Olympic contender Published Oct. 26, 2006 By Senior Airman John Gordinier 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- Maggie Chan-Roper, spouse of 1st Lt. Brent Roper of the 20th Communications Squadron, and a mother of two boys, loves to run in her spare time. In fact, she has been running since she was 15 years old and was a marathon runner for Hong Kong in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. "I run to race," Mrs. Roper said. "I enjoy tight competition and pushing myself to the maximum of my ability. If I can't run, I get a little depressed because it is a huge part of my life and I have been doing it for a long time." Mrs. Roper qualified for in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, but didn't attend due to a stress fracture to her leg. "I really wanted to race, but could barely even walk let alone run," she said. "Training too hard and running too much caused the fracture." Years later, Mrs. Roper is competing for a slot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic marathon team. To do so, she needs to place in the top three positions in the trial run, which takes place in Boston in February 2008. "My running time is good enough to meet Olympic standards, but I have to run against people in the trial run," Mrs. Roper said. "To qualify for the Olympics, I must pass a time-trial marathon run, where I am racing against the clock. Then, I have the qualification run where I race against people. In order to be eligible for the Olympics, I have to finish in the top three spots." To prepare, Mrs. Roper ran Oct. 1 in the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis. "I did fairly well, but re-injured my leg," she said. "I finished in 10th place out of 3,202 women with a time of 2:42.19, but was still about eight minutes behind the time I would have liked. All in all, I was just glad to finish the race since I have a fractured leg." Right now, Mrs. Roper is letting her leg rest and heal in preparation for the next Olympic trials. "Even though I have a fractured leg, I am not out of it," Mrs. Roper said. "I plan on running until I am at least 40 years old."