutes, "but my goal is to do well in the O lympics. Ir's tough sometimes to train and go to school, but I don't want to look back someday at 40 and say that I never gave the Olympics a shot. "

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US O MAGA Z I NE