The First One Through An Olympians Perspective on Pursuing the Dream

i was born on a dirt road

i learned to run through the tobacco

fields of my grandfather’s farm

church family food and fun

in that order were my priorities

i believe that my hunger to be the first

one through

came on that dirt road i was energetic

i was adventurous

and my mom working two jobs

and my stepfather stepping in

gave me an open door to pursuing

my dreams

as a child of the civil rights movement

i was born

in the late 60s in the south there were

three things that i had to push

down that i had to navigate in order

to be successful it was being black

it was being a female and it was being

an athlete

these are things that i had to

neutralize

i can hear your thoughts i can hear you

saying

what does that have to do with anything

my reality then and now

is everything in elementary school

i really believed that i had a special

gift

i thought no one else knew that

i believed that there was no limit as to

how fast i could run

i had no idea what i would do with this

gift

but at the end of every elementary

school field day

i would come home with a chest full of

blue ribbons

who knew that the beginnings of my

olympic pursuit had begun

in middle school there was a street that

ran

right down my road

and it was everyday practice for

bets to be placed and ice cream money to

be lost

on my races

the boys would line up

and before you knew it the secret was

out and they were getting

beat down

there was a middle school teacher that

walked up to me in the hallway and said

if you get a’s and b’s

you could go to college no one had ever

spoken to me about college and

so i thought about it

college

the next time i saw them

i said i want to go to college

my guiding light became

going to college if i get good grades

a’s and b’s and i run fast i

could go to college the pursuit

had begun

as a rural high school athlete

i was not prepared to go to college

in fact the first time i saw the s.a.t

was when i sat down to take it

nevertheless there were opportunities

that were opening for me

title ix had passed three years after i

was born

and so that gave me a shot and then

proposition 48 was passed that allowed

students like me with low sat scores

but high gpas a chance to get specially

admitted to universities

and so my pursuit my passion to go to

college

it came it was

challenging at times and demoralizing

to be specially admitted but i grabbed

every opportunity to pursue

my dream to go to college

and in 1987 i was given a full

scholarship to the university of

north carolina chapel hill to go

to college now

in 1984 it was the summer olympics

in los angeles man was it

hot and i sat in front of that

television

for two weeks in our little two-bedroom

trailer and i

watched and for the first time my first

time watching the olympics

and then my first time seeing myself

in the body of jackie joyner

kersey jackie would become

my friend my mentor my competitor

my teammate an olympic

and world record holder

you see jackie she connected me to my

destiny

and i wasn’t sure what was going to

happen after college but

now the pursuit of the dream had been

named

i wanted to become an olympian

so the dream culminated

at the 2000 olympic trials

but i should tell you that at this point

i had been a professional athlete

for 10 years in 1992

i had made the olympic team in the long

jump

my first time i was sixth it was great

96

96 was different i was in the top 10 in

the world in the long jump and i

missed it by three centimeters i was

devastated i didn’t leave home

for two weeks i was inconsolable

and so i decided to get up

and get on the next team so in 1997 i

made the world championship teams for

athens greece

in the warm-ups i had a problem with my

knee

so a year later they decided to do knee

surgery

and all of a sudden my plans had been

altered

not abandoned so after knee surgery they

said okay you’ll have to

stop long jumping and take a year off

so i switched back to my next favorite

event

and that was the hundred meter hurdles

switching back and forth i’d like to

share with you

is not normal olympians

do not do one event and then come back

eight years later

and do another it is kind of like

asking a sumo wrestler to then take up

skiing

and so i

even though i was an early olympian in

terms of switching events

i was able to make that feat happen

however the switch the change

threatened my mental and physical

capabilities

in terms of furthering my pursuit of my

dream

in 1999 i received my first

top 10 world ranking in the hurdles

and i was in hot pursuit

i went to the 2000 olympic trials

but i had another problem

there was a pain

well let me explain olympians

it takes more than just them to get on

the podium

my observation is that it takes about a

hundred

folks to go alongside and get an

olympian on the podium

my 100 kicked in at the 2000 olympic

trials in sacramento

california two weeks before the trials i

started having a stabbing pain

in my stomach i had an injury called

osteitis pubis

it is when you have a strength imbalance

and your

pelvic bone is trying to separate from

each other

it was so painful that with every hurdle

clearance

i felt like i was being cut in

two

i wasn’t sure what to do i know that i

did not want to go

to sacramento because going to

sacramento it

meant that i had to be perfect and i

wasn’t perfect

so my 100

it kicked in my coach arrived in

sacramento

he designed a a doctor to come and help

me with my pain

i had physical therapists i had massage

therapists i had

a yoga restorative for my stress

but the most important person he lined

up a person that i was

a little nervous trying to avoid

was my mental coach my sports

psychologist gloria

why well gloria she knew me

she knew my superwoman tendency she knew

my

perfectionist problems and she knew my

deepest

fear she said to me sharon

you have to take advantage of this

opportunity that lay before you

right now and you have to be willing to

let go

of what happened in atlanta

the intervention that ensued in the next

couple days

reminds me of this quote alexander

graham bell said it

he said when one door closes another

opens however

we often look at the door that is closed

long and regretfully

and we do not notice we do not see

when the door opens for us

well gloria opened that door for me

she sat down with me and she said sharon

you

always think you have to be perfect were

you perfect the last time you had a

personal record

i said no she said when you have a goal

you tend to be like a bull you go

right at it what if you went through

or around or over

she said who would you rather compete

against

would you rather compete against someone

um that has happened

had any problems you know or would you

rather compete

against you

i i knew that answer

like i know my name i said i’ll take her

because i’m tough to beat

and as i walked out to the track

for my first trial

i walked out there with nine injections

23 000 people in the stands 114 degrees

on the track millions and millions of

people watching my family watching

from the dirt road at home

and my hundred had done all that they

could do

for me and it was up to me to find a way

and so as i lined up for the trial i

went out

and i made it through the first one i

had to be carried back

to the stands i went

to the semifinals i was in the center of

the track i

finished second in my heat and then all

of a sudden

here we go it’s the finals

well yeah i wasn’t smiling because i got

placed in lane one

and lane one for those of you who run

track you know what i mean

but nothing was going to stop me from

walking through this door

so the gun goes off as it is going off

i’m saying to myself i’d rather be me

i’d rather be me

i dive across the line

and as i do

i look and look and i

wait for my name to come down

and as it does

the dream is captured and

i’m walking i don’t even know where i’m

going i’m crying

and i go to the media tent

and the media guy he walks up and he

says

how do you feel and

with tears streaming down my face

i said i faced my fear of failure

i am so proud of my commitment

and my sticking to my pursuit

i am proud no matter the outcome and i’m

proud of my recommitment

after my failure in 96

it was worth it

you see the process revealed my

character

it allowed me to become the best person

that i could be

in order to pursue the gifts

that i got of my family and my legacy

every february i get this strange

wonderful feeling when i look down at my

twitter feed

and i see this

in 2016 i was named

an african-american trailblazer for unc

it is an award given to folks that have

gone out in the world and made a

significant difference

i tell you this because i had issues

with my identity

being a black female athlete

and no longer as i captured my dream

did i struggle not only

did i make history but i am black

history

as a believer

i want to leave an inheritance for my

children’s children

i want to leave a legacy of

blazing trails and leaving trails

that are the experiences of my life

my next pursuit is completion

of a phd

my life’s verse lines up perfectly

to this opportunity so much that’s been

given much will be required

and i’ve been given so much so what i’ll

share with you

is is is a gift from me and it’s the

three c’s and they have been a part of

my

life since at every stage number one

you have to be competent there is no

replacing

what it means to practice to have trials

and failures that lead you to mass

mastery then you will get confidence

after your confidence you will be able

to compete and i

challenge you that no matter your race

your gender your sexual orientation

your family of origin i invite you to

believe in yourself

i invite you to look in the mirror

and say i am tough to beat i

invite you to pursue your dreams

and i invite you to commit to the three

c’s

and when you do you will become

the first one through for you and those

that follow you and the legacy that you

leave

will possibly change the trajectory

of a little girl or a little boy’s life

so i invite you to be

the first one through thank you

you