By BERT ROSENTHAL -- Associated Press
  NEW YORK -- Distance runner Suzy Favor Hamilton loves to hear "The Star-Spangled Banner," even if it makes her cry.

  "I dream every day about winning at the Olympic Games," Hamilton said. "Whenever I'm at a sporting event and hear the national anthem, tears come to my eyes because I see myself on the podium."

  Hamilton, 31, has been to two Olympics, and neither produced a medal.

  In 1992, the former Wisconsin star, who won a record nine NCAA titles and 23 Big Ten Conference titles had a miserable experience at Barcelona. Competing in the 1,500 meters, she failed to get out of the first round, running 4 minutes, 19 seconds, and finishing 11th in her heat.

  "It was a bad dream," she said. "I was scared to death. I was terrified of the whole Olympic experience. I felt everybody expected the world of me.

  "I felt like I was running in slow motion. I guess my immaturity prevented me from running well."

  The emotional Hamilton cried then, too.

  "I shed a lot of tears at those games because I was so unhappy with my performance," she said.

  Hamilton got another shot in 1996 at Atlanta. Again, she came up short in the first-round heats, failing to advance in the 800 by .01 of a second.

  That setback was not as devastating as four years earlier.

  "I didn't feel the 800 was my strongest event," she said. "Realistically, I couldn't see myself on the medal stand. You have to see yourself there in order to get there.

  "I was undertrained. I was surprised to even make the team."

  She also felt she wasn't being pushed enough by Dick Brown, her coach at the time.

  "I wasn't in the shape I needed to be," she said. "People ask me, 'Why didn't you train harder?' I guess I just had faith that what my coach was doing was the right thing. I've learned now that isn't always the case. I've learned to go with my instincts."

  Shortly after the games, Hamilton left Brown and Eugene, Ore., and returned to her old college coach, Peter Tegen, and Madison, Wis.

  Those Olympic frustrations behind her, the more mature, experienced, healthy Hamilton envisions herself on the 1,500-meter medal podium at the Sydney Games in September.

  Coming off surgery on her left Achilles' tendon that forced her to out of entire 1999 outdoor season, Hamilton has run three outstanding races this year.

  She returned to quality competition -- after one low-key race -- with much trepidation and anxiety in March at Long Beach, Calif., and ran a personal-best and 2000 world-leading 15:06.48 for 5,000 meters.

  "That felt incredible," she said. "Even if that was the last race of my career, I will always carry that feeling with me. Every time I race now I have that feeling."

  The result surprised Hamilton and Tegen.

  "I had asked her to run 3,000 meters," Tegen said. "She requested to run the 5,000. That was a huge stepping stone."

  A month later, Hamilton went to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, and won the 1,500 in 4:05.13, the fastest by an American outdoors this year.

  "It felt totally easy," Hamilton said, "and I hadn't even tapped into my sprinting yet. I just tapped into it at the beginning of June."

  Two weeks later at Madison, Hamilton ran her first 3,000 since college and again it was a sparkler, 8:46.16, the fastest in the world this year and another personal best.

  Then, three weeks ago, she ran again at Madison, in an 800, and had a hand-timed 1:59.7, the fastest by an American this season, although it doesn't officially count because it was in a race with men and women.

  Nevertheless, it was encouraging, as were all her other races this year.

  "She's on fire," Tegen said. "She's in the best shape of her life."

  Hamilton is running so well that she can't wait for next month's Olympic trials at Sacramento, Calif.

  "I wish the trials were tomorrow," said Hamilton, who will run the 1,500 and possibly the 5,000.

  Even if she makes the team in the 5,000, she won't run that race at the games.

  "I think the 1,500 is my strongest event," she said. "I feel I have the best chance in that event. I love that event."

  Hamilton will get a better line on her 1,500-meter chances Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Ore., where she will face Hungary's Gabriela Szabo, the world champion at 5,000 meters.

  Both were in the historic race at Monte Carlo, Monaco, in 1998 when a record eight women finished under four minutes, with Hamilton seventh in a career-best 3:58.43. Szabo was second, behind Russia's Svetlana Masterkova, the same order in which they had finished at the 1996 Olympics.

  "The 1,500 is going to be a very tough event," Hamilton said, "but I feel stronger than I ever have in my life. I just know I will run like never before. I would by happy with any (Olympic) hardware around my neck."

  With gold, her tears would be uncontrollable.