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WEST JORDAN -- These days, a lot of 11-year-old girls are into vampires, Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana -- but not West Jordan's Jenna Gardner. She wants to be like Lance Armstrong.
Jenna is in a league of her own. The 11-year-old loves cycling through her West Jordan neighborhood, unlike most girls her age.
"They probably go around playing soccer or just stay home doing fingernail polish with their friends, or something like that," Jenna said. "I'm not a big fan of nail polish or makeup. It's just not my thing."
Jenna's thing is racing.
"My dad and my sister Julienne, they started racing, and I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do that.' So I started when I was 9," Jenna explained.
Just months later, she won her very first race.
"I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I just won my first race!' I was overjoyed," Jenna recalled.
That joy was just the beginning. In the last two years, Jenna has won over 30 races across the country.
It doesn't get old," she said.
Jenna's biggest victory came two weeks ago in Bend, Ore., when she won the national championship in the junior time trial, beating her closest competitor by nearly one full minute. She's currently ranked No. 1 in the country in her age group.
"It was awesome! When they put the shirt on me, I was like, 'So many people are going to see this out of the whole United States,'" Jenna said. "I told my friend. She's like, ‘Oh my gosh, Jenna, you're famous!'"
Famous, just like her sister Jillian, who was also a national champion. Jenna's father, a competitive cyclist himself, Jenna's coach.
"Women peak very late -- late 20s to even 30s -- so she's got a lot of years ahead of her to improve," Jon Gardner said.
Jenna improves by training for hours and competing against the boys. In fact, she frequently beats boys two years older than her.
"They get mad, they do," Jenna said. "I beat one, and he started swearing when he crossed the line. It was kind of funny."
"[We] try not to let it go to her head, but it does keep her driven. It gives her something to race for," Jon Gardner said.
That something may be the Olympics.
"She could definitely be Olympic level, world-class level, if she would like to be," her father said.
That would be years away. For now, Jenna keeps busy with cycling, training for a triathlon and playing tennis. Painting her fingernails will have to wait.
Jenna recently missed breaking the national time trial record by one second. Her next big race is the Snowbird Hill Climb in September. Last year, Jenna was the youngest female to ever compete in that race.
E-mail: kaiken@ksl.com
