Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer
Everything Mark Crear knows about life, he learned running the sprint hurdles:
--Face obstacles head on.
--Keep your head up when you stumble.
--Falls happen.
--Pain doesn't last.
The lessons have served the Valencia resident well in his athletic career. For six years running, he has ranked in the top three in the world in the 110-meter hurdles. In three of those years - 1995, 1998 and 1999 - he was No. 1.
On the track, Crear doesn't feel as though he can do much wrong, having worked on strengthening his confidence harder over the years than he has on any muscle group.
The former USC standout fully expects to give fellow American Allen Johnson, owner of three of the top four times in the sprint hurdles this year, a run for the gold in Sydney. Crear expects this even though he's been nursing a groin injury since finishing second to Johnson at the U.S. Trials in Sacramento in July.
Crear, 31, rises to meet obstacles on the track. The hurdles that line his path in life are the ones that give him problems. They cause Crear anguish and invite self-doubts. He stumbles, he falls. But he keeps getting up, keeps going.
Because that's what decent hurdlers (and humans) do.
``Life is about persevering, about enduring to the end, about staying positive,'' Crear said.
As he spoke, he was lounging on a bench at the College of the Canyons track where he trains, eyeing a little girl not much taller than the hurdles over which he soars.
Her name is Ebony, and she is Crear's 4-year-old daughter. He clearly adores her, and yet when he talks about her, there's no mistaking the sadness in his voice.
Crear and Ebony's mother, former UCLA hurdling standout Keisha Marvin, are no longer man and wife. Their breakup has been acrimonious, rich in recriminations and drama.
``I am hurt over the relationship, and she is angry,'' Crear said, adding, ``I will not bad-mouth Ebony's mother because that's bad-mouthing myself. She was my wife.''
Attempts to reach Marvin through an intermediary were unsuccessful. Crear said he is Ebony's primary caretaker right now. It is a responsibility he at once relishes and regrets.
``I don't want to be raising my daughter by myself. This was not my choice,'' Crear said. ``I grew up being shipped from place to place. My self-esteem was really low as a child. I don't want my daughter to grow up like that. I want her to feel good about herself, to be a confident person. I want to try to be a good role model for her.''
Crear shows up at track meets with his daughter in tow, and people call him ``Mr. Mom,'' commending him for striving to be as fine a parent as he is a hurdler. It embarrasses Crear when people talk like that.
He considers it a mark against him that he wasn't able to hold his marriage together. In Crear's mind, what he's doing now is trying to make amends.
It's not easy, being other-directed in the me-centered environment of world-class track. In mid-July, when U.S. athletes were making themselves comfortable in their self-contained worlds as part of their final preparations for the Olympic selection meet, Crear was running around looking for a Little Mermaid cake and Cinderella decorations for Ebony's fourth birthday party.
The night before the sprint hurdles final at the Trials, Crear said he hardly got a wink of sleep because of his snoring daughter, who was sleeping in his hotel room. The next day, he ran the sixth-fastest time in the world this year to earn a second Olympic berth.
It's an ongoing revelation to him, what big things can be achieved when you stop sweating the small things.
``I really was an impatient person before,'' Crear said. ``Because of Ebony, I'm becoming a more patient person.''
A much more spiritual one, too.
``People say to me all the time, 'Good luck, Mark,' and I tell them luck has nothing to do with it,'' he said. ``It's God. I really feel God has put some angels at my side to protect me. Sometimes I run away from the angels and get in trouble.''
And sometimes an angel runs up to him, taps him on the shoulder and shows him a potato bug she has just dug out of the dirt.
``Ebony,'' Crear said, smiling, ``What does daddy do?''
``Trips over the hurdles,'' she said, then ran off to unearth more bugs, her father's deep laugh ringing in her ears.
MARK CREAR
Age: 31
Residence: Los Angeles
College: USC
Past Olympics: Won silver medal in 110-meter hurdles at '96 Atlanta Olympics
Highlights: Ranked No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News . . . has a degree in sociology . . . '98 Goodwill Games champion in 110H . . . won NCAA and Pac-10 100H titles in '92.
CAPTION(S):
2 photos, box
Photo: (1) no caption (Mark Crear at hurdles)
Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News
(2) Mark Crear with daughter Ebony
Box: MARK CREAR (see text)
