Greg Swatek
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Craig, a star in the sport of taekwondo, is so close to realizing her Olympic dream that she can almost grab it, hug it or even kick it.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," said Craig, a high school junior. "I always thought one day I would have the chance to be on the Olympic team. I wake up now and it's a real possibility. It's amazing."

A win over 2007 Junior Olympic champion Anees Hasnain, 16, on April 5 in Des Moines, Iowa, would earn Craig a spot on the U.S. Olympic team this summer in Beijing as the female flyweight (107.8 pounds and under). Taekwondo is a martial arts combat sport that began in Korea. The sport's recent popularity resulted in it becoming an Olympic sport in 2000.

Feet of fury

Charlotte Craig, a four-time Junior Olympic champion who is 5 feet 5 and 97 pounds, already owns a 3-0 victory over Hasnain in their only meeting, which came last year at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

"I am sure she has been working to improve on the things she wasn't able to do in our first fight. She has more of a defensive style than me," Craig said. "She is a good counter-fighter. I have to work on drawing her into my kicks and not making her feel comfortable at all.

"I can't be overconfident based on the result of the first fight. I have to make her beat me."

An Olympic bid for Craig would mean a return trip to Beijing, where she had one of her biggest breakthroughs last year. On her way to the bronze medal for flyweights in the 2007 World Championships, she beat several international champions - including two-time former world champion Belen Asensio of Spain.

"I just let loose (emotionally) after I won the bronze," Craig said. "That was a big moment for me."

Craig said a key mental adjustment before the World Championships paid big dividends.

"I stopped worrying so much about winning and started focusing on the things I needed to be doing in the ring," she said. "I put too much pressure on myself going into these big international tournaments and would always lose my first fight. It was very frustrating for me.

"At the World Championships, I took all the pressure of my shoulders. I didn't care if I won or lost, I just wanted to fight. When I won my first match there, I felt I made a huge breakthrough."

Craig's father, Jim, and brothers, Logan and Randy, have watched with amazement as she has risen to international prominence in the sport. "We're all very proud of her," Jim Craig said. "It's really remarkable what she has done."

At age 2, Charlotte was showing her fighting spirit, often accompanying her father and brothers to the studio for their taekwondo workouts. "At the age of 5, I finally signed her up," Jim said.

Success quickly followed; she won the first junior tournament she entered.

"People noticed her right away. She was always the one they would pick out in the room," Jim said. "During practice, she would often be fighting with the boys and she could hold her own."

In 2000, Charlotte won the flyweight bronze medal at the Junior Olympics. After another bronze medal in 2001 and a silver in 2002, Craig broke through and captured the Junior Olympic gold medal - her first of four - in 2003.

"When she started in the junior divisions, she hadn't received much formal education in taekwondo. She was really relying on her raw talent," Kim said.

Under Kim's guidance, Craig said she learned that taekwondo was "not just about going out there and kicking."

Kim said he worked with her on her technique and setting up strategies during a fight. "She really became a student of the game," he said.

In 2005, Craig shined on the international stage, earning another Junior Olympics gold medal and capturing the gold at the Pan-American Junior Championships in Aruba.

In 2006, she added a silver medal in the U.S. Senior Nationals and bronze medal in the World Junior Championships to her collection.

Last year, in addition to her bronze at the World Championships, she placed first in the Pan Am Games Trials and won her weight class in the U.S. Olympic Trials.

"We didn't expect her to be in this position so soon," Kim said of Craig's near-Olympic status. "We are all very excited for her. It couldn't happen to a better girl."

Craig typically trains with Kim four times a week. She makes the 134-mile roundtrip over back roads from her home in Murrieta, Calif. ? which is about 60 miles north of San Diego. Kim's studio is in Laguna Niguel, which is just west of Murrieta, close to the Pacific Ocean. Craig realizes that all of the miles and sweat have brought her to this big moment in her life.

She admits to being nervous and realizes her traditional pre-fight breakfast of pancakes and eggs might not go down easily on the morning of her fight with Hasnain. But Craig never lets the thought of losing enter her mind. This is her shot at her fulfilling her Olympic dream, even if the 2012 Summer Games in London will present another opportunity.

"I visualize myself winning the entire day," she said. "When I think about the moment, I do get butterflies in my stomach, but I never dread it."

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