PORTLAND, Ore. - Thursday is opening day of track and field at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the highlight of the day is the women's 10,000-meter race featuring Portland's Kara Goucher, who is quickly becoming the American darling of distance running.

"It's crazy," she said.  "I've been running so long but I feel like this is the first time people want to talk to me."

Goucher is a favorite to medal in the 10,000-meter race - the featured event of the opening night of track in Beijing.

"I could have a great race and be 10th but I could also have a great race and win," she said.  "So I just want to be in that position when I hear that bell for the last lap.  I want to have put myself in that position and then I think you need a little luck and the stars to align a little bit to come home with a medal."

That is exactly what Goucher did last year when she won bronze at the World Championships in Japan.  It was validation after years of frustration.

Four years ago, Goucher was on the verge of becoming a track afterthought.

"I just struggled," she said.  "I was injured.  I doubted myself a lot."

Then she moved to Portland to train under running legend Alberto Salazar.

"It's been very exciting to see her blossom not just physically, but psychologically, and to be a young woman that's very confident of herself now," he said.

But Goucher's Olympic dream has not gone exactly as scripted.  Her husband, Adam, is a track star too and a former Olympian.  This was supposed to be the year they made it together but he did not qualify.

"Obviously, it's not how we always imagined but now it's just - I'll run to represent the both of us," she said.

And if you are wondering if Goucher has thought about how it would feel to run her way onto the Olympic medal stand, the answer is yes.

"It would be the ultimate," she said.  "I'm getting goose bumps right now just thinking about it and I try not to think about it too much because I know how hard it is and how, literally, I have to have a lot of luck for that to happen.  But that would just be - I'd probably be like done, retired.  What could ever top this?"

How about two medals?

Goucher will race in the 5,000-meter event in Beijing too but her best chance for a medal will come in the 10,000-meter race.  She will have four days to rest up before she tries to qualify in the 5,000-meter event.