Aug. 16, 2004

Published August 16, 2004

ATHENS --Winds of 21 miles per hour, and gusts beyond that, caused some morning events of Olympic rowing to be shifted to the afternoon on Monday when seas proved calmer, and some events to be postponed until Tuesday. The previous evening, winds measured at just under that swept over the outdoor pool at the aquatics complex. In your face going out, but a nice push in the back coming home. But Athens living up to its reputation as the windy city of Greece won't bother former University of Missouri runner Derrick Peterson, even if the wind is still howling when Peterson takes off in round one of the men's 800 meters of track and field on Aug. 25. Finals of that race are scheduled for Aug. 28, the penultimate day of the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. He's used to the wind howling at Missouri's track stadium back in Columbia, where he assists head coach Rick McGuire when Peterson isn't off running himself. "It is very windy in Columbia, all the time," Peterson said Monday during a visit to the Main Press Center. "We have a track that sits up on the hill, so we practice in the wind and run in the wind. So it shouldn't be much of a factor." Yes, the wind can be used as an excuse for a poor performance. But Peterson won't do it. "Sometimes we want to take the track down and put it in the valley," Peterson said of a depression near the nuclear reactor building south of the main Missouri sports complex. "But it makes you stronger. It does. "The wind's going to blow sometime in your life. You've got to keep pushing through it."