When the gun for the first heat shot off, senior Chanel Kinzl jumped out of her skin. It wasn’t a sound she recognized and one far from the method they used back home in Switzerland to signal the beginning of a race. Kinzl was just feet away from the gun and a million miles from home, but, knowing how much was on the line, she refocused and walked away with a nationals qualifying time of 7.90 seconds in the 60m event at a track meet hosted by the College of Saint Mary on Jan. 25.
“I didn’t know it was a gun that goes off,” Kinzl said. “That made me ten times more nervous. I was so shocked. But I think what went right was the adrenaline. I mean I still have pain in my glute and in my hamstring. But the adrenaline was so high, and the people that were there hyped me up so well that I forgot about that.”
This time, the first she has recorded indoor since her injury in 2024, was also one that proved why she was offered an athletic scholarship five months after starting her exchange year at Gretna High School. Her club coach and the head track coach at the College of Saint Mary, Steve Gordon, presented the offer to her after a visit.
“I mean I had vitamin B (a swiss metaphor for having an ‘in’), because the head coach at the College of Saint Mary, who is my coach, gives out the scholarships,” Kinzl said, “and so, I mean, I hadn’t even run in the states yet, they didn’t even know how fast I actually was. But he said since he’s my coach he better know what he’s doing, and he knows I will be fast.”
The last two years have been a recovery process for Kinzl, as she’s still feeling the effects of two injuries she sustained during training. Because of this, prior to her meet at the College of Saint Mary, she hadn’t timed herself in months.
“If you time yourself, you have a little bit of a guide of how fast you are, but it’s not exact, and then I get my hopes up,” Kinzl said. “But my training partner is Katie, she’s a little bit faster than me, but we’re about the same, and she ran a 7.89. So she’s fast, I hope, I hope I can run that too.”
However, her injuries haven’t stopped her from pursuing her goals of improving everyday and potentially running for a team within the United States. Prior to coming to the States, Kinzl spoke hypothetically with her parents about this.
“I told (Gordon) that college or university in Switzerland is basically free, we pay like a thousand dollars a year; it’s not much at all,” Kinzl said. “So, I told him I could only come back, I could only run for an American college if I get a full ride. That’s the only possibility, because I won’t pay for anything that I can get for free. I told him that, and he was like, ‘yeah, we can do that for international students.’”
Kinzl first reached out to Gordon soon after arriving in the US, looking for an off-season coach during her exchange year.
“I’m not for certain how she found me, but we had a conversation, and I explained my training process. That resonated with her,” Gordon said in an email. “I have international coaching experience, so I then contacted her coaches and sports federation back in Switzerland to have a similar conversation with them and get their blessing for training Chanel.”
While they have been training together for a short period of time, Kinzl has appreciated the way that their sessions are run and the bond they’ve created, with Gordon even nick-naming her “Swiss Miss.”
“He puts so much effort in the mindset, and most coaches don’t do that,” Kinzl said. “Mindset it like 50% of the whole performance, and no matter what, he pushes you up. He motivates you. When I say ‘oh I’m scared that I’m slow,’ he says ‘you’re not, you’re training with me. I know what I’m doing.’”
Kinzl herself has been dedicated to the sport since she was four years old, doing short runs with her mom. Two years later, she joined her first track club. However, it wasn’t until shortly before 2020 that she started sprinting competitively, with Kinzl clinching a state champion title in her age and event category.
“I would say that was my best season personally, because there was a girl that was always faster than me, all the time,” Kinzl said. “And this season, I like beat her. Every race, I was faster than her which made me realize, I can run fast.”
Kinzl plans on running for Gretna High School in the spring, running in the 100m and 200m. Beyond that, however, her post-secondary plans are best described as un-decided.
“Since I received an offer, I am thinking about coming back after two years, because I have to go back home anyways for two years of school, and that would be pretty cool to come back,” Kinzl said. “Even if I don’t end up going to an American college, it’s so cool to have the experience or like, ‘hey, I received an offer from an American college.’”
Her mother, Maya Vogelsang, while she would prefer to have Kinzl at home, is proud of this recognition for her daughter.
“It means something because they don’t give it out for free, so she must have performed very well. So I’m very proud of her,” Vogelsang said. “I hope she doesn’t accept it so she comes home but if it’s going to be her way, I’m happy for her. I gave her roots, now she grew wings.”
