SF's Shannon Rowbury Qualifies For 1500m

Rowbury finished seventh, but qualified to the semifinals

San Francisco's Shannon Rowbury was among the three Americans who advanced in the semifinals of the women's 1,500-meter run at the Olympics on Monday morning.

Rowbury, 27, is a two-time Olympian, finished seventh, but qualified with a time of 4 minutes, 6.03 seconds. She competes again on Wednesday.

In an interview over the weekend with NBC Bay Area's Raj Mathai, Rowbury said she's psyching herself up to win a medal this week, and to prove her point, she brought along Stanford University sports psychologist, Joann Dahlkoetter, to help her mentally prepare.

Rowbury's been preparing for competitions since she was a young girl; after she broke her leg in elementary school, her grandmother started her on Irish jig dancing.

When her dance career ended, Rowbury tried soccer at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco.

When that didn't take, her former P.E. teacher convinced her to try out for the cross country high school team.

The rest is Olympic history.

To see NBC Bay Area's earlier report on Rowbury's early dance career, click here.

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

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