While most students were at home watching the Summer Olympics on television, junior Kristen Karanzias, a pitcher for the ISU softball team, was in Greece in uniform, though an injury kept her from participating.

Karanzias, a Greek-American, wasn’t able to pitch in any of the Olympic games because of a torn groin that she sustained during a practice two days before the start of the games.

Her injury has also prevented her from playing in the ISU softball team’s fall season.

Karanzias said she noticed a problem during warm-up before the Greek team’s second game against Canada.

She didn’t pitch that game and her trainer took her to the doctor, who gave her the bad news.

“They told me I was done. It was pretty disappointing,” Karanzias said. “I can go out there and play hurt, but for me not being able to and having to sit there and watch while our one pitcher deteriorated throughout the tournament was pretty difficult.”

Confined to the bench, Karanzias watched as the Greek team struggled to achieve a 2-7 record, good enough for a sixth-place tie.

Karanzias said her journey to Athens began last November when she happened upon an article in USA Today stating that the Greek Olympic softball team was looking for players.

She contacted Linda Wells, the coach of the Greek team. After the two and ISU head coach Ruth Crowe traded paperwork, Karanzias learned she had been selected to be a part of the team without even trying out.

Karanzias said she had been a part of the Greek national team during the summer of 2003 and that those players had a better chance of making the Olympic team.

The Greek team was composed of 18 women, only two of whom were native Greeks. Karanzias said the reason only two native Greeks made it onto the team is because softball is a relatively new sport for the country.

“[The Greeks] have only been playing for about three years, and in order to field a competitive team, [the coaches] had to look for players who’ve been playing for more than two years,” she said.

The national team trained for about a year before the Olympics began.

“The opening ceremonies were probably the neatest part of the whole experience,” Karanzias said.

“Walking into the stadium and have everybody cheer for you was — you can’t even describe it.”

The players were housed in the Olympic Village with six women to an apartment, three rooms in each. Karanzias and her five roommates began to call themselves the “Young Guns,” since they were the youngest members of the team.

Karanzias said her goal is participate in the Olympics again; however, her Olympic career on the Greek team — as well as those of other players — is up in the air at the moment.

She said she thinks officials might be putting more native Greeks on the team. She wasn’t sure where that would leave the non-native Greek players. Right now, they will just have to wait and see, she said.

Although Karanzias won’t have any memories of pitching in the Olympics, she does have memories of meeting several famous athletes.

The list includes basketball stars Yao Ming and Allen Iverson, who was “pretty cool,” as well as tennis stars Andy Roddick and Venus Williams.