Stretch Run

Jennifer Frank doesn’t care to brag.

She doesn’t boast about the biggest victory of her track career, which came four years ago when she won the 100-meter dash at the World Maccabiah Games in Israel. She hardly ever mentions the title that came with the victory.

“But deep inside, it’s very important,” Frank said. “I’m the world’s fastest Jewish woman.”

Frank is eager to prove that this accolade--achieved when she was 18 years old and fresh out of Oak Park High--is deserved. She will defend her title when the quadrennial games reconvene next week in Tel Aviv.

The event will bring together more than 5,000 Jewish athletes representing 50 countries. They will compete in 32 sports over the course of 11 days.

While the competition falls just shy of world-class status, it can be fierce. Former Maccabiah athletes include swimmer Mark Spitz, tennis player Brad Gilbert and basketball stars Ernie Grunfeld and Danny Schayes.

Four years ago, Frank had never even heard of the games. She was approached at a track meet and asked to join the U.S. team.

Her credentials were solid. She won the Southern Section Division IV title at 100 meters as a sophomore and again as a senior, finishing with a wind-aided time of 12.16. She won the 200 as a sophomore and long jumped over 18 feet.

“She’s always had incredible, explosive power,” said Kevin Smith, Oak Park track coach.

Frank also had the misfortune of competing in the same county as Marion Jones, the current USA Track and Field 100-meter and long jump champion, who at the time was blazing to schoolgirl records at Thousand Oaks High.

“Jen never got the recognition she deserved,” Smith said. “You never read about her because the headline in every newspaper was Marion Jones.”

As Frank put it: “I have a history with Marion.”

So she jumped at the chance to compete in the far-away Maccabiah Games. As it turned out, she was in for more than a track meet.

“The athletes are here to soak up the Jewish environment, to be among a larger family of Jewish athletes,” Aryeh Rozensweig, the organizing committee’s chairman, told Ethnic NewsWatch during the 1993 games. “For many many athletes, combining their Jewish heritage with athletic competition is the best of both worlds.”

The U.S. team makes a habit of traveling to Israel a week early to take in the sights and sounds of the country. There are trips to Jewish and Christian holy sites, to the Jordan River and Masada, where the athletes walk down from the hilltop fortress after dark carrying candles.

Mel Rosen, a former Olympic coach who oversees the nation’s Maccabiah track squad, said: “If anyone ever saw me doing that with Carl Lewis, they would think I was crazy.”

The experience proved eye-opening for a young woman out of suburban America who had never visited the land of her heritage.

“It makes you feel really good,” Frank said. “It’s a happy feeling.”

But when it came time to race, she was able to put her wonderment aside and put together one of the best meets of her life.

Frank ran the 100 meters in 12.26 to win gold. (By comparison, Jones won the USA Track and Field 100 in 10.97). Frank then took silver as part of the U.S. 400 relay team.

“I was pumped,” she said. “I really wanted to win.”

Perhaps nothing has come close to that feeling in the years since. Frank ran for Cuesta College in 1995 and finished fourth at the state junior college championships. She went on to compete for UC Riverside.

In May, she placed a disappointing third in the 100 final at the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships.

“My worst start ever,” she said. Adding injury to insult, she tore a quadriceps muscle.

Recent weeks have been spent recuperating in the pool and weight room. Smith has supervised some of her workouts.

“I think her confidence level has slid a little,” the coach said. “But she has looked very quick.”

Frank wants to be in top shape for the games next week. After returning from Israel, she will begin a teaching career. This will be her swan song as a competitive runner.

“I’m going to be sad,” she said.

She is also going to be determined. The title of world’s fastest Jewish woman remains close to her heart.

As Smith put it, “It’s one title that Marion Jones won’t be able to take from her.”