Daniels Grand National Champion

After a busy week of community service and racing, Dominique Daniels earns her way to a top podium finish at the NBL Grand National Championship for the second year in a row.

Daniels, in her first year racing for Grand Canyon, gives the school a reason to be proud. After a tough few weeks, she finds herself back at the top.

The NBL Grand National event is one of the key events for Daniels to earn points to qualify for the 2012 Olympics and that she did. With a nearly perfect week of practice and trials, National Champion title was the icing on the cake. Here are a few words from Dominique to you.

Dominique Daniels here, bringing you all the cool updates on my current big trip leading up to my next race. So as some of you know, one my goals this trip was to reach out to the community and I had already stopped in St. Louis not too long ago. So my next stop was another Boys and Girls club in Louisville, Kentucky.

Upon arriving there was a banner welcoming me to the club and there were about 50 kids anxious to meet me. I greeted everyone and said hellos. The Main Athletic Director, Coach Pimpleton and the Main B & G Club Manager Mrs. Robins were more than accommodating as well. And so as my speech began I was not nervous. I had come up with a new manta. One that I call “Dreams”.

D-Determination

R- Respect and Responsibility

E- Education

A- Ambition

M- Maturity

S- Success

I told the kids no matter what they wanted to be, if they followed these steps with the right mind, they would always be successful. Whether it be sports, acting, athletics or writing. It didn’t matter, there would be ups and downs, but the main point of DREAMS, was to have a goal in mind. If you have a dream you have to hold on to it with all your might and through all the strife. I explained that dreams is spelled in that order for a reason. Short cuts never last and more than half the time, they lead to dead ends. So it is wisest not to take them. The benefit of working hard and trying harder will have its reward in the end.

The second point that I talked about was Change. Change doesn’t stand for anything yet, but what I talked about was that if we wanted to see our world move forward, we must all stick fast to our dreams so that we may bring about a new legacy for us, the generation of today, as well as the generations of tomorrow.

After all I was done speaking; I signed a good number of shirts and took some pictures. Though by the time I was done, a good portion of the kids had been picked up and taken home I knew, and prayed, that my words would stick with them.

And I had a pretty good feeling that in a few years, if I ever got a chance to return, I would be proven right.

The Race

So it’s finally race week, at the beginning of the race season I had a string of bad crashes on back to

back weekends. But it was not long after that I was back to my old self; working hard, training, and kicking butt at the races. But this was the pinnacle of it all. Every year, over 30,000 riders come to this one race to really test their skills and speed with over 50,000 spectators watching the action unfold.

This year, I had the honor of representing Grand Canyon University, a school that was already becoming a well known name in the NBL and I was also leading in points, (which, mind you is no easy task). The competition was stacked for me. Over 20 riders from around the nation came to participate, everyone gunning for the title, looking to take a shot at the champion and grab the crown. Winning this race would be one of the biggest accomplishments I could do in my first year of racing for GCU and I was not looking to disappoint. Plus, to make me even more anxious my Grandmother was here, and never in years had she screamed so loud. I was gonna give her a reason to smile about losing her voice by the end of the weekend.

The first evening was just practice and that went off without a hitch. No crashes, no broken parts on my bike, and no trouble in or off the track. I felt very smooth all over the track, knowing there wasn’t a thing I couldn’t do.

The second day I was a little busier. The afternoon consisted of what was called A Powder-puff Clinic. It was a girls only pro signing in which I must have signed over 1000 shirts, pictures, stickers, and other such things of memorabilia. Later on that day, I ran a gates clinic, again for only the girls in the sport, so as to feel how they felt about the track. Then after that was done and over with, I had an early Pro race…Thankfully, no crashes and I got some good track time.

Finally came the last day of racing. Early afternoon consisted of more memorabilia signing signatures, interviews, and some light practice.

When the rounds began I put so much pressure on my mind I couldn’t think straight. I wound up getting 2^nd the first round much to everyone surprise. But 2^nd through 4^th round put me in my normal spot out front. All eyes on me last round. I remember hearing my heart thud, just a few milliseconds, waiting for the gate to drop… and out like a cannonball I took off. Speeding like a bullet down the first straight, I was relentless in my pedal strokes. I was sprinting as fast as I could for my crown, refusing to let up for even a second. Everything was a blur, one second I was in the turn and the next I was over the double. And before I knew it I had sprinted across the finish line and was greeted by numerous cheers.

For the second year in a row, I had held my ground, surpassed all doubt and held my crown for the second year in a row. I had made my Grandmother and College proud. And no one could say otherwise. And next year, I look forward to representing the Purple, Black, and White colors of the ‘Lopes as I go for Year 3 of reclaiming my title and staying the NBL Elite Women’s’ Champion.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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