Dawn Harper's road to gold

While Lolo Jones hogged the headlines for her ninth hurdle stumble that cost her the Olympic 100m hurdles title, her compatriot, Dawn Harper, caused a surprise to take the gold in Beijing. Yet while Jones’ story was heartbreaking, SPIKES provide seven good reasons why California-based Harper also has a compelling tale to tell.

1 – For much of last winter Harper was juggling three jobs as an academic mentor, coach and mentoring high school students in Los Angeles.

“I was practising, doing coaching and I’d often have to meet two students at night to make sure they were in classes and doing their homework. Often I was getting home at nine at night. It was really hard. I would tell my husband, who also had three jobs, when I got in, ‘please tell me you have something cooked'."

2 – Harper underwent knee surgery on 29 Feb last year – less than four months before the US Olympic Trials. It was a demanding period and difficult to keep positive.

“Nobody really understood my story. I only told my coach, husband and family, most people didn’t know I had a knee surgery, not even my training partners. I am still blown away that I won and I was able to come back from knee surgery.”

3 – It was tight, very tight. Harper squeezed into the US Olympic team in third place by just seven-one thousandths of a second! She edged out Nichole Denby to book her ticket for Beijing alongside Lolo Jones and Damu Cherry, but it required an extraordinary piece of gymnastics to do it.

“I was the 007 girl. I hit hurdle seven and it started to turn me and then I hit hurdle eight. I knew then I have to run for my life – it is all or nothing. I was telling my mum all week if it comes down to the lean, 'don’t worry, I got it. I am willing to lose skin'. When I came off the final hurdle I leaned for the finish line and tried to hold on to my momentum, but my legs went into the air and I somehow mastered the tuck and roll out of it,” she added smiling.

4 – Despite her accomplishments in the sport prior to Beijing she had no shoe contract and had to rely on a pair of spikes handed to her by World 100m hurdles champion and training partner Michelle Perry to compete.

“I thank Michelle daily. They were her only pair of spikes that did not have her name on the back of them. I caught her on the phone one day and I had to swallow my pride to ask her for the spikes. (After all) I’m asking another hurdler, that I am aiming to beat, to give me a pair of her spikes.

5 – It may not have been a mud hut but her accommodation last year was very basic. Harper and her husband, Craig Everhart (a 44.8 400m runner), lived in a one-room frat (fraternity house) in which they had to share the bathroom and kitchen with other members of the house. The pair also shared one car.

“The mayor of my local town presented me with a Pontiac G5 (which she later had upgraded to a Pontiac G6). The mayor said, 'We really wanted to get you the Pontiac G6', but I said, 'Thank you, you don’t understand, we really needed that car'.”

6 – Based in Westwood near UCLA Harper and her husband were living in a student dominated area and students = parties.

“Between Monday and Thursday nights you would have the student parties going on, so not only was I getting in late and tired I sometimes couldn’t get to sleep for the partying. We are now in a really nice apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms in Marina del Rey.”

7 – A lack of money last year meant even eating the right food was a tough task.

“We lived off very basic food with lots of chicken,” said Harper. “We went to the family grocery store to buy in bulk and we were buying big bags of vegetables and chicken. I love fish, so that was my total splurge – it would be salmon or tilapia. We couldn’t afford the higher quality foods or seasonings. I would go to track practice and I would hear the other athletes say they were eating this and that. Our friends would go at out at places that were over $50-60 a plate, which we just couldn’t afford."