NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt sprinter Tina Benzinger knows what awaits when she slides her spikes into the starting blocks, almost down to the number of strides required to reach her destination. Track and field has a thousand nuances, but in at least that respect, her sport isn’t complicated. Get from start to finish as quickly—and directly—as you can.
Life is more circuitous. No lane markings guide the way. There’s no way of knowing how far you have to go. The journey may take you all the way from Bavaria to Middle Tennessee—from the Technical University of Munich to Vanderbilt. And that might only be the start.
Benzinger is an international student and graduate transfer in her first year with the Commodores, neither designation uncommon in contemporary college sports. Less familiar is that the German’s transatlantic move came late—only after she earned her undergraduate degree in health science from the Technical University of Munich.
It took her longer than many peers to decide she wanted to pursue track at an elite level. Along the way, she almost quit the sport. Now, competing against the best in the SEC and pursuing her master’s in human development studies from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, she’s making up for lost time. As sprinters know, that isn’t easy. They train long hours to claw back small fractions of a second. For Benzinger, maximizing her potential meant taking a leap of faith on a new culture and intensely collaborative training environment.
Stepping beyond her comfort zone tested her. As evidenced by her personal best in the 200 meters during the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships, the second fastest time in school history, the experiment has also been productive. At Vanderbilt, she found coaches and teammates who challenge and support her. She found people who understand why she’s driven to do what she does. It doesn’t matter where you come from or how you get there, some things translate in any language.
“You want to see how much you can get out of something when you put so much into it,” Benzinger said. “I experienced that here at Vanderbilt, running my personal best at SECs. It’s this feeling of working so hard for something. People always ask me ‘Why do you work out so much just to run for 11 seconds?’ Sometimes I feel like I really don’t know.
“But then once you have this moment on the track, and you see your time and what you achieved—and you put so much work…