Runner Back on Track Toward Olympic Goal : Recovery: Ashley Bethel resumes workouts six weeks after losing an eye in a freak accident.

With her powerful legs and a passion for winning, Ashley Bethel, 14, has rekindled her dream of one day competing in the Olympics, despite a freak accident that caused her to lose her right eye.

The Lake Forest track star, who holds a national age-group record in the long jump and has caught the attention of U.S. Olympic track officials, this week slipped into running spikes and began the road back to competitive sports.

On Feb. 22, as she worked out at Saddleback College’s track, an errant golf ball flew over a protective barrier at a nearby driving range and struck her. Doctors couldn’t save the eye.

As she started practicing for the first time since the accident, Bethel complained of feeling stiff and out of condition. Yet she is determined more than ever to achieve her goal, although that means overcoming such difficulties as judging distances, especially in the long jump.

“It’s going to be hard, I know, but I won’t give up. I love winning too much,” Bethel said, a tan bandage covering her right eye socket. Both Bethel and her coach-father, Skip Bethel, know there will be a lot of hard work and pain along the way. But with daily workouts and night training at home, there’s no time for self-doubt.

“Right now, she’s about 60% of what she was before the accident,” Skip Bethel said, watching Ashley finish a 100-meter practice sprint at the Trabuco Hills High School track. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

At the long jump pits, Ashley worked on getting her steps lined up. With a look of frustration, she failed several times to spring off the board without going over the mark that voids a jump.

Later, Ashley said her visual handicap made it difficult to judge the distance to the board.

“It will take some time to get my steps down again,” Ashley said. “But I will.”

Ashley also said simple tasks such as pouring soda into a cup have become a challenge.

Despite her daughter’s terrible experience, Abby Bethel said Ashley never complains about her injury.

“When she came home from the hospital, she made jokes to make us laugh, and she told us everything was going to be all right. She’s a very strong girl,” the mother said.

The Bethels plan to sue the owner of the driving range, Saddleback Valley College District, and the management company that operates it, said their attorney, Linda Cummings.

Ashley practices with the 15-member Silver Wings Track Club founded in 1989 by her father. And whenever she needs inspiration or prodding to work harder, her father is always near with a stop watch around his neck and a few words of encouragement.

Skip Bethel, a former running back at Florida State University who formed the club to nurture Ashley’s talents, said he realized his daughter’s ability seven years ago at an informal Girl Scout track meet.

He says Ashley, then a wiry 7-year-old, outran the older competition by about 50 meters in a 200-meter race.

“That day, I knew I had something special in her,” said her father, a manager at McDonnel Douglas in Long Beach.

Since then, Ashley, a slender, 5-foot-8 eighth-grader at Los Alisos Intermediate School, has consistently outrun and outjumped the competition.

She is a two-time national youth pentathlon champion whose top long jump mark of 19 feet, 7 1/4 inches as a 13-year-old last summer would have placed her second in the 1993 California state high school girls’ meet.

She recently received an invitation to work out at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. in August. But the most important thing now, Ashley said, is preparing for her first test: a meet later this month sponsored by the USA Track and Field organization.

“The thing I enjoy most is the competition. I endure the tough workouts and the pain, but what I really like to do is win,” Ashley said, relaxing after her workout, wearing a sweat shirt signed after her injury by Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Joyner-Kersee, a two-time Olympic champion and world-record holder in the seven-event heptathlon, visited the Bethels’ Lake Forest home last month after learning about Ashley’s accident.

Other notable track figures, including Mike Powell, Kevin Young and Gail Devers, have called Ashley since the accident to give support and inspiration.

Ashley also received cards, flowers and donations from strangers who heard about the accident.

“Knowing that people I’ve never even met before are rooting for me gives me strength,” Ashley said. Her goal is to beat Joyner-Kersee’s heptathlon world record, she said.

Though losing vision in one eye will greatly affect her balance and require adjustment, it is possible for Ashley to fully regain her abilities and to grow as an athlete, said Vince O’Boyle, UC Irvine’s track coach.

“Unlike baseball or basketball players who rely more on sight, world-class track-and-field athletes, in some events like long jump and hurdles, count their steps,” he said. “There’s a certain rhythm which has nothing to do with how well you see.”