The 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London. Make a note, because it could become the eventual destination of a trio of local athletes. But then again, don’t rule out an August appearance by any of them in Beijing either.

Three Johnston County residents, all three former N.C. High School Athletic Association state champions, will start the process of chasing their Olympic dreams over the next week as the U.S. Olympic Trials begin in track and field and swimming.

At the Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., Benson’s Anna Raynor will compete in the javelin throw and 19-year old Johnny Dutch of Clayton is entered into the 400-meter hurdles.

Then Monday in Omaha, Neb., 16-year old Garner resident Sarah Henry, a rising junior at West Johnston High, will be among those vying for a spot on the U.S. swim team.

Their appearances at the Olympic Trials could be the stepping stone to the ultimate stage: the Olympics, or it could be just another step forward in their development as world class athletes.

“My goal is just to soak in everything I can while I’m at the Trials,” said Henry. “I feel like just by being there, I’ll be so much ahead of the game in my development.”

Raynor and Dutch echoed the same feelings as they prepared for their Olympic Trials debuts.

Dutch leaps into world’s top-10
Dutch finished his prep career at Clayton High with nine individual NCHSAA state hurdle championships, one state meet MVP award and a handful of national championships. So big things were expected from his collegiate career at South Carolina -- but not this year.

All that changed with one run of 48.68 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles earlier this spring. Dutch’s time was the fourth fastest this year in the world at the time (since then, it’s dropped to seventh) and earned him a bid to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene.

The issue for Dutch is, even though he’s become a world-class hurdler, is that he’s just one of nearly a dozen in that category who will be competing for berths on the U.S. roster for Beijing.

Five of the top-10 400-meter hurdlers in the world (for the 2007 season) are set to compete at Hayward Field. Reigning world champion Kerron Clement leads the group. He ran a world’s best 47.79 last month in Jamaica. Also set to compete are 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson and two-time Olympic Games fourth-place finisher James Carter. Carter is currently ranked No. 3 in the world. All of those leading contenders are in their mid-20s.

Dutch, still in his teens, has his share of notable titles as well. He won both the 110 and 400 hurdle titles at the Pam Am Junior Games last year and qualified for the NCAA indoor championships in his first outing and also met NCAA Outdoor Regional and National Championship standards very early in the outdoor season.

But a hamstring injury kept Dutch out of both the NCAA regionals and championships. He returned to competition for the first time since early May this past weekend in the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Ohio State University.

Dutch ran a solid 49.74 in the 400-meter hurdles to finish in second place. His finish qualified him for the 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland next month.

So he knows he will be competing for at least one world championship this summer. Whether he gets the chance to make a bid for Olympic glory as well is what will be determined this weekend.

Raynor questionable for 2008 squad
Raynor has competed in meets in Oregon, Pennsylvania and Georgia among other states this year, but the results haven’t been what she’s wanted.

She trains in Chapel Hill five days a week but has opted to cut back on her training regimen in the past couple of weeks. “I got to the point where I was overthrowing,” she said. “My arm was hurting, so I just took a couple of weeks off.”

Qualifying for the Olympics this year will take a huge jump in distance for Raynor, whose younger brother John plays Minor League Baseball with the Carolina Mudcats. She will likely need to add more than seven meters in distance to her previous career best (53.77 meters).

There are two standards entries have to hit under the qualifying format: the ‘B’ standard of 56 meters and the ‘A’ standard of 61.

“With the number of other women who have already hit the ‘B’ standard, the only way I’ll go this year is if I hit the ‘A’ standard,” Raynor said. “I’ll have to come up with a big-time PR [personal record] to make the team this year.”

The good news for Raynor, 23, is that she’s still probably four years away from the prime years of her career. America’s leading Olympic hope this year is 33-year old Kim Kreiner, who has thrown 64.19 meters.

But Raynor has finished among the top-three in the nation before. She was third at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2007.

Raynor has been able to concentrate solely on the javelin for the past year. That’s the first time she’s ever had that luxury. She posted a couple of top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships while she was at UNC Wilmington but continued to compete in the heptathlon throughout her collegiate career, forcing her to direct her training time to the track, jumping events and the hurdles. During her prep days at South Johnston High School, she split her track season with time on the softball diamond as well.

“I know it’s going to be tough competition there,” Raynor said of the Trials. “But I have to be patient and just try to be relaxed.”

If the Olympics don’t pan out this year, there are always next year’s World Championships to strive for and then the 2012 Olympics.

“I know I’m going to keep trying for it,” Raynor said. “If I’m this close to being on the Olympic level, I have to keep going after it. I know at my age [23], I’m just starting to get into my prime.”

Henry’s goal: be faster than ever
Henry has hit the “cut” (qualifying) times in four events for the upcoming Olympic Trials. She will compete in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke races and both individual medleys: the 200 and 400.

“I just want to go faster than I ever have before,” Henry said. “I probably want to do my best in the 200 IM. My focus is on that this year.”

Henry was still 15 years old when she hit her first Olympic Trials cut, in the 400 IM. But the achievement didn’t shock her. “It was definitely a goal of mine,” she said. “It wasn’t something that shocked me because it’s what I’d been shooting for. It’s the highest cut you can get. You can’t go any faster than in the Olympics.”

Once Henry hit the marks that got her a ticket to the Trials, she upped her training program. A year-round swimmer since age 8, this summer has brought even tougher workouts and challenges. She makes the 51-mile round-trip drive from her home in Garner to the Triangle Aquatic Center twice a day, training for nearly three hours in the morning, then again in the evening.

She’s made some of the typical sacrifices elite young athletes have to make to maximize her potential.

In the past year, she’s started to modify her diet somewhat (saying goodbye to carb-heavy meals and most junk food) and is usually unavailable for many of the normal gatherings with friends.

But she remains happy with her decision. “I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do ever since I was seven years old,” Henry said. “I’ve always been one to look more into the future than what’s going on right now. I’m doing something that I love.”

Henry’s in the unique position of having dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. She was born in Canada to parents Brian and Nanette Henry. Since Nanette Henry is an American citizen, her children also have American citizenship.

Sarah Henry could have opted to try out for the Canadian Olympic team earlier this year but committed herself to the U.S. team.

“I probably would have been in the top-eight based on qualifying times going into the Canadian trials,” Henry said. “Where here [in the U.S], I’m 65th or something. But here you’re swimming against the best in the world. I want that chance to see if I’m good enough to be among the best on the best swim team in the world.”

Henry would get to pick her country again before the 2012 Olympics.

Only the top-two finishers in each event earn spots on the U.S. team. There will be more than 1,000 swimmers competing over eight days in Omaha. The fewest amount of swimmers entered into one of the four events Henry has qualified for is 87, in the 200 breaststroke. Henry rates 56th on time in the 200 breast and 68th of 121 entries in the 200 IM.

“If I leave the Trials having enjoyed myself,” Henry said, “and after swimming as fast as I possibly can, I’ll be satisfied.”