<table> </table> Every four years about this time, Thane Baker gets a little jittery.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the butterflies, as usual,&#8221; Baker said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t help it.&#8221;</p><p>The Summer Olympics can do that to a champion.</p><p>Baker will keep up with the track and field events, especially the sprinters, over the next few days. That was his world at the 1952 and 1956 Games, where he won a total of four medals, including a gold as a member of the 400-meter relay team.</p><p>He&#8217;s part of a rich heartland Olympic track and field heritage.</p><p>So proud was Baker of his Elkhart, Kan., and Kansas State roots that he thought about those first upon accepting his gold for the relay, silver for the 100 meters and bronze for the 200 meters in 1956 and silver for the 200 in 1952.</p><p>&#8220;I felt as much national pride as anybody,&#8221; Baker said. &#8220;But it just felt more personal to me to represent my family, my hometown and Kansas State.&#8221;</p><p>Baker wanted to be a runner and an Olympian by the time he was 6. That&#8217;s when he learned of another Elkhart hero, Glenn Cunningham, the world record holder in the mile, who had just returned from a silver-medal finish at the 1936 Olympics.</p><p>&#8220;He ran down Main Street with his Olympic uniform on,&#8221; Baker said. &#8220;That was the biggest thing that had ever happened to me.&#8221;</p><p>Baker made a better sprinter than distance runner, but any thought of the Olympics seemed farfetched when he entered high school.</p><p>At 14, Baker was involved in an accident that left a piece of metal in his left knee. It affected the leg&#8217;s development &#8212; his right leg is larger than his left.</p><p>&#8220;But the right leg is the outside leg on the turn in the 200,&#8221; Baker said. &#8220;You need more strength in that leg.&#8221;</p><p>As a high school senior, he reached the finals of the 100 and 200 at the state meet in Wichita and finished last in both events.</p><p>But Baker wasn&#8217;t discouraged. Halfway through his freshman year at Kansas State, he saw an announcement from track coach Ward Haylett in the school newspaper seeking track candidates. When Baker responded, the coach told him to try a relay team.</p><p>&#8220;We got hand-me-down equipment, used shoes, but we felt like part of the team,&#8221; Baker said.</p><p>Baker got faster, quickly. He won the first of three straight Big Seven 100-yard and 200-yard dashes as a sophomore in 1951.</p><p>Today, Baker lives in Granbury, Texas. He retired from the Air Force Reserve as a colonel and continued to compete in track masters events. With his wife, Sally, he raised funds for Kansas State while serving on the school&#8217;s board of trustees and the alumni board of directors.</p><p>&#8220;Kansas State gave me a chance and did so much for me, I&#8217;ll never be able to fully repay it,&#8221; Baker said.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> The heartland again is well-represented in track and field at the Beijing Olympics with sprinter Muna Lee, who starred at Central High; distance runner Matt Tegenkamp of Lee&#8217;s Summit; former Missouri shot-putter Christian Cantwell (who won silver in the shot put); and former Kansas Stater Christian Smith in the 800. They&#8217;ll be seeking to join a group of medal-winning track and field athletes from Kansas and Missouri &#8212; and those who at one time represented schools in those states.</p><p><strong><span class="infobox-head">Ray Armstead </span></strong><br /> Armstead, from Northwest High in St. Louis, ran the second leg of the gold-medal-winning 1600-meter relay team at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.</p><p><strong><span class="infobox-head">Jim Bausch </span></strong><br /> Before heading to Los Angeles for the 1932 Games, Bausch, who lettered in football and basketball at Kansas, walked into <em>The Kansas City Star&#8217;s </em>offices, found a sportswriter and declared &#8220;I&#8217;ll win that decathlon. And what&#8217;s more, I&#8217;ll break the record.&#8221; That&#8217;s precisely what happened.