A UW School of Medicine alumna was the lone U.S. contestant in the 2000 Women’s Olympic Marathon at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Dr. Christine “Chris” Hoth Clark —a 37-year-old mother of two and pathologist at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage— finished 19th out of a field of more than 50 world athletes. She ran a personal best 2 hours, 31 minutes, 35 seconds, finishing 0:07:47 behind the record-breaking gold medal winner.

To qualify for the Sydney games, Clark upset the field at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Columbia, S.C. No other women qualified for the U.S. marathon team. Following her victory in the trials, the U.S. Olympic Committee named her Athlete of the Month.

Clark is a Butte, Mont., native who attended the UW medical school as part of the Montana WWAMI program. After nearly a decade of not running while she pursued her medical career, she won the women’s division of the 1995 Seattle Marathon. She is a three-time winner of the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage.