Interesting woman. Touted for a medal in the women’s individual pursuit, which is just a lung-burning, thigh-busting drag race of a cycling event around the velodrome.

Nobody much pays attention to track cyclists, not even at the Olympics, but Hammer and some of her teammates became infamous, for a day or three, when they were pictured in the Beijing airport wearing facemasks.

I blogged on this earlier, how shameful it was that the U.S. Olympic Committee caved to real (or perceived) Chinese pressure to apologize for suggesting the air here is anything but crisp as a zephyr out of the Rockies.

Anyway, here is a story I did for The Californian, in Temecula, about their hometown cyclist.

She seems wrapped a little tight, if you know what I mean. Like a finely tuned instrument that may malfunction if the slightest thing goes wrong. Like, maybe, a Ferrari.

The big question is … did the “you were bad, bad bad!” episode get inside Hammer’s already crowded head, and will it then damage her performance? Or was she able to shrug it off and get back to her meticulous preparations?

I will find out beginning late this afternoon, when I go over to the velodrome to see Hammer qualify.

Oh, and the interesting out of my chat with her? She is still wearing the mask, when she believes the air is scary enough.