AGAINST ALL ODDS : CHILDHOOD LOSS OF SIGHT, CANCER CAN'T STOP GUTSY CYCLIST FROM COMPETING AT TOP LEVEL, BOTH ON AND OFF THE TRACK.

Byline: Elizabeth M. Cosin Daily News Staff Writer

Cara Dunne was born for speed.

A champion downhill skier by the time she was 11, Dunne set a national record as a 12-year-old in the 50-yard dash, and these days she's one of the top tandem cyclists in the nation.

The diminutive 26-year-old UCLA law student will represent the United States in four cycling races that are part of a series of sporting events in and around Atlanta featuring competitors from more than 100 countries. Dunne's events begin Saturday at the Olympic Velodrome, where she will race before thousands of spectators. Some of the events will be broadcast here and around the world.

This is not the competition everyone is talking about. This is the Paralympics, the contest for disabled athletes, and it is taken just as seriously by its 4,000 participants and the U.S. Olympic Committee as is the larger, better-known spectacle.

And Dunne is no ordinary Olympian. She lost her sight when she was 5 and survived two bouts of cancer, the second of which required months of radiation therapy and several operations. She is fluent in two languages, lived and worked in Japan for a year and graduated with honors from Harvard, where she served as class president. Last year, she took part in a 1,000-mile bike ride through Siberia.

``Every so often somebody stands out as so exceptional that some way you hope you can emulate them. Cara is one of those people,'' says Steven A. Nissen, executive director of Public Counsel, the largest pro-bono law office in the country. Dunne was one of about a dozen interns hired out of hundreds of applications to work at the Los Angeles-based firm this summer.

``Everyone says I am extraordinary or something special,'' says Dunne, whose tiny but solid figure gives only a small indication of where her strength and speed come from. ``But I'm just like everyone else. Maybe I work harder.''

There isn't much that's typical about Dunne, who modestly carries spunk and tenacity like extra senses.

``She reversed the role model thing,'' says her father, Mike Dunne, who lives in Denver and often skis with Cara. ``Now she's the role model. She has so much energy, sometimes I have to get mine from her.''

Dunne's progression to national champion status has been at times long and painful, with soaring ups and terrible downs.

But despite the tragedies she has endured, Dunne is ambitious and wants to try everything - at least once.

``I don't think I can stand it when people patronize me. That has to be the worst,'' she says.

She smiles easily. Her two blue prosthetic eyes and an indentation on the right side of her face are clues to her battles with cancer. You have to look hard to realize the eyes aren't real.

With her guide dog, a huggable black lab named Hayley, Dunne has a swift athlete's gait, strong and purposeful. That's how she wants people to see her.

``I don't mind talking about my cancer because I know there are people out there who are suffering, too,'' she says. ``But I would rather talk about my times and my races than about the rest of this stuff. I'm an athlete and that's what athletes want to talk about.''

Still, Dunne understands that what makes her and able-bodied Paralympics cycling teammate Scott Evans stand out are unusual and inspirational achievements and the pain she has endured.

No more light

Dunne was born on Chicago's north side. At 15 months, she developed retinoblastoma, a rare form of infant cancer that often leads to the loss of one or both eyes. Her right eye was removed immediately, but she retained a small degree of sight in the left eye. Eventually, however, damage from the cancer treatment took away the little sight she had left. It was a day her mother remembers vividly, when her active, energetic 5-year-old daughter came inside after riding her training wheels around the neighborhood.

``It was very sad, heartbreaking,'' says Mary Zabelski. ``After she came home from her ride, she said `Mommy, I can't play outside anymore. The sun is gone.' It's the only time I really get emotional when I talk about Cara.''

Zabelski, who now works for the Lighthouse for the Blind, says she gets enormous strength from Cara. Zabelski tried hard to make her daughter's childhood as normal as possible, putting her in public schools and encouraging her to take part in many activities.

``We always tried to tell her she could do anything, be anybody,'' Zabelski says. ``But I guess she went beyond everybody's expectations.''

Dunne earned a spot in the Who's Who of High School students in 1988 and got into Harvard, where she earned magna cum laude honors in Asian Studies and presided over her graduating class.

Her grand achievements started much, much sooner.

`Win, win and win'

Dunne's mother convinced her to take up skiing, and her stepfather, Richard Zabelski, helped her learn how to downhill guide-ski - and how to win. One day before a race, another skier's mother expressed concern at the way Zabelski was pushing his stepdaughter and reminded Dunne that it was important to do her best and have fun.

``Well, my dad pulled me aside right there,'' says Dunne. ``He told me to remember three things, `win, win and win.' And if I crossed the finish line and didn't win, he said then I could say I did my best.

``I wouldn't push my kids as hard as my parents pushed me,'' she says. ``I tell (my parents) that all the time. But it's probably where I get my will to fight from.''

She needed that will in 1992. After graduating from Harvard and before entering law school, Dunne was in Colorado working as a ski instructor when she found a lump on her face.

It turned out to be a form of bone cancer that often strikes survivors of retinoblastoma in their teens and early 20s. Dunne was 22 and in a fight for her life, again.

Getting in gear

Two years of grueling, painful and `debilitating chemotherapy treatments and four operations later, Dunne seemed to have beaten the cancer. She lost her right cheek bone, her upper palette, part of her throat, all of her hair and most of her muscle tone in the process.

She was able to participate in a celebrity ski event shortly after the doctors cleared her in 1994, but she huffed and puffed down the hill and went home thinking her athletic career was over, a few months before her 24th birthday.

Then someone suggested she try an upcoming cycling workshop in Colorado. She tried her first tandem, but felt so fatigued that she broke down in tears.

One of the coaches suggested that she was just out of shape, lighting another spark in Dunne. Now, two years later, she is one of the best in the world.

``She could dominate this sport for the next 10 years,'' says U.S. Paralympics cycling coach Peter Paulding. ``She seems to have no limits at times. ... She has gotten very good, very fast. She's a natural.''

Dunne and partner Evans have fared well in races against able-bodied teams and even crossed the finish line at one recent road race ahead of much of the field, including a team of two able-bodied men.

Evans, an astrophysics graduate student at UCLA and member of the school's cycling team who lives in Woodland Hills and trains at the Dominguez Hills velodrome, was never good at sprinting, but he and his new teammate are considered among the teams to beat this summer in the mixed events at the Paralympics, which teams disabled athletes.

``It's an amazing feeling to have her back there,'' Evans says. ``It's like having an outboard motor behind you, a burst of energy that's unbelievable. When I give the command to go all out, she pedals and I just try and keep up.''

For Evans and others who know Dunne, keeping up with her is as difficult outside the velodrome as it is on the track. While training for the U.S. Paralympic Trials in Colorado Springs, Dunne announced to her teammate that she wanted to learn how t`o do two things: ride a bike solo and drive a car.

``We were goofing around and we had (a single cycle) with us, so Cara decided to give it a try,'' recalls Evans. ``The pedals were new, and she wasn't used to it and she couldn't get out of the clips fast enough. She fell and got a hairline (fracture) in her arm.''

Dunne was so embarrassed by the incident that she refused to tell anyone the real story behind the bandage on her right forearm. She road through the entire competition with a broken arm. The team of Dunne and Evans tied for first in points, winning twice and coming in second twice.Now the story is part of the Dunne lore.

``When she comes to Denver to ski with me, all the ski guides want to be her guide,'' says Mike Dunne, her father. ``They love her. Everybody wants her autograph. It's thrilling the way she can inspire people.''

Inspiration aside, it's perspiration that means the most to Dunne now, with a Paralympic gold medal in sight this summer. She has trained practically nonstop, first in Minneapolis, then in Pennsylvania, before heading to Atlanta's Olympic Village.

She is approaching the games with the same ferocity she had in her first tandem race with coach Paulding. It was a 35-kilometer hilly road race in the summer heat of Wisconsin that forced many able-bodied riders to drop out or walk their bikes up the worst hills.

``I'd never seen that before, people getting off their bikes on some of the hills,'' recalls Paulding. ``I turned back to Cara and told her, `We have one lap to go. This is your first race. You can stop now if you want.'

``She seemed to think about it for a minute and then said she wanted to continue,'' he says. ``Later I asked her what she was thinking about.

``She said, `I thought either one more hour of agony or a lifetime of guilt.' ''

This is one of Paulding's favorite stories about Dunne.

``That sums up Cara pretty well,'' he says. ``That's what she's all about. When she's got it in her mind to do something, ther`e's no stopping her.''

Evans knows this probably as well as anyone, but it isn't the competition he's worried about.

``She said she wanted to learn how to drive after the competition,'' he says. ``I know as soon as the last race is over, she's going to tap me on the shoulder and remind me. Not much stops her, I'll tell you that.''

10 days of distinction

The 10th Paralympic Games will be held Aug. 15-25 in Atlanta with more than 4,000 disabled athletes from 127 countries expected to participate. The games consist of 10 days of competition and 19 events (17 medal events and two demonstrations) for people who are blind, paraplegic, quadriplegic, have cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960 with 400 athletes from 23 countries participating. At Barcelona four years ago, the Paralympics drew more than 1.5 million spectators, and 85,000 people attended the opening ceremonies.

This year, 11 of the 86 members of the U.S. Paralympics team are from the Southland, including Karen Norris, 31, a swimmer from Van Nuys; and Mike Dempsy from Oxnard, who is entered in the table tennis events.

The games have been held every four years since 1960. Since 1988, they have been held within two weeks following the end of the Olympics and feature a variety of events in swimming, track and field, cycling and other sports.

Cara Dunne is scheduled to compete Aug. 16, 17 and 18 in the velodrome events and on Aug. 22 in the road race. Norris is entered into six events and will compete on Aug. 17, 19, 21, 22, 24 and 25.

CBS plans to air taped coverage of selected events on Aug. 17, 18, 24 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time. During the first weekend, CBS is scheduled to show highlights of the Aug. 15 opening ceremonies, wheelchair basketball and tennis, plus part of the swimming and some track and field events.

Schedules for the second weekend have not been released yet, but likely will include coverage of cycling, swimming and o`ther events, according to the network. Check local listings for details.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) True Grit

Twice struck bycancer and blind since childhood, cyclist Cara Dunne has beat the odds with an Olympic spirit. She competes this week in Atlanta

(2--3) At left, Dunne, who lost her sight to retinoblastoma, a rare form of infant cancer, removes her bike from a training mechanism. Below, the 26-year-old UCLA law student, who competes Saturday in the Paralympics in Atlanta, walks the track with friend Lori Renolds, left.

(4) Dunne, with tandem partner Scott Evans, leads a group of cyclists in warm-up laps at the velodrome at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

(5) Cara Dunne's blindness doesn't keep her from winning tandem bicycle races with partner Scott Evans, a graduate student in astrophysics at UCLA who is also a member of the university's cycling team.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

(6) When she's not training or studying, Cara Dunne works as an intern at Public Counsel, the nation's largest pro-bono law office. She gets around with the help of her Labrador retriever guide dog, Hayley.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News

Box: 10 days of distinction (See Text)