GoYeo Storytellers: Christine Impara '20

Over four years ago, senior and two-time track and field captain Christine Impara committed to Oberlin under the assumption that she would run cross country as a means to stay in shape, then would compete in the 400-meter and 800-meter for the track and field team — and that was it. 

One semester was all it took for Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Ray Appenheimer to realize that Impara had untapped potential as an athlete, and the coachability to take on events she had never competed in. Appenheimer and Izzy Alexander, associate head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach, talked with Impara about possibly doing the combined events just a few weeks before the Indoor North Coast Athletic Conference Combined Events her freshman year.

“She was excited,” Alexander said. “She enjoys doing lots of different things, and so, perhaps in hindsight, it only made sense that she would excel in an event that requires doing and practicing so many different things.”

The indoor pentathlon consists of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and 800-meter. The outdoor heptathlon consists of the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter, long jump, javelin throw, and 800-meter. The 800-meter is Impara’s best event, and prior to her arrival at Oberlin, she dabbled in the high jump. She only became comfortable in the other events after hundreds upon hundreds of repetitions.

Shortly after her conversation with Appenheimer and Alexander, Impara began training up to three times a day: a lift in the early morning, practice a couple hours later, and then a second practice in the late afternoon — only a challenge that an athlete like Impara could take on, according to Appenheimer.

Despite her versatility as a track and field athlete, Impara didn’t play many sports growing up. She played soccer for a bit and tried riding horses and fencing classes, but the only sports she ever cared for were cross country and track and field.

Impara’s love for track and field has made it easier for her to put in extra hours throughout her college career. Even now, as a senior, she is often the first person to arrive at practice and the last to leave.

“All of this work is not a burden for Christine, and she doesn’t want credit for doing it all,” Appenheimer said. “[She] has perfected the marriage of taking things very seriously while having the best time doing it.”

“Every day I went to work and it was a rehearsal or a show,” she said. “It was a wonderful and great opportunity to do what I love and get paid for it. It reassured me that this is what I want to do.”

It’s difficult to nail down a specific plan in such a cut-throat industry, but Impara said she intends to move to New York City after graduation and find work once there. She’s open to trying film and is even musically-inclined. She can sing and enjoys playing the guitar and piano.

In February she will direct her own play for her senior capstone project. The play, “A Warsaw Melody,” is about a young man named Victor and a Polish singer named Helya who fall in love and face obstacles under Stalin’s brutally-controlled empire. Impara said the play is based off of a rendition of “A Warsaw Melody” that she saw in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

“I’m nervous but also really excited,” she said. “I’ve taken directing classes here, but this is my first time directing a full-length play. It’s a whole different aspect of what I do.”

Many student-athletes claim that playing a college sport is like having a full-time job, and for Impara, it’s as if she’s working two — athletics and theater. However, she said she feels less stressed knowing that her teammates and coaches support all of her endeavors, not just athletics.

“I’m busy all the time, but balancing it all is doable in no small part due to the fact that my coaches want me to succeed,” she said. 

When Impara has a rehearsal in the afternoon, her coaches allow her to make the practice up in the morning. 

“Being supportive of Christine’s theater pursuits is important to us because theater is important to her,” Alexander said. “Not only is she very dedicated to theater, but she is also extraordinary at it, and if we are not doing what we can to encourage and support her, then we are taking away from her having a fulfilling college experience and potentially even taking away opportunities that might be presented to her after college.”

Appenheimer said that this coaching mindset tends to get the best response from his student-athletes. 

“Happy people run faster,” he said. “They throw farther, jump higher, and stay healthier. Christine came to Oberlin with the intent of pursuing acting. In some ways I look at it as though Christine is being accommodating with us. Acting and theater is going to be her life’s work. Track and field is [just one] part of her college experience.”