Marty from ESPN was on the verge, wetness was creeping up into his eyes, but being the professional sportscaster he is, somehow managed to dam them up. he'd taken a special liking to Olivia. Hearing here story of being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, fighting through chemo and continuing her training just to be at the World Games, had won his heart. He' followed her successes and challenges From opening ceremonies through this chapter today.
A couple nights ago Olivia, who lives and trains outside Milwaukee, had told us she just didn't want another round of chemo, it hurt, it made her sick and so tired. In her hand was a small clump of hair, which had started to fall out again. It was just too hard. It was tough to her her talk like that. Damn.
She is Wisconsin's fastest female Special Olympic sprinter. Last fall I was amazed at her running form, something difficult to teach but had that came natural to her. She'd run sub :16 second 100s then. Here, now, at the World Games, she was having a tough time keeping her times below :19. And she knew it. Olivia expressed her tired disappointment in knowing girls she should beat, now are finishing much further ahead.
In Special Olympics, athletes compete in a divisioning round first, where they get a pre-lim time and before finals, are seeded into groups of like ability athletes. Olivia would be in a slower division than usual. Cancer had taken her speed. Even warm ups for her races were a huge effort for her and for us that have know her, to watch. She kept at it however.
The track was hugely busy Thursday, a lot of our athletes had events and the afternoon session was capped by the 100 meter dash females. Cream of the crop sprinters. SO USA has a big field of girls in that event- a lot to get warmed up, off to staging, race and then a long wait for awards. Olivia would race later in the day.
I try to help get athletes ready for events when I can. Other coaches have sprint groups, distance runners or throwers they regularly prepare here- they are great in what they do and I just jump in when needed. Sometimes as head coach, I'm running around crazy putting out fires for this and that, but inside I'm still a track coach and I wanna work with athletes . Olivia and the rest of the sprinters were warming up in the field behind the stadium. Of all the girls running the drills, she looked weakest. I think all of us were worried in our minds and hearts about how she would do on the track.
The girls I had to warmup were now in the staging area. Olivia already had a seat and was waiting her turn to run. The track complex is big and I finally made my way around to the grandstand to catch a few of the heats of runners. We had a lot, so I Just wanted to hopefully see a few rounds.
Almost all of our team and coaches were in attendance cheering on their teammates. The crowd was loud. A new heat was getting set at the far end of the track for their start- I could see a blue uniform of SO USA on the starting line, Breana maybe? Gun is up, set, bang!
The fastest runner is always in the middle of the field, slower ones on the outside. From the gun, a girl way outside blasted out of the start, my first thought was she is too fast to be in this division. Wait-it's Olivia! I hadn't realized she was in this heat, and by mid point the race was over, she'd destroyed the field. A gold medal would be hung from her neck. The score board lit up with :16.7, a time she hadn't been close to since before chemo. The crowd who knew her story went crazy, tears flowed.
The night before, Olivia told her coach she was going to win. She was going to get the gold for all those women who have breast cancer. She did.
On this day, it was about winning.
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