Two years ago, Alicia Monson, the American record holder at both 5,000 and 10,000 meters, would have been out front, hundreds of meters ahead of many of the women in Saturday’s field.

But there was Monson now, in her first race in 16 months, running in unfamiliar territory, the back of the pack, 20, 30 meters behind the leaders, 20, 30 meters off the pacing lights, yet every eye in the stadium was tracking her every step through one of the most anticipated comeback races in American track and field this season.

“It was especially weird at first, being around so many people, because I haven’t done that in so long, and also, often, I just end up going to the front of a race,” Monson said afterward. “So it was definitely a bit of a learning curve, but it definitely felt better, even though I was more tired as it went.”

What was evident on a Saturday night, with the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene 19 days away, wasn’t fatigue as much as Monson’s confidence growing with each passing lap, the caution, the tentativeness giving way to a sense of purpose as she worked her way through the field, eventually finishing sixth in 15 minutes, 1.63 seconds, well under the U.S. championships automatic qualifying standard of 15:05.

Never mind that her time Saturday was 42 seconds off her two-year-old American record. Sixteen months after a torn meniscus not only crushed her Olympic medal hopes for Paris but threatened her career, just months after her coach questioned whether she would race at all in 2025, only eight weeks after she resumed serious training, Monson was not only back racing, running with confidence, with joy, she had also just run herself back into contention for a spot on Team USA for the World Championships in Tokyo (September 13-21).

“Ooh, man, it’s emotional,” said Dathan Ritzenhein, Monson’s coach at the Boulder-based On Athletics Club. “And, yeah, it’s actually the highlight for me tonight. I mean, she just ran that amazing, 16 months after a major surgery, like, it’s one of those surgeries you don’t know if you come back from, and honestly, she’s only really been kind of like (seriously training) eight weeks or so. We kind of decided to do this. We didn’t think she’d raced at all this summer and that was even maybe three months ago. And so she’s just so good that she can pop out and run 15 flat like that.

“And, yeah, emotional. Very awesome to see.”

Monson’s toughness has never been in question.

When the Wisconsin administration decided in April 2020 not to honor an additional year of eligibility granted to athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Monson signed with On Athletics. Running in extreme heat at the 2021 Olympic Trials 10,000 in Eugene, Monson, staggering through the final few laps to hold onto the third spot on the Olympic team. Monson pushed herself so hard that morning that she collapsed after the medal ceremony and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

“She’s the toughest person, the quietest, toughest person you could imagine,” Ritzenhein told Runner’s World after the race. “I think she’s one of the next greats. She showed it today.”

Monson, however, was just getting started.

She claimed her first American record at the 2023 Millrose Games, running 8:28.05 for 3,000 meters indoors. Less than a month later, Monson knocked nearly 10 seconds off the American record at 10,000 meters, running 30:03.82 at The Ten, a Sound Running distance carnival in San Juan Capistrano. Monson shaved three seconds off Shelby Houlihan’s 5,000 American record with a 14:19.45 clocking at the London Diamond League later in 2023.

Monson returned to San Juan Capistrano in March 2024 with the goal of becoming only the second woman not born in African to break 30:00 in the 10,000 and the first to do so in 31 years. (The first woman to break 30:00, China’s Wang Junxia, has been the subject of decades of persistent documented allegations that she and at least eight other teammates were forced by their coach to use banned performance-enhancing substances, although she is not known to have tested positive for PEDs. Her 1993 world record of 29:31.78, knocked 42 seconds off the previous world record, is not recognized by several organizations.)

Monson’s sub-30:00 bid that night was derailed when a stomach issue forced her out of the race mid-way through the competition.

Four days later, she was on a routine training run in Boulder when she felt her knee pop.

“She was just running on a flat bike path, and I was biking behind her, and she just stopped, and she said, ‘I just felt something popping my knee,’” Ritzenhein said. “And yeah, the meniscus root just tore right off.”

“I was on the long run seven miles in,” Monson said. “It just popped. Just I felt my knee let go. So, a crazy time.

“At first, I thought maybe it was just like I strained my popliteus or something. We tried to keep running, but I could do everything but run, and obviously you need to run.”

Monson underwent surgery in April. Her dream of racing in Paris was over but she tried to remain optimistic about her future.

“I mean, I kind of came at it knowing that I would come out the other side,” Monson said.

“So I think I had a great mentality in that way. And I think it was more so just me giving myself time to come back and feel confident about my long-term health and, yeah, just feel like I want to get back out there.”

But her return to training and racing took longer than she and Ritzenhein expected.

“She had ACL surgery when she was in high school, and so it was a compromised joint already,” said Ritzenhein, a three-time Olympian and former American record holder in the 5,000. “And every time she would get sick over the last four (years), you know, ever since I’ve known her, coached her for five years, she’d get sick and her knee would swell up. Or she’d get a COVID vaccine and her knee would swell up. And so it was, a weird response, and she had to get it drained a few times and stuff.”

Monson watched the Olympic 5,000 final in person in Stade De France.

“Because my family had bought tickets, because we had been just assuming I would make the team, so but then it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I got to have my first, like, full family vacation in like, a decade,” she said. “So it was really fun.

“We rented this Airbnb, an hour train ride outside of Paris, and we just hung out. I had my nephews there too. I’m really into road cycling, so we watched that, and then watched a couple of my teammates at the track and track races.”

It would be the closest Monson would get to competition for months.

“She was not able to run yet,” Ritzenhein said. “She was just cross-training in the Airbnb with her parents. You never know. We thought it’d be smoother, but it wasn’t. It’s major, major surgery. She had some, we had some worries sometimes, where, in the first six months, we didn’t know how it was responding. She just kept working and kept working. I mean, so much time in the gym, like, an amazing amount of time in the gym.”

Monson resumed running on the ground in September.

“But I had a few setbacks,” she said. “My most recent continuous running started more like in the early spring, and didn’t start (serious training) until April. So it’s been just such a slow process for so long that now, once I actually started to make some progress, it’s like, wow, this is suddenly clicking.”

After congratulating Monson Saturday night, Ritzenhein was reminded of a recent workout.

“All right, here’s a good piece of information,” he said beaming. “I didn’t even think of it, so she, she just did her first sub-five-minute mile (in training) 10 days ago. So she just ran three of them at 4:50. So amazing, yeah.

“We kind of thought, let’s just get through the summer in one piece and continue to build and then we try to do a, maybe we try to do a low-key road race in the fall, just something to do, you know, to put something on the calendar. And then about two months ago, we were you know, she hasn’t put spikes on, but she’s able to handle some workouts. Let’s start trying to get into spikes.

“And so maybe about a month ago, we got her in spikes, and yeah, she was able to run the paces of today, just in a lot shorter reps. So then we just said, ‘Hey, let’s just continue to progress her logically.’ And so she’s been over the last eight to 10 weeks, has been like, 65 miles (per week), 66, 67, 68 it’s just been like a mile or two a week. I think she’s run 70. I think she had 78 last week. And it’s probably been about six weeks over 70, like 70 to 78. But before our normal for her has always been like 90 to 95.

“And the workouts are not what she would do before, but, you know, long runs are the same, not that what she would do before, but she’s still only cross training on the workout days, but she’s healthy and so that’s, that’s the biggest thing.”

The question now is can a healthy Monson take the next step and make the World Championships team in Eugene?

She will have plenty of competition in Monson’s OAC teammate Josette Andrews, the season’s U.S. leader at 14:25.37, who won the Sunset 1,500 Saturday in 4:00.10. There’s two-time Olympian Elise Cranny, the American record holder at 5,000 indoors who grew up Ritzenhein’s current hometown of Niwot, Colorado, fellow Olympians Karissa Schweizer and Weini Kelatifrezghi, the Olympic Trials 10,000 champion, and Houlihan returning from a four-year doping ban. Bailey Hertenstein (14:48.91) and Taylor Roe (14:49.91), who went 1-2 Saturday night, could also be in the mix.

“Honestly, we still don’t know what to make of it, you know it was just one of the most bizarre things,” Ritzenhein referring to Monson’s injury. “And so for her, it was, it’s very scary. You know it’s the kind of major surgery that not many runners come back from that. So it was a long process. And she really, we did everything we could and, yeah, I’m really proud of her just being back out there and she’ll be as good as ever.”

Ritzenhein was asked how he kept Monson moving forward?

“Honestly, it’s all her. She’s just, like, the toughest person. She’s always done that. You know, there were a lot of dark moments. I had some of those surgeries as well, where I didn’t race for a year,” said Ritzenhein, who competed in the 2004 Olympic 10,000 final with a stress fracture. “Yeah, and a lot of times where you just don’t think you’ll get back. And so for her, I think she’s just such a tough athlete, and probably tougher than any person I really know. And so she’s very calm, demure person, but, like, she is very, very much a killer and that’s why she’s run 14:19, she’s the American record holder.”

Late Saturday night, Monson made no effort to hide her joy, beaming between gasps, moments after finishing.

“Sixteen months ago?” she said. “I mean, it’s actually surprisingly easy to get back into the race routine, but then obviously it’s like, I knew that once the gun goes off, it’s like, ‘Oh, why are we sprinting?’ But get to just get back into this situation …”

Her voice and thought tailed off, seemingly grasping the significance of the night.

She had survived the quick early pace just as she had the disappointment of last summer, the doubts and frustration of autumn, the questions through the spring, steadfastly working her way through the field, showing glimpses of the “killer,” racing back toward the forefront of American distance running.

“I mean, the goal today was to start a race,” she continued, “finish a race, and feel like I’ve got momentum.”

An attorney for the USOPC informed Jones, a two-time world champion in both track and field and bobsled, on July 3 that she would have access to housing, the weight room, sports medicine personnel and facilities and training table/nutrition for a USA Bobsled and Skeleton high performance camp at the OPTC beginning July 24 should USABS request access for her, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG.

The USOPC letter came a day before the deadline to apply for the high performance camp, eight weeks after Jones requested a mediation hearing with the USOPC,  and seven months before she hopes to compete in a fourth Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, according to interviews with five people familiar with the case and USOC and USABS documents obtained by the SCNG.

Jones’ suspension has continued even though USOPC officials acknowledged she was wrongly denied medical treatment late on the afternoon of Feb. 28, a decision that prompted the verbal confrontation. The USOPC did not interview eyewitnesses, according to Jones, a USABS official, and three other people familiar with the case.

RELATED: SPECIAL REPORT: Lolo Jones banned from Olympic Training Center

Other Olympians, Team USA members and a USA BS official describe the suspension of Jones, 42, as excessive, arbitrary, retaliatory and based on little if any investigation by USOPC officials. The case, Jones and her supporters maintain, also raises serious questions about the medical care America’s Olympic hopefuls are receiving at the OPTC in Lake Placid.

“This case is a glaring example of the need for a complete overhaul of the USOPC’s medical system,” said John Manly, Jones’ Orange County-based attorney.

The suspension and the decision not to lift it, Manly said “comes from the very top of the Olympic committee which is Sarah Hirschland,” the USOPC’s CEO.

The USOPC has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Manly was especially critical of USOPC board member Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general.

“The USOPC has made a big deal about how ‘we care for athletes’ after Nassar,” Manly said in reference to Larry Nassar, the team doctor at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics who is serving decades in prison for sexually abusing scores of female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts

. “In reality nothing has changed. (Murthy) has taken no active role in understanding why the (USOPC) medical system is so bad. Anybody that truly cared about the (USOPC’s) mission, which was enacted by Congress and is to take care of athletes, no competent person would think this is OK.”

Murthy’s office referred questions to the USOPC.

Under the USOPC suspension, Jones has been denied access to training facilities such as the center’s weight room, sports medicine clinic and personnel, and housing and nutritional resources at a critical training period, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG and interviews with Jones and four other people familiar with the case. The suspension has created competitive, financial and emotional obstacles, Jones said, that jeopardize her bid to compete in what would be her second Winter Olympics and fourth overall. The former LSU track and field star competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jones has spent approximately $100,000 on medical and training expenses because of the suspension, Manly said. Jones has been training at LSU, where she was an NCAA hurdles champion, since the ban.

The two-time World champion in bobsled, suffering severe pain and incontinence from a training-related back injury, was initially banned from the OPTC sports medicine area March 1, a day after she called John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC Medical Clinic at the training center, “a horrible f—— human being,” during a verbal exchange after a previously scheduled treatment was canceled without explanation just days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, according to OPTC emails and interviews. Jones confirmed in an interview with SCNG that she swore at Faltus.

Faltus also alleges that Jones made an obscene gesture toward him, an allegation Jones denies.

“This behavior is a direct violation of the OPTC Code of Conduct,” Julie Marra, director of the USOPC Training Center in Lake Placid, wrote in a March 1 email to Jones. “This conduct is unacceptable, and I want to make it clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated.”

But Marra did not cite a specific violation of the code in the email or subsequently, according to documents and five people familiar with the case. The closest the code comes to directly addressing swearing or verbal altercations is one brief passage: “Unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, including but not limited to, the following: Any act of violation of offenses, as listed in the USOPC Background Check Policy or adjudicated of federal, state, or local laws.”

The OPTC code, a USABS official acknowledged, “is arbitrary.”

“To this day,” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG, “no one has told me: Who found me in violation, what exact rule or code I broke, or what part of the Code of Conduct was allegedly violated.”

Marra and Faltus have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

“If we banned every Olympic athlete that dropped an F-bomb we’d be in big trouble,” Manly said.

Ben Towne, the OPTC trainer, set up an appointment with the sports medicine clinic for Jones to receive a massage, the first step in treating and diagnosing the back injury, according OPTC protocol. But Jones was informed after arriving at the clinic Feb. 28 that her appointment had been canceled without explanation.

Towne will be Jones’ point of contact with the OPTC sports medicine clinic beginning July 24.

Although Jones was told Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and she had already had a massage that week, she said: “I have never received a written explanation for why I was denied medical treatment? This is especially alarming given that I was recovering from an injury I sustained while representing Team USA. The USOPC claims to support athlete health, but in this case, they failed to uphold that duty of care.”

“One massage a week for 50 minutes for one of our top Olympians,” Manly said. “If you get hurt in prison, you get an MRI. The medical system in the federal prison system is literally better than the USOPC’s. What are we doing?

“Prisoners get better treatment than Olympians?”

Jones paid to have an MRI done after the World Championships, which revealed a herniated disc with a disc bulge, and tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae with spinal fluid leaking out.

Texas A&M freshman Athing Mu celebrates after winning her 400-meter heat during the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Thomas Boyd)

Athing Mu, of the United States, leads the field in the final of the women’s 800-meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Athing Mu, of the United States, wins the final in the women’s 800-meter run at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday, July 24, 2022, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Gold medalist Athing Mu, of the United States, stands during the medal ceremony for the women’s 800-meter at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The United States team of Allyson Felix, Athing Mu, Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney Mclaughlin, from left, celebrate winning the gold medal in the final of the women’s 4 x 400-meter relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Athing Mu finishes last after falling in the women’s 800-meter final during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Monday, June 24, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

LOS ANGELES — Just as so much of American track and field’s history has been written between the white lines of Hayward Field, so has the storied venue chronicled the life and times of Athing Mu-Nikolayev, arguably the most gifted female half-miler in history.

Her triumphs and heartbreak, NCAA, Olympic Trials and World Championship titles, a pair of American records, crashing out of last summer’s Trials, are all told in two-minute chapters.

“It is a track she is familiar with,” said Bobby Kersee, Mu-Nikolayev’s coach, his voice revealing a realization of his understatement.

Mu-Nikolayev, the 2021 Olympic champion, returns to Tracktown USA to write a perhaps pivotal chapter as she takes on a world-class field at the 50th Prefontaine Classic Saturday afternoon in her first major 800-meter race since tripping and falling on Hayward Field’s backstretch last June.

She comes to Eugene looking neither to run away from her past or after records but to chase something more elusive and valuable than gold: joy

“Of course, every year we’re shooting for the World Championships or the Olympic championships,” Mu-Nikolayev, 23, said. “Of course, there’s nothing more that I want than gold. But I think most importantly this year, it’s just me regaining my joy back and finding my love for the sport. And if it’s not love, just appreciation for the sport and the places that I get to take me, and it’s just all that I get to do with it. So I think that’s my first priority. And I think once I gain that within myself and within the Lord, I think he’ll lead me into the direction of winning, of running fast and everything else that comes with it.”

Mu-Nikolayev’s pursuit of happiness began in the shadows of her darkest moment.

At 9:45 p.m. on the evening of August 5, eight women lined up on Stade de France’s purple track for an Olympic Games 800-meter final that had one conspicuous absence.

A few miles away, Mu-Nikolayev spent the final few minutes of her reign as Olympic champion trying to avoid seeing the race on television.

“I didn’t watch it live. I wasn’t really watching the Games too much,” Mu-Nikolayev recalled. “Just trying to get myself out of the environment as much as I could, even though I was training.”

Mu-Nikolayev was in Paris as part of Bobby Kersee’s Los Angeles-based training group that included Sydney McLaughlin, who would leave the Games with gold medals in the 400 hurdles and 4×400 relay.

But Kersee’s primary reason for bringing Mu-Nikolayev to Paris was more mental than physical.

The sooner Mu-Nikolayev dealt with the disappointment of crashing out of the U.S. Olympic Trials six weeks earlier, the most recent and devastating setback in two injury-riddled seasons, Kersee reasoned, the sooner she could move on.

Ignoring the disappointment of the Trials, hiding from it wasn’t going to make it go away.

“It was very hard,” Kersee said. “My philosophy of coaching is to put her right back in it, right away. And she tolerated me as a coach. It was tough for me and it was tough for her.”

“It was an experience,” Mu-Nikolayev said, “yeah.”

Kersee this week was asked when he had a sense that Mu-Nikolayev was back.

“I guess July 5,” he said laughing, referring to this weekend’s meet.

Mu-Nikolayev faces a Pre Classic field Saturday that includes five of last summer’s eight Olympic finalists, including Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the silver and bronze medalists respectively, plus former Oregon NCAA champion Raevyn Rogers, the Olympic bronze medalist behind Mu-Nikolayev in Tokyo in 2021, and Scotland’s Jemma Reekie, the 2024 World Indoor Championships runner-up.

But Kersee and Mu-Nikolayev’s primary focus is on the U.S. Championships next month and the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

“This is the first setting to see where we’re at,” Kersee said.

Four years ago, the only question mark hanging over Mu-Nikolayev was whether — or when — she would break the 800 world record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983 during an era of state-sponsored doping by Soviet bloc countries and the absence of rigorous drug testing.

She won the 2021 Olympic Trials just days after turning 19, then became the first U.S. runner to win the Olympic 800 title since Dave Wottle in 1972, the first American woman gold medalist in the event since Madeline Manning at the 1968 Games, clocking an American record of 1 minute, 55.21 seconds. Mu-Nikolayev, the youngest female U.S. Olympic track and field champion in any event in 53 years, lowered her American record to 1:55.04 at the Pre Classic later that summer.

She returned to Hayward Field in 2022 to win the World Championships 800, becoming the youngest woman to hold Olympic and world titles.

But Mu-Nikolayev began battling a series of injuries in 2023. Limited to just four meets because of a hamstring injury, she was third (1:56.61) behind Moraa (1:56.03) and Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson (1:56.34) at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. A few weeks later, she beat both Moraa and Hodgkinson, later the 2024 Olympic champion, in the Diamond League Final at the Pre Classic, running an American record 1:54.97, then the third fastest time this century, the eight fastest all-time. Five of the seven women ahead of her were from Eastern bloc or communist countries and ran their times in the late 1970s or 80s.

But Mu-Nikolayev continued to struggle with injuries leading up to last summer’s Olympic Trials.

In the 800, runners must stay in their lanes for the first 100 meters before cutting in. Halfway down the first backstretch of the Trials final, Mu, who likes to run from the front in part because of her long stride and who started in lane 6, started to cut when she clipped the leg of Rogers, losing her balance then falling into Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker on her left, then falling on her back on the track.

“Looking at the videotape, Rogers tripped her, had contact, in the left ankle, left thigh area,” Kersee told the Southern California News Group after the race. “Rogers was trying to squeeze in and caught her foot.”

Mu-Nikolayev got up but could not get back into contention, finishing last looking straight ahead as she crossed the finish line, not noticing or at least not paying attention to the elation and the exhaustion of those around her, walking with the purpose of a woman in a hurry to put the scene and the night behind her, seemingly not sure of where she was going, only where she wasn’t.

As she walked, she tore her hip number once, then twice, and then once again, until it had been reduced to small pieces, a souvenir of a season left in tatters.

“So life moves on,” Kersee said.

“I believe in faith,” Kersee continued that night. “I believe in redemption. That has to be the lesson here. That’s what I told Athing. You can’t get into the why me, why now? I’m not a Cleveland Browns fan or Chicago Cubs fan or Buffalo Bills fan. You can go around talking about ‘wide right.’

“Sport is sport. She’ll bounce back. She’s 22 years old. She’s going to win a lot of other races. She’s going to go to more Olympics and maybe even break some world records.”

So Kersee took Mu-Nikolayev to Paris.

“The worst thing to do when you’re depressed is to remove yourself, and alienate yourself and crawl up and let frustration get the best of you,” Kersee said. “You have to get back as fast as you can so you can get over that point.”

And after Paris, she was able to move on.

“Physically, I mean, I think that correcting my hamstring was a quick turnaround,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “I think coming back from hamstring injuries are usually not too bad, depending on what type of strain you have. But for me, it wasn’t too bad. I think mentally was the biggest thing for me, just because a lot of the joy comes with like running, and so not being able to compete kind of takes away, and a lot takes me a step back from just my normal environment, and so in that way, is a little depleting. But being able to now come out and actually be able to compete and just run and slowly, gradually build up into the worlds, I think that’s really helpful for me, mentally and obviously also physically.

“I mean, I think I kind of took it pretty well, being done with it well right after, just because I knew these year-to-year events happen, and then they go, you know, it’s a two week experience, and then you move on,” she continued, referring to missing the Olympic Games. “It’s kind of the mentality that I had. Of course, it’s a really big one. It would have been my second Olympic Games, but I know my career is long. I know I’m super young, and I’m just trying to be hopeful, because that’s the only way I’ll be able to get through my career in the most successful way.

“And so it kind of took me a little out to get over it, just because I was more so upset with how things went versus what was happening. And so it’s just nice to be back out again and just be able to compete and be around other really fast girls and again, slowly build into what’s to come the rest of the season.”

Kersee was upbeat before a training session earlier this week.

“She’s happy,” he said. “She’s healthy. She’s happily married.”

She married Yegor Nikolayev in March.

“It’s been incredible,” she said. “I mean, I’m super so blessed to be able to experience marriage. Lord has definitely blessed me this year. It’s been really great. It’s been super helpful on the athletic side, because I don’t have to share this experience on my own. I have someone that I can kind of walk through the valleys and walk through the highs with, and it’s really nice that I have someone that’s supportive and getting started in the sport, as much as I do, and it’s just nice to have someone that’s your partner for life, and that can just experience things with you.”

And so she returns to Hayward Field, chasing a similar happiness around a track that has told so much of her story.

“I mean, I enjoy running,” she said. “I think I’m still working on truly embracing it and enjoying it, and, you know, going through the highs and lows and truly enjoying it. I think it’s been a little tough on me, because the past three years have been a little rocky, and so it’s kind of hard to kind of climb back up the ladder. But I’m happy to be here again. Like I said, I think it takes one race at a time, one practice at a time, and that’s what I’m just hoping to gain as I progress to the season, and I trust that the Lord will renew my joy, first and foremost in him, and then it’ll fall out onto the track as well.”

• For the latest, see: Lolo Jones’ Olympic Training Center ban rescinded

Jones, 42, is contesting the previously undisclosed USOPC suspension, which runs through August 3 and denies her access to training facilities such as the center’s weight room, sports medicine clinic and personnel, and housing and nutritional resources at a critical training period, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG and interviews with Jones and four other people familiar with the case. The suspension has created competitive, financial and emotional obstacles, Jones said, that jeopardize her bid to compete in a fourth Olympic Games next February in Milan-Cortina.

Jones’ suspension continues even though USOPC officials acknowledged she was wrongly denied medical treatment late on the afternoon of February 28, a decision that prompted the verbal confrontation. The USOPC did not interview eyewitnesses, according to Jones, a USA Bobsled and Skeleton official, and three other persons familiar with the case.

Jones, suffering severe pain and incontinence from a training-related back injury, was initially banned from the OPTC sports medicine area on March 1, a day after she called John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC Medical Clinic at the training center, “a horrible f—— human being,” during a verbal exchange after a previously scheduled treatment was canceled without explanation just days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, according to OPTC emails and interviews. Jones confirmed in an interview with SCNG that she swore at Faltus.

Faltus also alleges that Jones made an obscene gesture toward him, an allegation Jones denies.

“This behavior is a direct violation of the OPTC Code of Conduct,” Julie Marra, director of the USOPC Training Center in Lake Placid, wrote in a March 1 email to Jones. “This conduct is unacceptable, and I want to make it clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated.”

But Jones, other Olympians,Team USA members and a USA Bobsled and Skeleton official describe her suspension as excessive, arbitrary, retaliatory and based on little if any investigation by USOPC officials.

“The punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” said a USABS official who asked not to be identified.

USOPC officials have “admitted fault” in denying medical treatment on February 28, according to Jones, a USABS official and two other people familiar with the case.

“We had a 30-minute mediation before Worlds where they made me cry,” Jones said. “They admitted that they messed up by not telling me my appointment was canceled and they said that they would change protocols in the future for athletes and at least give them proper time to make adjustments. I said, ‘If you’re admitting you did something wrong, then why are you punishing me and not your provider who did not contact me?’ They were speechless. They said that they were gonna uphold the ban.”

USOPC officials did not interview eyewitnesses to Jones’ exchange with Faltus, according to Jones, a USABS  official and three other people familiar with the case.

“You would think you would get it from both sides,” Jones said. “You would get it from the (sports medicine) provider and you would get it from the athletes involved. Instead, what they did is they just took John’s word for it and gave me a life sentence of pretty much this is my last Olympic push.

“So if they can blackball me from having access, they’re putting me in the hole. And they know it. They know it.”

CODE OF CONDUCT QUESTIONS

Jones’ suspension also highlights a pattern of selective enforcement by USOPC officials and lack of specificity in the OPTC’s Code of Conduct, Jones, a USABS official and other Olympians said.

This past winter, a Team USA winter sport athlete screamed and cursed at a U.S. teammate at an international event, refusing to stop even after being warned by team officials and other teammates, according to two people familiar with the incident.

“The whole team said that it was embarrassing, a distraction to performance, and unacceptable,” said a U.S. Olympian.

Another Team USA winter sport athlete got into a public screaming match with a U.S. coach, according to two people familiar with the incident.

In neither case were the athletes disciplined, according to two people familiar with the situation.

While Marra, in informing Jones of her banishment, said her behavior violated the OPTC’s Code of Conduct, Marra did not cite a specific rule. The OPTC’s 10-page Code of Conduct does not refer to swearing or verbal altercations. Instead the code outlines how marijuana, marijuana paraphernalia and weapons including swords are not permitted in OPTC dorms or facilities, that food and drink are not to be taken in training areas, where to store bikes and that “Visitors/unregistered guests are prohibited in the dormitory areas or on the premises between 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM daily.”

The closest the code comes to directly addressing swearing or verbal altercations is one brief passage: “Unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, including but not limited to, the following: Any act of violation of offenses, as listed in the USOPC Background Check Policy or adjudicated of federal, state, or local laws.”

The OPTC code, the USABS official acknowledged, “is arbitrary.”

“To this day,” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG, “no one has told me: Who found me in violation, what exact rule or code I broke, or what part of the Code of Conduct was allegedly violated.

“They vaguely referred to ‘professionalism’ and a generic code of conduct, but never pointed to a rule in our athlete handbook or safety policies. No one would name who made the decision. The information kept changing. I was never given a formal hearing, never asked for my side, and no witnesses were interviewed. I was banned like a criminal without due process.”

Jones alleged in an interview with SCNG that Faltus also denied her access to treatment last fall shortly after she returned to bobsled and after she had competed in the Olympic Trials in the 100-meter hurdles.

“John denied me treatment and getting ice bags,” Jones said. “I couldn’t even do hot and cold tub. I could not get into the training room to do hot and cold tub. And I am a three-time Olympian.”

Jones also alleges that Faltus has banned a female Olympic medalist from the OPTC training room.

“He runs the Olympic training room like TSA,” Jones said. “It’s a power trip for him. In my opinion, he’s not trying to help the athletes. It’s more so like, this is your allotment, and be happy with it. ‘You ungrateful children.’ And a lot of people forget, I’m actually older than John. I am. I am older than him. I am older than the head coach. If you treat me like a child, and I am actually your senior, there needs to be respect both ways. And I think that there’s this perception when the athletes come in, because we do come in on our 20s, that we’re kids, and they keep that perception of us, and we should be grateful, and we should bow down and cater to them. It should be a cohesive system where we are helping each other. You’re helping our bodies, and we’re helping Team USA to get on the podium and get medals for our country. Like we win together, not separate.”

Marra did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment. A person identifying himself as “John” answered a telephone number listed for Faltus’ office earlier this week. When an SCNG reporter identified himself and said he was working on a story about Jones, the person answering the phone hung up without explanation. Faltus did not respond to subsequent messages seeking comment.

Jones has been open about her mental health struggles and a troubled childhood in which her father was in state prison for much of her upbringing, her family experienced homelessness and poverty to such an extent that older family members encouraged Jones as young girl to shoplift frozen dinners so they could eat.

She was diagnosed with PTSD in 2009, months after leading the 2008 Olympic Games 100-meter hurdles final, before crashing after hitting the ninth of 10 hurdles, slipping to seventh place. Jones has also talked extensively about struggling with suicidal thoughts and depression.

“I think the thing that’s the most frustrating of all this is I have expressed how I’ve had PTSD from this sport,” Jones said. “I’ve been concussed multiple times, you know, I’ve told them how I’ve struggled with depression and to be kicked out like a dog, it’s just, it’s wild to me. It has really affected me in ways I didn’t think could affect me.”

Jones’ background, her injury and the stress of the upcoming World Championships should have been taken into consideration by USOPC officials in disciplining her for her confrontation with Faltus, Jones’ supporters said.

“What concerns me most is that the USOPC and staff are well aware of Lolo’s mental health challenges,” said Katie Uhlaender, a five-time Olympian and two-time world champion in skeleton for Team USA who trains at the OPTC. “This could have been an opportunity to support her — not excuse her behavior, but respond in a way that prioritizes holistic care and helps her get better. Instead, it feels like a missed chance to lead with compassion and accountability.”

A USABS official agreed.

“We need to figure out how to provide athletes with resources that not only support their performance but their mental health,” the official said. “And that’s still lacking at the moment.”

Said Jones, “It’s such a power trip at this point. You know it’s like if they can do this to me, someone who has stats, imagine the lower athlete that comes in and has no stats, no power to do anything, like they’re just gonna get destroyed in the sport, 100 percent destroyed.”

SUSPENSION REMAINS IN PLACE

Jones’ access to the OPTC was also revoked as of March 17, Marra wrote in the March 1 email.

During a March 7 meeting in which Jones apologized, Marra agreed to a modified plan in which Jones could “receive medical treatment this week/during World Championships,” March 6-15, according to emails. Jones and Team USA pilot Elana Meyers Taylor finished sixth at the World Championships. Faltus did not attend or participate in the meeting despite being invited.

But the suspension has remained in place. Jones has missed spring training as well as a June Team USA camp with an upcoming camp at the OPTC now also in jeopardy, according to Jones and emails.

“You may have already heard from your lawyer but I heard back from the USOPC yesterday,” U.S. bobsled head coach Chris Fogt wrote in a June 14 email to Jones. “For this camp in June, they are sticking with the original punishment of no OPTC access or resources during this camp. This includes not being able to see (OPTC trainer) Ben (Towne), or any USOPC providers, even while at the ice house.

“I know this isn’t the information you wanted to hear and am not sure the impact it will have on your decision to attend the performance camp or not. I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page before you made that decision. I’ll continue to talk to the USOPC and advocate for a resolution before the next performance camp in July.”

If Jones wants to attend the July camp, she has to provide and pay for her transportation to Lake Placid and for a rental car once she gets there. She must find housing in the arena because she is banned from staying in the OPTC dorms. She will not have access to sports medicine personnel or facilities or any nutritional support.

“I have nowhere to get treatment,” she said. “I have nowhere to lift weights. They want me to lift weights in a public gym. Coming off of a spinal surgery. I have no spotter in a public gym. I don’t have rehab capabilities. I’m supposed to be doing ice, contrast, stem, you know, someone watching my rehab protocols. I have no access.

“And you know, the craziest thing about all of this is they said, ‘Oh, she can come in for the team meetings, but she’s a threat.’ They said, ‘Okay, she can’t come in the OTC because she’s a threat.’ But then the coach was like, well, we have team camps. Okay, she can come in for the team meetings. If I am a threat, how can I come in for the team meetings and I can’t go into the weight room, which is right next to the team meeting room? Literally, they are side by side. If I am such a threat? What they’re doing is they’re picking the things that will hurt me the most. They know if I can’t lift weights, it drastically decreases my chance to make the Olympic team.”

“WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Jones was in severe pain and a heightened sense of anxiety when she walked into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Medical Clinic in Lake Placid, New York, shortly before 4 p.m. on February 28 for a previously scheduled treatment session.

It had been a roller coaster of a week for Jones, one of the most recognizable American female athletes this century, a two-time world champion in both the hurdles in track and field and bobsled, whose athletic success has been a springboard to being cast in several reality TV series and achieving a celebrity status rarely obtained by even more decorated Olympic athletes.

The week was, in a way, the start of Jones’ push to make one last Olympic team.

After winning three NCAA titles as a hurdler at LSU, Jones won the 2008 and 2010 World Indoor Championships 60-meter hurdles gold medals. She was the heavy favorite to also capture gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, only to crash after pulling away from the field.

“You hit a hurdle about twice a year where it affects your race,” she told reporters after the race. “It’s just a shame that it happened on the biggest race of my life.”

Jones was fourth in the 100 hurdles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London before switching to bobsled, winning the mixed team gold medal at the 2013 World Championships. A year later, she was in the two-woman competition at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. She teamed with Kaillie Humphries to win the two-woman gold medal at the 2021 Worlds.

That Wednesday in February, Jones was the fastest brakeman in an in-house national team competition and evaluations at the OPTC and had been named to Team USA’s top sled for the World Championships the following week in Lake Placid.

“The day of the evals was an excellent day for me,” Jones said. “That’s so there’s no higher standard test in USA bobsled for the brakeman than evals to determine who’s the best. So on that day, I won, determining I was the fastest brakeman in America. I was put on the USA 1 sled, which means I was put on the fastest sled. They put the fastest brakeman with the best pilot to increase the best chance for medals at Worlds.”

But while testing the following day, with a new sled that the U.S. would use in the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina this next February, Jones suffered a back injury so severe that she lost control of her bladder in the sled during a test run.

“I was having a lot of pain and I also peed in the bobsled,” Jones said. “I lost continence. That I did not tell the pilot, because I was embarrassed, because my job as a brakeman is to reassure the pilot, and if I would have told her, I lost like body fluid, she would have been stressed out for worlds. So I just basically downplayed it with her.

“Basically bobsleds are like cars. We’re building new cars every Olympic quad to make them faster and faster. So we have to try out things. That’s the nature of our job. But this, this injury, was incurred while doing bobsled for the United States of America. To give you the United States a better medal chance.”

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Not only was Team USA desperate for a Worlds medal on home soil, but a poor performance by Jones at Worlds could have a major negative financial impact on her going into the Olympic year.

“World Championships, a lot of people think of Olympic athletes as like, ‘Oh, they’re doing it for fun,’” Jones said. “Well, our health insurance is on the line. So if you don’t compete well at World Championships, your health insurance gets cut. Your stipend to pay your rent for the whole year gets cut. So it’s our job. Like, if you don’t compete well at these championships, your finances take a hit for the next 12 months. So this is not only a health thing, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, if I don’t get right, I can’t compete, and my budget is going to be severely impacted.’”

Towne, the OPTC trainer, set up an appointment with the sports medicine clinic for Jones to receive a massage, the first step in treating and diagnosing the back injury, according OPTC protocol.

“Okay, so he cleared it,” Jones said. “He suggested it, cleared and approved this massage.”

But Jones was informed after arriving at the clinic that her appointment had been canceled without explanation.

“So I did the protocol,” Jones said. “I spoke with the athletic trainer. The trainer approved it. So then when I go to show up on my massage that, they schedule me for me for Friday at 4 (p.m.), right before the training center closes for the weekend.

“I show up to Sports Med, they tell me my appointment was canceled. I asked them, ‘Why is my appointment canceled? This is the last chance I have to get treatment before the weekend ends. I’m in severe pain. I’ve peed myself in a bobsled. You’re basically denying me treatment before the sports meds office is closed for the weekend, which means I will have no access for the next two days pain pain-wise, to figure out what’s wrong with me?’”

The secretary told Jones she was not sure why the appointment was canceled.

“I said, ‘Why wasn’t I warned?’” Jones said. “‘Why wasn’t I sent an email? Why wasn’t I sent a text so that I could make my own adjustments.’ So we did the evals the next day we were on ice. It took like a day to get the treatment. So they had a day at least to warn me, ‘Hey, your appointment is being canceled, make other procedures for the weekend.’ They sat on this for a day, and did not even let me know why it was canceled all. It’s a simple text message, and I could make other, you know, adjustments, but they waited until 4 p.m. before the (clinic) closes.

“So I get frustrated, as I should, as anyone with severe back pain would like, ‘Why did you cancel my appointment? What is going on? And so she said, ‘John, canceled it.’ John Faltus. And so he comes out, and (I ask) ‘Why was my appointment canceled?’ And I was just like, I’m frustrated. I’m in pain. I’m in severe back pain. I’m stressed out, because I’m like, how am I going to get treatment for the next two days by myself? I have World Championships in seven days.

“So he came out, and I was just like, ‘You’re a horrible f—— human. How could you do this to me?’ And then I walked out, that was it, that’s what I said. I mean, I was so frustrated with him because, like, why wasn’t I notified?”

Although Jones was told Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and she had already had a massage that week, she said “I have never received a written explanation for why I was denied medical treatment? This is especially alarming given that I was recovering from an injury I sustained while representing Team USA. The USOPC claims to support athlete health, but in this case, they failed to uphold that duty of care.”

Faltus graduated with a bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation science from Northeastern University in Boston in 2007 and received a doctorate in physical therapy from the school in 2008, according to published reports. He earned a master’s degree in athletic training from Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2011. Faltus worked as an assistant trainer for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies in 2014 and volunteered at the USOPC sports medicine clinic at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in 2012 and 2014. He was head trainer in 2018 and 2020 on Cirque du Soleil tours in Japan and North America. He was a member of the USOPC’s sports medicine team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Jones paid to have an MRI done after the World Championships, which revealed a herniated disc with a disc bulge, and tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae with spinal fluid leaking out.

“Meaning, had I competed, had my pilot crashed me at World Championships, I could have been paralyzed,” Jones said. “Had she made an error, I would not be walking today. Thank god. She’s a great driver, and we got through the rounds, but they put me at severe risk to injury. Why? Because I told the provider, you’re a horrible f—— human being for canceling my appointment because I was in pain.”

Jones later underwent a procedure to repair the injuries. The procedure that cost her approximately $22,000 out of her own savings, she said.

ACKNOWLEDGING HER MISTAKE

The morning after Jones’ run-in with Faltus, Marra informed her she had been banned in a 9:33 a.m. email.

“I had no access of Sports Med during World Championships,” Jones said. “I was carrying ice bags to my room while competing for Team USA. I was in my room trying to do my own cupping on my back. Do you know how hard that is on your own back?”

Later that afternoon, a USA Bobsled and Skeleton athlete representative reached out to the USOPC’s athlete ombudsman’s team.

“Lolo acknowledges her mistake, is deeply apologetic, and is committed to making amends,” the representative wrote. “She stated that the team is spread very thin, and the pressure of world championships has been intense.

“She is willing to accept appropriate consequences and engage in safe sports training or some other form of work as needed, decided by the parties involved. The current revocation leading up to Olympic selections would seriously inhibit her ability to make a team.

“We would greatly appreciate your assistance in mediating with the Training Center staff to work out a way to potentially restore her access in a way that may not impede on her ability to make an Olympic team.”

But it was clear the combination of the injury, the suspension, the lack of access to treatment and the pressure of the upcoming Worlds were taking their toll on Jones.

“She seemed quite stressed yesterday and may not have had the capacity to do so at the time,” a USABS athlete representative wrote in a March 3 email to Aaron Mojarras, USOPC assistant athlete ombudsman. A day later, Jones admitted in an email to Mojarras “the stress is overwhelming.”

“There’s a certain state of mind required to compete on the world stage, with immense pressure and expectations placed on athletes,” Uhlaender said. “For some of us, our livelihoods are on the line. Competing while injured can feel like facing an impossible situation — and the worst part is feeling like you’re facing it alone. There is some support, but when key players in your support system pull critical resources, it can make everything worse.

“Especially when it’s the end of a career and the future after sport already feels uncertain, the last thing a multi-time Olympian should feel is dismissed or ignored. I’m sure that’s how Lolo felt. I do wonder if more compassion could have been given or a punishment that included the recognition of what she’s been through up to now.”

There were, however, encouraging signs.

“The head coach is also eager to provide support and would like to be involved in the conversation when you connect,” the athlete rep wrote to Mojarras in the March 5 email. ” … Additionally, it seems that the management at the OPTC is open to negotiation on this matter. However, the only person who has not been willing to engage in discussions is John (Faltus), the head trainer at the OPTC.

“The inability to provide treatment not only hurts Lolo, it’s also a hindrance to the Pilot she is attached to.”

Fogt, the USABS head coach, was also upbeat in a March 5 email to the athlete rep.

“This is great news!” Fogt wrote. “Please let me know if I can help or if they want to hop on a call with Julie and I.

“Lolo is ready to apologize, accept the consequences, and move on from the incident. She fully acknowledges her actions were unacceptable and has handled the fallout very measured with no further incidents.

“My intent is she regains recovery center access the week she is competing, starting on Saturday, 08 March (the 2-women race begins 15 March). I think she should have the ability to see Ben in there too. I spoke with Julie about this as well and she seems initially supportive.

“Again, I would like a resolution before the weekend so our athletes can train, recover, prepare, and win.’

A meeting was set up for March 7, a week after the verbal altercation between Jones and Faltus, between Marra and Jones. Faltus was also invited but declined to participate.

“You indicated that you wished to move forward with a meeting with Bobsled, the OPTC, and Sports Med to share your perspective on the incident, express remorse, and ask for reconsideration regarding your access to medical treatment,” Mojarras wrote to Jones in a March 12 email recounting the March 7 meeting.

“After a robust discussion, you, Chris, Julie, and Amber agreed to a modified plan for you to receive medical treatment this week/during World Championships.”

Jones was told by Marra in the March 1 email that “your access to the Sport Medicine facilities has been revoked as of February 28. … Additionally, beginning Monday, March 17, your access to the Training Center will be revoked. This suspension will remain in effect for the next three (3) USABS-hosted programs you are scheduled to attend at the OPTC.

“Please understand the seriousness of this situation. We expect all athletes to maintain a high standard of professionalism and respect, both towards our staff and their teammates. We take these matters seriously to ensure a positive and respectful environment for everyone involved.”

But Fogt was informed by the USOPC on May 29 that Jones’ access to the OPTC and USOPC services would not resume until August 3.

“So, to be clear, I was never formally notified of this ‘extension,’” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG.

“The original suspension appeared to end in March. Coach Fogt said it would all die down. But it didn’t and then it was quietly extended. I started pushing for athletes’ rights around April when it became clear that it was no longer about punishing me it was more about retaliation and preventing me now from having opportunities to make the next Olympic team. To this day, I’ve never been granted a hearing. No formal review has taken place.

“The coach and I initially believed the ‘three training camps’ referred to team selection races right after World Championships and Olympic team selection prep — including the June push camp and July events. I had also applied for full-time housing, so those camps would’ve been part of my official Olympic prep period.

“Instead, they extended my ban until August 3 — which goes well beyond the original three camps. What’s more concerning is that both the coach and team manager said they’d never seen a suspension like this. Normally, it’s a specific timeframe (e.g., 14 days). But banning someone from ‘all Team USA bobsled opportunities’ gave them unlimited discretion — and allowed them to keep extending it without clarity or end date.

“Also the camps are where we form camaraderie as a team, so barring me from forming friendships with the pilots that I need to be teammates with drastically impacts my chances to make the Olympic team.

“Also, I had already been removed from Sports Med before World Championships. That was the first phase of punishment. Then I was banned from the OTC entirely after World Champs. Then they extended it through Olympic training camp the WHOLE SUMMER. So this was a three-phase ban — and I never agreed to any of it.”

Jones has retained John Manly, an Orange County attorney, who on May 12 wrote to the USOPC requesting that the organization mediate Jones’ dispute with the OPTC sports medicine clinic in 10 business days. If they didn’t meet the timeline, Jones would file suit, Manly said.

“As we are sure you understand, USOPC, on its own behalf, cannot commit to a fruitful and productive mediation without sufficient time to evaluate Ms. Jones’s claims; such an assessment cannot be completed within the 10 business days outlined in your letter,” Jillian D. Willis, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing the USOPC, wrote in a May 21 letter to Manly. “We look forward to discussing Ms. Jones’s concerns as soon as practicable once we have completed our review and assessment. … We hope that this matter can be resolved short of litigation. If, however, Ms. Jones chooses to move forward with any claims against USOPC without further discussion, our client will vigorously defend itself.”

So far the USOPC has not agreed to schedule mediation.

BACK ON BAYOU

In the meantime, while her rivals for spots on Team USA are training on the push track in Lake Placid’s ice house, Jones is 1,600 miles away in Baton Rouge, where the only available ice comes in drinks and plastic bags.

Jones estimates the OPTC ban has cost her around $35,000 between medical and treatment bills, travel and housing. She had to fly a physical therapist into Lake Placid to treat her during Worlds.

Her costs would be even greater if she didn’t have access to LSU’s athletic training and sports medicine facilities.

“I have been out of LSU for a while,” Jones said. “I graduated in 2005, that’s 20 years. If I walk into LSU Sports Med right now, and I am an Olympic athlete, and they know I’m currently training, they’ll take me in. I could walk in right now and say, ‘Hey, can I get a massage on my back?’ And they would treat me.

“And I have not been at LSU in 20 years. That’s how well they take care of their Olympic athletes that currently are training, not retired, but current athletes that are training to fight for Team USA and represent their country. Their alumni they take care of. So why at the Olympic Training Center is there a different standard? And I’m in their system, and I’m competing for Team USA.”

A diamond amongst the rubble of the worst fire in Los Angeles history, a diamond in the rough, but a diamond nonetheless.

“The grass was so tall I certainly had to actually stare out on the field to find the mound,” Voelkel, the Pali High head baseball coach for the past 18 years, said laughing. “The grass was, I don’t know, foot-plus high and, yeah, it was green. It hadn’t got water for a while, so it wasn’t as green as when we normally do our our TLC, but it was, it was green, and there was grass growing everywhere, even in the couple of dead spots that we had.”

The snack shack was still standing, as were Voelkel’s office and the dugouts, players’ equipment still where they had left it on the afternoon of January 6, the day before the Palisades Fire.

“So this is a baseball coach’s mind,” Voelkel continued, recalling his thought process as he walked around a field he had practically built from scratch nearly 20 years earlier. “I was thinking what I could do to fix it, to get it ready for a game, and so that was, honestly, what was going through my mind.”

LAUSD and Pali High officials, however, had other ideas.

How’s the song go? They paved paradise, put up a …

In April, not long after Voelkel’s visit, bulldozers dug up the field, which was then paved over to accommodate 21 bungalow-style portable temporary classrooms and two portables for school administration. The bungalows are replacing the 21 permanent and temporary classrooms that were destroyed in the Palisades Fire.

“Came in, they removed, they knocked down every single fence, all the dugouts, the coach’s office, the snack shop,” said Peter Branch, a Pali High alum and baseball parent. “Couldn’t they have left some structure still standing and worked around that. Did they really need every inch of it? And then they came in and bulldozed our field.”

Pali High parents and players said Los Angeles Unified School District and Palisades Charter High School officials decided to tear down and then pave over the field with little or no input from the community, a move that has left the team without a home field and the future of the program in question.

“I felt like they didn’t even try to make it work anywhere else,” said Branch, whose family lost their home in the fire. “So taking away a field like that, and it’s just kind of breaking a lot of hearts, but everybody’s already damaged so much, going through what they’re going through, losing their houses. This is kind of like, well, we can handle that. That’s out of our hands.”

Pali parents and players said they are not only angered by the decision to raze the baseball field but frustrated by the LAUSD and school administration’s failure to secure a permanent home for the Pali High program.

“I did have trouble accepting that they were going to destroy our field,” said Jill O’Brien, the mother of a Pali High player, “and I think that the least that they can do is to ensure that we have another space. That we have another space near the school where these boys can call their own.”

The Dolphins played “home games” on 15 different fields this past season.

During an March 14 webinar where parents were first told of the plan to pave over the school’s baseball field, officials assured the families that both the LAUSD and the Pali High administration were “committed to ensuring the future of baseball at PCHS,” and would “move quickly” to find an alternative home for the team.

Three months later the families are still waiting.

LAUSD officials said they have plans to build a new baseball facility on the school’s campus as part of a $725 million rebuilding project for Pali High, Palisades Charter Elementary and Marquez Charter Elementary schools.

The baseball field’s projected completion date?

2029.

“This is not a priority for them,” O’Brien said. “We want it to be a priority.”

“You know how LAUSD is always talking about ‘no kid left behind?’” Branch said. “Well, you left a whole team behind.”

The Southern California News Group reached out to Pali High executive director and principal Pamela Magee and LAUSD and for comment for this article and provided Magee nd the school district with a series of questions, including who made the decision to pave over the Pali High baseball facility? When was the decision made? What was the process? Why was the baseball facility chosen to hold the portable classrooms? Were parents contacted and given an opportunity for input before the decision was made? Where is the search for a facility for the team to play at?Magee did not respond.

Parents said Magee also has not responded to repeated requests to discuss the field decision.

An LAUSD spokesperson did not address the questions but instead issued a statement.

“Los Angeles Unified is working closely with the Executive Director/Principal at Palisades Charter High School on every decision regarding rebuilding, including the athletic facilities,” the statement said.

“There were 21 classrooms destroyed in the fire that were housed in both permanent and portable buildings. Temporary portable classrooms have been placed on the baseball field and will be utilized until permanent structures are erected – which is expected to be complete in Q4-2028. At that time the portable classrooms on the baseball field will be removed and the baseball field will be reconstructed, which is anticipated to be completed in 2029.”

Voelkel, in a recent telephone interview, was asked if he could sustain the program if the team didn’t have a permanent home when school opens in the fall.

“It’s going to be very, very challenging,” he admitted. “You know we don’t recruit. We’re kind of old school where whoever is enrolled in Pali has the opportunity to try out for the baseball team. And so I imagine that the numbers of the enrollment for freshmen is probably going to drop. And I imagine that some of our kids are under the circumstances and the more and more information that comes out are probably going to transfer. I’ve already filled out a couple of recommendations for some of my kids to other schools. And so, I mean, that’s nobody’s fault, you know, just what it is. And families are going to do what’s best for their sons, and I completely understand, endorse it. I will help in any way I can.

“I think that gut-wrenching part is actually twofold. One is, you know, spending 18 years to build it. I don’t have the energy to do that again, because it was a lot of work. And, you know, it took a lot of time in that regard. The other thing is to be able to run the complex program that we had in place. There’s no way we can even come close to that. And the other part, from, from my personal perspective, is the gut-wrenching part, because you know, you have to take away things and water down things, and I think that’s what allowed us to actually develop and improve and we had some pretty good success in that department.”

Pali High recently reached the CIF Los Angeles Section Division quarterfinals despite playing away from home the entire season. The Dolphins won a record 72 consecutive league games between 2017 and 2024 and have won 11 Western League titles in Voelkel’s 18 seasons at the school.

But the program’s crown jewel was its diamond, the House that Coach Mike Built.

Voelkel always seemed to be there.

It didn’t matter if you were walking your dog past Palisades Charter High School just past dawn or rushing home for dinner in the day’s twilight, for parts of three decades there was one thing you could count on: that Voelkel would be at the school with a rake or a shovel or on lawn mower, lugging some of the 250 bags of clay it took to build the mound, polishing the baseball diamond he had basically built from scratch.

“Every weekday morning I would come down Sunset around the baseball field at 6:50 in the morning and Coach Mike would be out there,” Branch said. “At night, Coach would still be out there at 6 doing whatever he needed to do, some additional watering, some additional maintenance.”

Voelkel was so dedicated to building the field that for a time he and his wife Norma moved into a place two blocks from the field.

“And then once we got a place, I was down there all the time. One of the memories was my wife standing there with the ‘I’m gonna kill you’ look on her face, because I hadn’t been home in a while,” Voelkel said, laughing. “And so I knew it was time to start putting my tools away, and then Mama was happy.

“We had built that field from the very beginning,” continued Voelkel, who came to Pali High in 2008. “And it wasn’t in the best of shape at the time, so we had started on the outfield, put in a fence, permanent fence, put in a warning track, and just started working our way back towards home plate. And just kept adding things here and there. We would have our fundraisers. I would raised money and just kind of build it up until we had enough money to pay for the next project. And then once that was completed, then we moved on to the next one. And just kind of did that year after year.”

Parents estimate that Voelkel raised more than $3 million to support his projects.

And then on January 7, he watched along with much of the nation as the field of his dreams was seemingly swept up in the Palisades Fire.

“I was at home and I saw the broadcast and the site, or the place that (news crews) were actually shooting it from was right there in right field on Sunset,” Voelkel said. “And so the fence that surrounds the school is approximately 10 feet high, and the flames are about 20 feet higher than that. And the commentators were saying that the school and the field and everything had been destroyed.”

A few miles away, O’Brien watched with her son Jack, a pitcher and outfielder for Pali High.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how devastating that was, and it was scary, as you saw the fire approaching, but then the visuals of the field being enveloped in flames, I can, I mean, I can start to cry right now,” she said. “It was just awful.”

And then the next day Voelkel began hearing that the field had actually survived the fire, the only damage a couple of small spots of burnt grass.

“We had some kids that go on their bikes and scooters and they actually went down to the field and took pictures,” Voelkel said. “And the field actually was still in good shape. The way our field sits, it kind of sits in a little bit of a bowl. And so we have a, I don’t know, 50, 70, foot high embankment there where we had shrubbery and trees and all that stuff. And the fire, for some reason, just stayed on that. It was almost like a road for it, and it just stayed on that. And kind of burned around it. And there were a few bungalows that from embers, that caught fire, but that’s like kindling. And then there was one major building that got destroyed. We lost a storage shed that had our four-wheeler and our lawn mowers, edgers, all of our field equipment and all that stuff. And then we lost a storage shed that took care of our mound clay, and all that stuff.”

But the field, the dugouts, the batting cages were intact.

O’Brien recalled the relief and joy her son and his teammates felt.

“The boys were ready the next day,” O’Brien said. “They wanted to put on their bootstraps and go and clean the field and help. They thought that they could go back and help clean it up and it would be okay.”

The players’ willingness to go to work is a reflection of the lessons Voelkel taught on the field that went beyond the fundamentals of the game.

In the wake of the Palisades Fire, Voelkel told the team that they and their field could be a rallying point for a devastated community. More than a third of the team —15 out of 42 players — were displaced by the blaze.

Instead, families were told of the decision to tear down and pave over the baseball field in a March 14 webinar led by Magee in which she and LAUSD officials did not take questions or discuss alternative measures, according to parents who took part in the webinar.

“The decisions were made very quickly without consideration or input from any of the surrounding people or the people that matter that also use the field like AYSO and travel baseball,” Branch said. “I felt shut out. Nobody ever asked us. They just told us very early on, ‘Here’s our plan.’ This is why we’re doing it and it was just that.

“My question is, do you really need that (space)?” Branch continued. “We can’t find another space?

“So I would ask them (now), are you really confident with your decision, or do you know in your heart when you go to sleep at night that you tried every other avenue to make anything else work than what you got to follow through with? Yeah, it just seems like they came up with something that was easy for them.”

In response to the intense backlash to the Pali High administration and LAUSD decision, Adam Licea, Pali High director/vice principal for activities, athletics and discipline, later sent a statement to baseball families.

“We understand the significant impact that this decision could have on the baseball program and the student-athletes who are part of it,” Licea wrote. “The program’s success and the positive influence it has on our community are truly commendable. Your points about the importance of ensuring that no student feels that their interests are less important than others are well taken. It is crucial that we consider the emotional and psychological well-being of all our students, especially in the wake of the recent trauma they have experienced.

“We understand that adjusting to the baseball field’s unavailability will be challenging, and we appreciate your patience as we navigate this situation. We are working to secure Palisades Park as a potential practice facility when the time comes and will also explore suitable locations for home games to ensure our teams have a proper place to compete. Please know that this decision was not made lightly, and we recognize its impact not just on baseball but on other sports that utilize the field as well. Also note that the decision to utilize the baseball field was a joint decision led by LAUSD after careful consideration, prioritizing student safety and providing a conducive learning environment. We are actively planning ahead to accommodate all affected teams and will keep you updated on our progress.”

Instead, parents and players said they received little if any communication from Pali High and LAUSD officials as the Dolphins bounced from park to park through the season, traveling as much as 45 minutes to practice and play at one “home field,” trying to field fly balls in an outfield full of loose dogs at another. At one field they shared a single batting cage with a private coach, another school and local Little League teams.

Pali parents and players maintain that what they describe as the LAUSD and school administration’s lack of urgency is also reflected in their failure to secure a permanent home field for the next school year.

There are plenty of people outside of LAUSD and the school offering to help. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts invited the Dolphins onto the field at Dodger Stadium during batting practice April 26. Pali High pitcher Jett Teegardin threw out the first pitch.

“But as of right now, they do not have a place,” Voelkel said. “There’s been a bunch of ideas that have been thrown out there, but so far, nothing has come to fruition. So I’m, I’m not sure what the direction or what the future holds, as far as you know, a baseball field to practice, and then also to play games at.”

On a recent morning Branch was gardening on the Palisades lot where his family’s home sat only months earlier.

“Planting some watermelon, some tomatoes,” he said. “Trying to get something to grow.”

He recalled January 7.

“Looking up at these hills right now, and I just keep on thinking about that day,” Branch said. “I was the last one to leave this neighborhood. We had no water and false hope that there was going to be a water truck pulling up with two or three fire trucks and we were going to save the houses in this cul-de-sac. (But) I had to leave. And when I finally got back up here, looking and seeing the standing houses that are out here is pretty unbelievable. I didn’t think anything was standing when I left. The fire had its choice on what to take.”

And it didn’t take the baseball field, which is why the LAUSD and school administration’s decision to pave over it infuriates Branch and so many other Pali High families.

“Driving by the high school just earlier, just an hour ago,” Branch said. “I’m looking down there and already seeing buildings on the field. There’s already the bungalows, and it’s all black top with asphalt. Man, so every time I drive by there, it’s going to be a little kick in the pants. They’ve literally black-topped over it. I get pissed every time I drive by it.”

Ten of the 12 Paralympic Games to be held in Los Angeles will be located between the Los Angeles Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena and the Coliseum – the so-called Downtown Los Angeles and Exposition Park zones – under a venues plan that emphasizes all competition sites are within a 35-mile radius and using existing world-class venues.

Long Beach will be home to seven venues and Carson will host three competition sites. The Paralympic equestrian competition will be held at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.

The Games’ opening ceremony will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The Paralympic marathon and road cycling courses, as well as the venue for powerlifting, will be confirmed at a later date, LA28 officials said in a statement.

“The Paralympic Games showcases the highest level of athleticism, skill and endurance and it is important for LA28 to deliver a plan that not only elevates Paralympic sport, but brings it to the next level,” LA28 Chief Executive Officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “The Paralympic venue plan ensures that Los Angeles’ first-ever Paralympic Games will take place in incredible existing stadiums and arenas across the region while creating the best possible experience for athletes and fans across the 560 events with accessibility top of mind.”

The Coliseum, the cornerstone of the 1932, 1984 and 2028 Olympic Games, will host the Paralympic track and field competition and the Games’ closing ceremony.

The 2028 Paralympic Games are scheduled for Aug. 15-27, after the Olympic Games in Los Angeles from July 14-30.

“The first-ever Paralympic Games in Los Angeles will showcase the world’s top talent and provide an opportunity for L.A. to improve inclusive accessibility citywide,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “The legacy of these Games will be imprinted on our city forever – proliferating beyond the boundaries of these venues to better all of Los Angeles.”

The Los Angeles Convention Center will host boccia, judo, table tennis, taekwondo and wheelchair fencing.

“This multi-sport site will create a vibrant, high-energy atmosphere where excitement from one competition will flow into the next,” according to the LA28 plan. “By hosting multiple competitions side-by-side, the events will encourage constant movement, shared fan engagement and a festival-like environment that highlights the diversity of athletic performance.”

The Crypto.com Arena next door will host basketball, with the nearby Peacock Theater the home of goalball. Badminton and rugby will take place at USC.

Long Beach will host blind football, canoe, climbing, rowing, swimming, shooting and volleyball. Archery, tennis and track cycling will be in Carson.

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 7, the first day of the Palisades fire with scenes heartbreaking and all too familiar, one in particular literally hit close to home: The Sigworths, nearly 900 miles and thousands of questions away from their disappearing community, watched helplessly as the house three doors up the hill from theirs in the Palisades’ Upper Marquez section burned.

“Every time we could recognize something, we would be like, ‘Oh, that’s blah, blah, blah.’ And then it would be on fire,” Blake Sigworth said. “And, yeah, it’s pretty surreal. I feel like it didn’t really set in. It just, it looked like an apocalypse, like from a movie or something.

“It just doesn’t feel real, and especially then watching it on TV, and like watching the houses near ours, and watching the (city) library burning down and everything. That was just pretty surreal.”

The next day, Sig and Alicia returned to Southern California in search of answers. Molly and Blake stayed in Eugene, Blake, a promising miler, finding refuge on a trail named after a restless, impatient man who spent his life trying to outrace his demons.

“The great thing about running is that you can do it anywhere to a certain extent. That’s why we didn’t go home, because I couldn’t do it there. It really, I was just able to take my mind off it,” Sigworth said of his run on Pre’s Trail, named after Oregon distance-running icon Steve Prefontaine, who on Friday’s 50th anniversary of his tragic death remains American track and field’s last true rock star. “That trail is just so nice, and with all the history there, it was nice to just take my mind off of everything.”

In the coming weeks and months, Sigworth would repeatedly find solace in running. On the trails of the Willamette Valley and up and down and around the Palos Verdes Peninsula and South Bay, around tracks from Laguna Beach to Moorpark, he worked through being homeless, that the life he knew, its touchstones were forever gone, that his friends were scattered, through concerns about the stress his parents were under, through questions about where he would go to school, if he would go to school and would he have a track season?

Through all of it, day after day, mile after mile, he chased answers, finally finding a path forward – and a place to call home – at Palos Verdes High School.

At 5:45 p.m. Friday with temperatures expected to approach 100 degrees, Sigworth, now a double Pioneer League champion, the school record holder at his father’s alma mater and one of the state’s most-storied prep distance programs, will step to the starting line at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis for his State High School Championships 1,600-meter heat and a place next to some of the nation’s best milers, a place earned as much through his and his family’s resilience and the kindness of others as his talent.

“I feel like I’ve just been trying to stay focused on the future, because you can’t change what’s already happened,” the junior miler said. “So I’ve just been trying to better myself and make it as far as I can. I didn’t think I’d make it here, but I’m happy I did. I feel like just being able to find silver linings when I can, and positives made it possible.

“Like I don’t think I would have been as much as I wish if I was still at Pali (High) with all my friends and in my house, I don’t think I would have been able to run this quick if I was still there. I think that’s just something that I’ve been trying to look at and understand this is something that happened because of this event, and I’m better for it.”

‘We really felt everything was gone’

Sigworth had first shown promise as a Pali High sophomore, running 4:16.85 for 1,600, 1:59.49 for 800 and then finishing third in the CIF LA City Section cross-country finals and 21st in the Division I State championships race last fall.

The family’s trip to Oregon was in part so Blake could make the pilgrimage to Eugene and a community so obsessed with the sport that it has proclaimed itself “Tracktown USA.” The Sigworths were on their way to Eugene on the morning of Jan. 7, heading south along the coast just outside of Newport when just before 11 a.m. they received an alert that there was a fire in Pacific Palisades.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials had first received reports a half-hour earlier of a fire burning across 10 acres in the mountains near Pacific Palisades.

“OK, so then we had no internet, I mean, no cell service or anything, and we were getting fire notifications,” Molly Sigworth said.

The family pulled into a small, red firehouse in Seal Rock and asked to use the fire department’s internet.

“And they let us stand there for the next 90 minutes and use their Wi-Fi,” Molly said. “Call our friends. They tracked the fire for us. Like it was a crazy, again, the kindness of strangers.”

The family owned two homes in the Palisades. One they had lived in for 20 years on Livorno Drive in Lower Marquez but had been renting out the past two years. “What we consider our family house,” Molly said. Two years ago, they moved into a house they bought in Upper Marquez.

“Our house was very close to the origin of the fire, so we wanted to reach out to a friend to see if they would be able to go up, just in case, and grab a couple of things for us,” Sig Sigworth said. “And that was shortly after the fire started. By the time our friends got up there, who only live a mile down the hill, the fire exploded while they were up there.”

By 2 p.m., the Palisades Fire, driven across a parched landscape by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds gusting up to 90 mph, had stretched across 200 acres. An hour later, it was burning across more than 1,200 acres.

After leaving the Seal Rock Fire Station, the family high-tailed it over the Coastal Range mountains to Eugene.

“We turned on the news, and it’s just shocking to see,” Sig recalled.

“And at one point, Alicia said, ‘Mom, is that your car getting bulldozed on Sunset Boulevard?’ She was like, ‘I think it is,’ because our neighbors had found it, took it with them, and then we saw a house three up from us, on fire, burning to the ground on the national news.”

“So we really felt everything was gone and the neighborhood was gone,” Molly said.

The next day, Sig and Alicia returned to Los Angeles, hiking into the Palisades later that day. At noon, the Sigworths learned that their home on Livorno, “our family house,” was burning.

Their current home, however, just three houses from the home they watched burn the day before, had somehow survived.

“How are we one of four on each side of the street still standing? I don’t know, but I think that the firemen were there at the time that (house) was burning.” Molly said. “That neighborhood also was one of the first to burn. So I think there may still have been water. I don’t know. I’m totally conjecturing this.

“So we really lucked out, and then the other homes didn’t burn, probably until Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, when that neighborhood went. I think it’s the point that there was no water, all of that.

“So while we lost one, we still have one. It’s not habitable, but it’s still there.”

‘Some semblance of normalcy’

Eventually, the Palisades Fire would consume 6,837 structures and leave 12 dead and thousands homeless, including the Sigworths.

“Came back to L.A. and no one could find anywhere to live,” Molly said. “It was crazy.”

Eventually, a family friend in Palos Verdes, about to head to Hawaii for vacation, offered the Sigworths his home, a temporary landing spot amid the chaos. The family still had to find a permanent home. There were four cars that needed to be replaced. Their house was at least months, if not longer, from being livable again. There were price-gouging Realtors and property owners and insurance companies to deal with.

“It was a lot of big items, and Molly’s just amazing at this stuff,” Sig said. “But our focus was really on Blake for school.”

Rich Heffernan, whose house the Sigworths were staying in, was a recently retired Palos Verdes High teacher and soccer coach.

Sig Sigworth ran track and cross-country at Palos Verdes High in the early 1980s, growing up next to the Palos Verdes cross-country course, nationally known for an unrelenting and unforgiving hill simply and appropriately known as “Agony.”

Initially, Pali High officials and Heffernan reached out to Palos Verdes cross-country and distance coach Brian Shapiro to see if Sigworth could train with the Sea Kings team.

Palos Verdes, along with South Bay rivals Mira Costa and Redondo Union, had been at the forefront of making the area one of the country’s prep middle- and long-distance running hotspots in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

“A national brand,” a rival coach said of Palos Verdes.

The Sea Kings resumed their place in state and national prominence under Shapiro and Jeff Atkinson and later assistant Kevin Farrington after the school reopened in the early 2000s. PV girls shared a state record by finishing in the top five at the state cross country meet for 12 consecutive years. From 2009 to 2014, both the PV boys and girls teams finished in the top three at the state meet. Palos Verdes is the only California school to qualify both teams and individuals in both genders for NXN, the annual Nike-sponsored national cross-country championships in Portland.

“So one of the things we were able to do with Rich, was, ‘Hey, we don’t know where we’re going to live. We don’t know where Blake’s going to go to school, but you used to coach at PV, could you connect us to the coach?’” Sig said. “And we just want to ask, could Blake just work out with him for the short term, just so he’s with other 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds, just so he has some other some semblance of normalcy in his life, even though he doesn’t know anyone, but at least it’s, it’s his passion, and it’s the ability for him to again, just kind of work out with another team and get his mind off of all the drama that we’re going through.”

Shortly thereafter, Sig took Blake to a PV workout and introduced him to Shapiro, Farrington and the team

“And then I kind of disappeared, but unbeknownst to him,” Sig recalled, “I stood up by the gate to listen, because Shapiro introduced him, and just did a great introduction, and said, ‘Look, Blake’s from the (Palisades). He is a great runner, but he doesn’t have a team to run with right now, and he’s not transferring here or anything. But you know, for as long as he’s here and working out with us, you know we’re going to treat him as an honorary Sea King.’

“It was just such a warm welcome. And during all this trauma, it’s interesting, it still gets emotional. Now, during all this stuff, it was all the, it was all the nice things that people do that brought up the emotion because a lot of crappy things, like, you know, price gouging and all that stuff. So when somebody actually stepped forward and did something kind, it always meant a lot for sure, for sure.”

‘A big step forward’

Sigworth eventually decided to be a Sea King on a permanent basis, choosing first to transfer to Palos Verdes for the remainder of the school year and then later deciding to stay at the school for the 2025-26 academic year instead of returning to Palisades High.

“The kind of thing he could say to his parents was he trusted us,” Molly said of Blake. “He said, ‘As long as we’re all together, I trust you.’ I’m like, ‘OK, he was good with however it all went.’ So I think we really lucked out in that realm. And I think he’s just a very nice, solid kid in that respect. He’s taking it in stride, but it all kind of worked out for us. It’s one of those moments.

“There’s a calmness to him, that’s very kind, and he’s open and inclusive and like, yeah, if he had a tail, it would wag. He just likes to run.”

But there were times, especially early in the season, when Sigworth’s transition to a new school and new teammates wasn’t as seamless as his success on the track suggested.

“One of the great things about track is that everyone is so kind and nice, and everybody’s going through the same thing, so there’s not really any, like animosity or anything,” Sigworth said. “It definitely took a while, honestly. The people, they’re just like, different a little bit, so I had to take some time to fit in. And I don’t mean to say that like anybody wasn’t kind or nice, but it’s just like you do, obviously, when you’re running with a completely different group of people, you have to, kind of, I guess, change a little bit. I feel like, the thing I keep bringing up, too, is just like inside jokes. Like, that’s something that every friend group has them, and then it’s like, you come to this new place, and every time somebody says something and people laugh, then you have to ask, ‘What does that mean?’”

In time, Sigworth would be in on the joke, becoming popular with his new teammates and even a leader, a transition Shapiro took note of.

“He’s a naturally kind of quiet, introspective student, and so I think that he’s processing a lot,” Shapiro said. “I think he’s a deep thinker. That’s kind of the nature of the distance runner, is to go out and into the wild and think, and so you sometimes can’t tell. Is he, you know, just a bit on the quiet side and shy side, or is he really having a hard time, dealing and coping with some of the tragedy that their family and community experienced?

“Yeah, there have been a couple times where you could tell that, certain things made him think about home and upset him. But for the most time, he’s done a very good job of carrying on the maturity that he shows about not wanting to add any burden or stress to his parents. Here’s this kid, just as nice as can be. And you know, he’ll never have a disciplinary issue in his life, but worried that he might be, causing some extra stress to his family, I think is a real sign of maturity.”

Sigworth won his Sea King debut, taking the 3,200 at the Crescenta Valley Distance Invite in February, then running 4 minutes, 18.29 seconds in his 1,600 debut a few days later. He lowered his 1,600 PR to 4:14.49 by the end of March, and then after sweeping the Pioneer League 1,600 and 800 titles, broke an 11-year-old school record by running 4:11.05 while placing third at the CIF Southern Section finals, closing in 59 seconds, an indication he is capable of an even faster clocking.

“I feel like I still have so much room to grow and I can really improve,” Sigworth said. “But I guess that was definitely a big step forward for me. I mean, going into (the season), I never thought that I would make State. Southern Section had been like, viewed as like, such a, you know, monster accomplishment to make State. From that, I figured that I would just maybe make (CIF) prelims, maybe (CIF) finals. But then, once I ran 4:11, I definitely knew that I could keep up with some of these guys.”

He will find out for sure Friday on a sweltering night, five months from the days when an inferno swallowed so much of what was familiar to him. Yet as he steps up to the starting line, surrounded by the nation’s best, he will be  in, just as he has found in Palos Verdes, a place where he belongs.

His new teammates, conscious of his and his family’s journey, the threat of homelessness, his friends scattered like embers in a hurricane-strength wind, are struck by his optimism and his sense of humor.

One afternoon this week, he spent his lunch period in Shapiro’s office wearing a sweatshirt with a retro illustration of Smokey Bear wearing a forest ranger’s hat with “PREVENT WILDFIRES” underneath the image.

Sigworth and his dad spotted the sweatshirt while his mom shopped for some much-needed clothes shortly after the fire.

“My dad and I saw it, and we loved it, and then we were like they only had one large so we were like, ‘OK, we’re going to share this,” Sigworth said. “And then I think it’s been in my closet, like, all five months, and I don’t think he’s wearing it at all, but it was just something that we’re trying to stay positive and think on the bright side, make jokes about stuff. So I think it’s just a way to remind myself that this happened, but also to think of it in a positive way.”

UC Irvine track and field athlete Jolie Robinson on the track at UCI in Irvine on Friday, April 25, 2025. Robinson who has emerged as one of nation’s top heptathletes after her career was nearly derailed when she became pregnant her senior year in high school.(Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UCI track and field athlete Jolie Robinson claimed runner-up honors in the javelin with a personal-record 44.46 meters (145-10) on May 2, 2025 at at Anteater Stadium during the Steve Scott Invitational. (Courtesy of UC Irvine Athletics)

UC Irvine track and field athlete Jolie Robinson with her son Micaiah, 5, on the UCI campus in Irvine on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UC Irvine track and field athlete Jolie Robinson at UCI in Irvine on Friday, April 25, 2025 tattooed her 5-year-old son’s name, Micaiah, and Matthew 6 on her arm. Robinson who has emerged as one of nation’s top heptathletes after her career was nearly derailed when she became pregnant her senior year in high school. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UC Irvine track and field athlete Jolie Robinson on the track at UCI in Irvine on Friday, April 25, 2025. Robinson who has emerged as one of nation’s top heptathletes after her career was nearly derailed when she became pregnant her senior year in high school.(Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

UC Irvine track and field athlete Jolie Robinson with her son Micaiah, 5, on the UCI campus in Irvine on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Robinson tattooed Micaiah’s name and Matthew 6 on her right arm. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

IRVINE — The first of the heptathlon’s seven events is the 100-meter hurdles, 10 obstacles all in a row, threatening to derail an athlete’s competition almost as soon as it begins, each barrier looming seemingly larger than the previous one.

It is a prospect that leaves even the most experienced and gifted of athletes anxious.

UC Irvine’s Jolie Robinson, one of the nation’s top heptathlon prospects, is both more gifted and anxious than most.

So as she settles into blocks for the hurdles, placing her fingertips up against the starting line, against the beginning of two physically and emotionally draining days of competition, women’s track and field’s most demanding event, Robinson looks down at the collection of tattoos that decorate her right forearm for strength and reassurance.

There’s a tattoo of a bee, a tribute to her grandmother Beverly Robinson, known to her family as “Bumblebee.”

“So that’s just for her,” Robinson said.

Between a bouquet of lilies and a bird is the inscription “Matthew 6,” a Bible verse that refers to both of them: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” The tattoos are anchored by the number “7.”

“The seven is a Biblical number,” Robinson said. “And also my mom’s birthday is on the seventh. And I do heptathlon, which is seven events. So that’s just ties into a lot.

“Matthew 6, because in that chapter, it talks about … the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, that they don’t worry because God provides for them. So I am a worrier, just like with everything I go through in life, and I overthink and stuff, but it helps you not to worry. You can only focus on one thing at a time, which kind of helps in the (heptathlon). It’s like one event at a time, that’s all I can control.

“Those two days (in a heptathlon) I look at it a lot. Especially the 7, I look at it a lot because it’s a good reminder, because even in the blocks, I can see it and everything. So it’s always there.”

She was quiet, shy and sensitive as a girl, preferring to knit alone in her room instead of joining her siblings playing sports.

“A recluse,” recalled Harry Robinson, her father.

Today she remains soft spoken, yet she could not be more open about who she is. Her life is there for all the world to see, told by the art that covers her body like words on a page, the story of her resilience and her hope, of a faith that is more than just skin deep.

As much as anything, the flowers and verse, the birds and the bees, the numbers lucky and spiritual make up a thread that connects two Jolie Robinsons on two Mother’s Days six years apart: the scared and overwhelmed 18-year-old worried about telling her siblings that she was pregnant, bracing herself for the response of her friends and community, and the 24-year-old who today exudes a quiet confidence and a sense of peace in her choices, the proud mother who in three seasons at UC Irvine has emerged as a multiple Big West champion yet is still only beginning to realize her potential as an athlete and a human, a role model to hundreds of girls and young women, pregnant and scared, hoping to follow the path she has forged.

That transformation is reflected in a recent tattoo — a koi fish.

“I designed for my son, because koi fish stand for new beginnings in life. And I feel like when I had my son, it kind of like just changed. It was like a whole new chapter of my life. So it kind of restarted who I was and everything.

“A different mindset.”

Despite being away from the sport for three years, Robinson has been the most dominant field athlete in the Big West the past three seasons. She won the heptathlon and was runner-up in the long jump in 2023, a feat she duplicated at last spring’s Big West Championships while also adding a fifth-place finish in the javelin.

Robinson joined teammates Esmeray Demirbas, Lauren Aquino and Jazzmine Davis in breaking a 13-year-old school record in the 4×400-meter relay with a 3 minute, 41.03 second clocking at the Mt. SAC Relays last month.

A week earlier, she posted a personal best 5,489 points in her season-opening heptathlon at the Bryan Clay Invitational, at the time the nation’s fifth-best collegiate mark in 2025, setting personal bests in three events but posting sub-par performances in her top two events — the long jump and javelin.

“Then really everything else can improve a little bit, because it was still just getting used to doing a hep again after I haven’t done one in a while,” Robinson said of her first heptathlon in 11 months. “So I feel like everything has room for improvement.”

Matching her personal bests in the long jump and javelin would have added another 223 points alone. Which not only puts Lauren Collins’ 16-year-old school record of 5,549 in danger, but also begins a conversation about whether Robinson, with another year of eligibility remaining, is also a threat to break the Big West record of 5,986 points set by UCSB’s Barbara Nwaba in 2012.

“For Jolie, she has tons of potential in the near future as she’s very raw as an athlete and will get better when she specializes in the events individually,” said UCI head coach Jeff Perkins.

After a recent training session, Robinson lifted her right forearm and pointed to the source of her strength, tracing her finger along a series of letters in the script of a child’s hand: M-I-C-A-I-A-H

The name of her 5-year-old son.

“So people know my story, and I really had to get past all of the negative things people would say,” Robinson said. “And I feel like now it goes in one ear out the other. You know before, it used to affect me. But, yeah, confidence-wise, like in high school, even before, like a big race or a big meet or something, I would have (a negative) thought and I would have felt the pressure and let it get to me.

“But now I can separate track and know that in a few years, that’s something I’ll look back on, but I have something way more important in my life, my son. So it’s like, if I’m running the (4×400 relay), it’s, ‘This is one lap around the track,’ and it’s not life or death, you know. I know after this, no matter how I do, I can go back home to my son and I make him dinner, and there’s bigger things in life where I can not get so anxious about things, and I just do my best and have more fun.

“I definitely, like, lost some friends through it, but there was a lot of I kind of separated, you know, people I wanted to keep in my life, like, who are my real friends and not. In high school, because I was an athlete, you know, people saying that that’s not a smart option for me and all of that. But yeah, it was mainly just people saying that I was so young and I had so much opportunity and that because right after I had my son, I became a single mom, and me and his dad weren’t together. So being a single mom that has its own kind of stigma and what people think about that, but I, at that point, I wasn’t really letting it get to me. I think, through my life in the past few years and everything, I’ve proved people wrong many times. Yeah, so people that, you know, thought I wouldn’t be able to succeed, they can see my story now and, like, see what I’ve done, and realize that you can, we can do that even being like a single mom.

“And so I can walk into a meet, head held high, you know, shoulders back and not, not feel the like pressure that people, would want to put on me, because there’s, I have so many other things in life, and this is just part of my journey, and it’s fun, and my son gets to watch me and look up to me, and no matter how I do, he’s proud of me.”

Robinson, the youngest of four children, was born into a deeply religious and athletic family. Harry Robinson has served as a pastor for years. He played football and ran track in high school. Carmen played volleyball in her native British Columbia. Cole Robinson, Jolie’s brother, played football for Idaho State.But Jolie as a young girl resisted joining in the family’s athletic pursuits.

“She was just the homebody all the while,” Harry Robinson said. “Even when she went to watch her other siblings play sports, you know, she’d just kind of be recluse to herself and her own little things. So she was just naturally in her own little world, you know, knowing what she wanted to do, she didn’t, I don’t think, I don’t feel like she had any pressure to be or do what anybody else was doing. She just did what she did.”

Carmen Robinson recalled how her daughter “loved to knit and do crafts, be in her room by herself and just do that for hours. She just really didn’t have an interest in sports. All she wanted to do was craft and knit. And she used to joke about how when she grew up, she wanted to live in a cardboard box because she didn’t need anything, and she didn’t want any material things, and she just wanted a simple life. And that was her.”

Then in sixth grade, Robinson was talked into joining the volleyball team at her school.

“Okay, literally, all of a sudden, something clicked in her, and she didn’t even, I didn’t even think, she thought she could be an athlete like, and then all of a sudden, not only was she good, like, she was really good,” Carmen Robinson said. “And, you know, even just her stature and her frame and her muscle development and all that just took on a whole new shape when she started playing sports. ‘Where did this girl come from? Look at those legs.’”

She continued to turn heads on the volleyball court at Capistrano Valley High School. But it was in track and field where she really excelled, reaching the CIF Southern Section finals in both the long and triple jumps and attracting scholarship offers from Division I universities.

Yet her athletic success did not translate into personal confidence, and then in March 2019, her senior year at Capo Valley, she realized she was pregnant. She was 18.

Robinson kept her pregnancy a secret at first before finally telling her parents that April.

“It was definitely a shock,” Harry Robinson said. “I did not expect it. I don’t mean if any of my kids ever she would not have been like that was not on my radar at all. But, you know, I just knew that I loved her, and it was, we’re gonna work this out, and it’s gonna be a big shock to us. And I don’t think it hit me immediately.”

He wasn’t alone.

“I know she had to come to terms with the reality of what had happened before she could even talk to us as her parents or her family, which I get that, and I respect that,” Carmen Robinson said. “And of course, we had to do a lot of processing, right? I mean, this impacted us and impacted me emotionally, my first grandchild for one, of course, you know, I would have to get to the point of being thrilled about it. At the beginning that was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ that you have given up your scholarship. This is, you know, you’re not married. There’s a lot of things that are out of order here, and this is going to be really, really tough. And so I we didn’t get as much time as maybe I needed to process and really come to terms with it.”

It wasn’t until Mother’s Day that Robinson told her siblings.

“So at our Mother’s Day dinner, my siblings didn’t know what was going on, but my parents were trying to keep it in and, like, because they were going through a lot of emotions and all of that. And then my dad was, he’s been like a pastor my whole life growing up, so that was something kind of hard to break to him, but I knew, like, he would always love and accept me and like, all of that. So, like, it was just kind of like the initial like, telling them. And then, like, a few weeks later, I told my siblings, and then, but I didn’t tell anyone in my school, any coaches, anyone, anything.”

She set two of her three school records while pregnant that spring. She verbally committed to Northern Arizona to keep up appearances.

“Just so that people didn’t think, like, ‘Why are you not committing?’” she said.

Finally, on the night of her graduation, Robinson revealed her secret to her community.

“There’s a thing at my high school called ‘Capo grad confessions.’” Robinson said, referring to a tradition of hashtagged confessionals by Capo Valley grads on social media. “So people would post things that they did that, like, you know, that were not good, but once you graduated, you can’t get in trouble for it.”

That night Robinson, next to the hashtag on her social media, posted a photo of her ultrasound.

“I think I had like, one or two close friends that knew, but everyone else was like, ‘Is this real?’ Like they didn’t believe it. So that was how I announced it to the whole world, and then from there, I just, I accepted it, and I didn’t, I didn’t let people kind of talk,” Robinson said. “I mean, there was probably other people talking, saying things that I didn’t hear, but I already made my decision, and I was, I accepted it once I told everyone. So I was kind of ready for all the backlash.”

Within minutes, Robinson was the talk of the town. Everybody, it seemed, had a question.

“And all of a sudden she just was like, rip the band-aid off,” Carmen Robinson said. “She’s like, you know what? Why am I going to hide this? And you know, I think that even that decision right there, she was like, you know, this is reality and I’m going to deal with all the repercussions, you know.

“And I don’t think she was doing it in any way to be rude or disrespectful to me or her family, but it certainly was like, ‘Oh, now I’ve got it. I’ve got to come to terms with it and be able to talk to people about it and when they say, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’ It’s like, well, I’m in emotional upheaval, actually,” Carmen Robinson said, referring to herself. “So it was, I mean, we got through that, I just was a bit surprised that that’s how it came out. I figured it would eventually come out. And then I think she didn’t want it to be, she didn’t want to be gossiped about. She wanted to just come straight out and say it. Want the truth? Here’s the truth. On her terms.”

Still, the gossip persisted.

“Obviously, being people of faith, there was that whole aspect of it too,” Carmen Robinson said. “So it wasn’t just the reality of having a teen girl who’s pregnant and not married or whatever, but then it was like the whole, like you call yourselves Christians and blah, blah, blah. So there was all of that surrounding it too. So we, you know, there was, there was a part of it. I think, really, we just, like, for me, it was just honesty and integrity. It’s like, yeah, this wasn’t, this wasn’t ideal. It was out of order. This wouldn’t have been the way we wanted. But you know what, ultimately, we believe to her a blessing. We want this child. She had no desire to, you know, abort or give it up. She knew she’d have the support right there. Her whole family was right there around beside her to say, like, you know, we’re gonna love this child. … Like, this is, this is just a new reality, you know? So, I mean, I think that didn’t all happen instantaneously, but it was obviously over time, when the reality really sets in, and all of a sudden, now this baby is coming, you just change your mindset about it.”

During her pregnancy, Robinson and the baby’s father split up.

“They had a rift in their relationship,” Carmen Robinson said. “They weren’t going to remain in relationships together. So that was, that was difficult. And then how do you at 18,19, 20 years old? How do you navigate all that, right, and kind of get together? That’s really tough.”

On December 6, 2019, Robinson’s 19th birthday, Micaiah was born.

“So I feel like before, I was not a very confident person, like, especially in athletics and stuff, I feel like confidence was a big thing for me starting off in sports, and having to learn that,” Robinson said. “So also, I was in not the healthiest relationship with my son’s father, and kind of knowing what I deserved and what was best for me. So it’s just a lot of not knowing who I was through that. And then I feel like when I found out I was pregnant my senior year, it almost there was some type of peace knowing where usually in high school, a girl would freak out about that, which I was a little freaked out, but I just felt like, God had a plan for me, and that it just made sense, that this is where I’m supposed to be, what I’m supposed to do in life, and that’s when people always ask me, ‘Did you ever consider not keeping your son?’ And that never was an option for me, because I just knew I would be able to handle it. I have a loving family, supportive family, and it just felt like that’s where my life was meant to go. And then through that, my mental toughness really changed, and my confidence and because there was a lot of people having negative things to say about what I did with like being known as, the athlete at my school, and they’re, ‘You’re ruining your life by having a kid right now,’ and all of that. And then, at first, I just accepted that. I’m done playing sports. I’m just going to be a mom.”

She and Micaiah lived with her parents. She took online classes at a local community college and, like the rest of the world, waited out the pandemic.

“But then watching the (2021) Summer Olympics, my parents could tell I missed it, and they were saying, ‘If you want to go back and compete, we’ll support you, we’ll help you, whatever you need,’” Robinson said. “And I because, like, I always heard the doubt that people had that, like, you can’t balance all that. You can’t do that … Once I found out I was pregnant, I felt that loss. Sports has always kind of been my thing. All, all through high school. So it was kind of like a sudden, like I was expecting to go to college and have at least four more years of this. So it was a loss I had to deal with. And then once I started watching the Olympics again, and it really brought those kind of emotions up in me. Where was I? I missed that. And that’s when my parents could tell that it was kind of affecting me. So that’s when they’re, ‘Hey, you can go back.’”

A family friend worked in the Saddleback College athletic department. Not long after the Olympic flame was extinguished in Tokyo, Robinson was practicing with the Saddleback volleyball team. That spring she won the heptathlon, javelin and long jump at the CCCAA State Championships.

“I didn’t even know what the heptathlon was, and then once I found out what it was, I kind of in the beginning of that season, I asked my coach if I could try that, and he told me no,” Robinson said. “So then another few weeks or so passed, and he’s like, ‘Ok, you can try it if you want.’ And then from there, then he was like, ‘Oh, maybe you could do this, actually.’”

It was an opinion shared by UCI’s Perkins.

“He was actually the last (Division I) coach I talked to before choosing a four-year school to transfer to,” Robinson said. “So it was after my first year in junior college, and I was kind of mentally preparing that I was going to stay another year in junior college just because it was I want to play volleyball again. It was going to be my last season. But then a lot of coaches were talking to me once that season was over, but it was in summer that coach Perkins reached out to me, and I didn’t even think about UCI. I don’t know why, and even though it’s the closest school, and once I talked to him, I can tell the difference from our conversation to all the other coaches I talked to, where all the other coaches talk just about me and what I would score for their team. And they never brought anything up about my son. But Coach Perkins, the first things he was bringing up is how the program would be good for not just me, but also being a mom. And with my son, and all the coaches here have kids close to my son’s age too, so they understand that. And when I was telling him that my son comes first, so it’s like, if I need to not be at practice because of he has a doctor’s appointment, he has something come up, then that’s going to be a priority. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ And my son comes to practice often, and it’s just like a normal, normal thing, and they’ll hold his hand walking around the track while I’m running or while I’m doing something. The whole team kind of helps.”

Robinson’s working relationship with Perkins goes beyond the athlete-coach dynamic. They’ve also connected as parents.

“Jolie is the epitome of a multitasker and when I knew that she was going to be juggling athletics, her education, and raising a son I knew that I could understand her situation being a parent myself, and knowing all the things that I have to juggle in my daily life,” Perkins said. “I was able to get her to trust that I had her best intentions at heart when joining our team and that her son would always come first. Her family support here in the local area is tremendous, and that definitely helped a lot in her decision-making.”

Robinson had one more condition before committing to UCI: she wanted to play one final volleyball season at Saddleback.

“And he was like, if that’s what you want to do, then it’s like, just be careful, you know?” Robinson said laughing, referring to Perkins.

Robinson was worth the wait. She won the 2023 Big West heptathlon title, UCI’s first in the event in 16 years, scoring 5,343. She defended her Big West title last season but was frustrated that her training didn’t translate into a PR. Her 2024 season’s best was 5,220.

“I think I had a tougher season last year, just kind of connecting everything, like in practice, I felt like I was making progress, but I didn’t get a PR in my last season,” Robinson said. “So I feel like this year, I kind of understood each event better and knew how to compete, the way I practice and see the marks that I was expecting to see.”

She’s learned how to manage her emotions over what can be a two-day emotional roller coaster. Compartmentalizing, managing disappointment and excitement is almost an eighth event.

“I like to think of it taking one event at a time,” Robinson said. “So like, while I’m hurdling, I’m trying not to think about high jump, because I can only control what event I’m doing now, and then, as you move on, either if you did good or bad in an event, you have to kind of put to the back of your mind and not think about it, because if you let a bad event affect your next event, then it can just kind of domino effect. And if, even if you do really good, have a big PR in one event, you have to kind of forget about it and then focus on the next event and not let your emotions get too high and low, and gotta stay consistent through the whole thing.

“It’s something I’ve had to learn. Before in high school, doing track, it was something that was more difficult, but I think after having my son and everything, I can manage more stress and more, like, a lot of things going on, and I can, like, simplify it and not overthink. So I think being a mom has helped me simplify doing so much.”

Robinson was asked what prepared her for the heptathlon’s final event, the 800, which after two days of competition, can seem like a marathon.

She laughed.

“I always think every time we have a hard workout or anything, I’m like, ‘I’ve given birth,’” she said. “Nothing’s harder than that.”

Robinson, who now lives with her son in a townhouse not far from the UCI campus, is quick to point out she’s had a lot of help raising Micaiah: Her family, her coaches and teammates, and Micaiah’s father.

“Even though we’re not together, he’s been a lot of help, especially since I just moved out of my parents’ house,” Robinson said. “So now it’s really just kind of us co-parenting. So while I’m at practice or at class or whatever, his dad comes and watches him, because his dad works graveyard shift, so he’s during the day, he doesn’t really sleep. I don’t know when he sleeps, but he figures it out.

“So we kind of both help with the homeschooling and with all of that, but he’s been a big help, and that’s why on my social media, I have like, almost 100,000 followers. So and people like to always point out, ‘Oh, where’s his dad?’ No, his dad is in the picture, but his dad just doesn’t want to be posted on social media. So I always have to do a disclaimer, like, his dad is very much involved in his life, but he just doesn’t want to be on things.

“We dated for three years in high school, and he went to Capo too, and then we broke up. Because I just we probably should have been friends from the start, but and then so we kind of had, I don’t know, disagreements, and we didn’t always get along for like, that first year (after Micaiah’s birth), and then eventually we were like, ‘We don’t want to be like that.’ It just doesn’t make it easy for him. We want our son to have the best experience, I guess, we want to make it the best with his parents not being together, which can already be hard for kids, so we just kind of put all of our differences aside, and now we’re actually really good friends, and yeah, so it’s probably the best situation of co-parenting. And when I tell people that, ‘Oh, we’re actually just really cool,’ they rarely see that with co- parenting, like situations. But yeah, it’s worked out.”

Among those 100,000 followers on social media are dozens of young women and girls, high school, junior college and NCAA athletes, pregnant and scared and yet still trying to hold onto their dreams, who have reached out to Robinson, inspired by her, seeking hope in a story she’s told with her flesh and blood. With some of the women, she’s shared more than just her story, sending them Micaiah’s old clothes and shoes.

“A lot of messages from young moms, just finding out that they’re pregnant, and they haven’t told anyone else but me, a random person from across the country that they’ve never talked to, but they’ve seen my life and my story,” Robinson said. “I always tell them congratulations, and I know what you’re going through, and that’s a lot to put on mentally, and it’s just accepting that, when that’s what they decide that they want to do in life, that it is hard. So I feel like I’ve realized that once I started doing social media, when a lot of people, like young moms, would start to reach out to me. And just for those little experiences, I feel like that, I’ve encouraged young moms who (think), ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ But then I let them know, ‘You can do this. It’s not going to be easy and but you’re capable of a lot more than you think.’

“Recently, there’s been a few girls that found out that they were pregnant, and it’s a lot of times like where they still want to compete in their sport, but they don’t know how they’re going to do that and if they’re able to, and I kind of let them know what my what my day looks like with my schedule and the things that helped me get through it. But I feel like when you first find out you’re pregnant and kind of going through that, I let them know the things that I wish people told me when I was going through it. Because I always let them know that when people told me that I couldn’t do that, we’re actually starting to believe that, and then so I’m telling these girls that, don’t listen to that. Because, you can. I’m an example of that. You can do that, so don’t let that doubt kind of creep in that it’s not possible, because it is.”

She was asked if there was something she wished the 18-year-old Jolie, facing pregnancy and a world of uncertainty, would have been told on a Mother’s Day six year ago?

“Yeah, just that it’s very possible in that it almost makes the experience better,” she said. “I feel like, that’s what I tell people. The wins are gonna be so much sweeter than they were originally, because you have someone there with you and experiencing it with you. And when you overcome more, it just makes it a better experience. It’s exciting. And I feel like people didn’t show me the positive side of it, like, what positive could be.”

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Her winning time of 12.70 seconds over the 100-meter hurdles at the 65th Annual Mt. SAC Relays Saturday afternoon was equal to the third fastest time in the world so far this season. But Harrison, the event’s former world recordholder, also realized she might have to run nearly a half-second faster at the U.S. Championships in order to secure one of three U.S. spots for the World Championships.

“I have a coaching change, and so I’m just, my body’s just learning with a new coach,” Harrison said. “So I think we’re headed in the right direction. There’s just a lot of things that I probably need to fix, but this, this is all this race was just to come out here, see what we need to fix.”

Harrison and her new coach, Andreas Behm, also know they have time. The U.S. Championships in Eugene aren’t until July 31-August 3, with the World Championships in Tokyo taking place in September.

While Harrison’s season was just starting, Saturday was her first 100 hurdles race of 2025, several collegians, their conference and NCAA regional meets just weeks away, turned in peak performances.

Arkansas sophomore Jordan Anthony blazed the 100 in 9.98, the fastest time by an American and a collegian this season, and No. 2 in the world in 2025.

USC women’s 4×100 meter relay posted a collegiate-leading 42.36 clocking. Cal State Fullerton’s Joshua Hornsby won his 110 meter high hurdles heat in 13.51, one of the Top 10 collegiate marks in 2025, and putting him within striking distance of Dedy Cooper of San Jose State’s 49-year-old Big West Conference record of 13.43.

Fred Kerley, the 2022 World 100 champion and one of only three men under 10 seconds for the 100, 20 seconds at 200 and 44 in the 400, focused on the quarter-mile Saturday, holding off Arizona State’s Jayden Davis 44.73 to 44.86.

U.S. women’s short hurdles may be the deepest event in the sport, making the 100-meter hurdles one of the toughest events to qualify for in the Olympics or World Championships. This is largely due to the talent of Harrison.

On July 22, 2016, Harrison’s 12.20 clocking in a London Diamond League meet lowered the world record of 12.21 by Bulgaria’s Yordanki Donkova that had stood since 1988 and set in an era of less stringent drug testing, especially in Eastern Europe. A year later Americans accounted for eight of the nine fastest times in the world.

The U.S. depth was evident again at last summer’s Olympic Trials, where Harrison ran 12.39, a time that would have been just two-hundredths off the gold medal-winning time at the Tokyo Olympics but was only good enough for sixth in Eugene.

Harrison has three of the four fastest times in the last 37 years yet an Olympic and World Outdoor Championships gold medal has proven elusive. She was second to U.S. teammate Nia Ali at the 2019 Worlds and claimed the silver behind Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho Quinn at the Tokyo Olympics.

Her pursuit of gold is what led her to leave legendary coach Bob Kersee and her Los Angeles-based training group that also included two-time Olympic 400 hurdle champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the off-season to train with Behm in the Phoenix area. Behme previously coached 2012 Olympic 110 high hurdles champion Aries Merritt, who set the world record (12.80) a year later.

“There are some things last season that I wanted to improve on, and I felt like Andreas could help me get that job done,” Harrison said. “And, you know, the goal is to make that world championship team and go get gold there. You know, that’s the one thing I haven’t done in my career, and that’s one thing that is keeping me hungry.”

Her winning time of 12.70 seconds over the 100-meter hurdles at the 65th Annual Mt. SAC Relays Saturday afternoon was equal to the third fastest time in the world so far this season. But Harrison, the event’s former world recordholder, also realized she might have to run nearly a half-second faster at the U.S. Championships in order to secure one of three U.S. spots for the World Championships.

“I have a coaching change, and so I’m just, my body’s just learning with a new coach,” Harrison said. “So I think we’re headed in the right direction. There’s just a lot of things that I probably need to fix, but this, this is all this race was just to come out here, see what we need to fix.”

Harrison and her new coach, Andreas Behm, also know they have time. The U.S. Championships in Eugene aren’t until July 31-August 3, with the World Championships in Tokyo taking place in September.

While Harrison’s season was just starting, Saturday was her first 100 hurdles race of 2025, several collegians, their conference and NCAA regional meets just weeks away, turned in peak performances.

Arkansas sophomore Jordan Anthony blazed the 100 in 9.98, the fastest time by an American and a collegian this season, and No. 2 in the world in 2025.

USC women’s 4×100 meter relay posted a collegiate-leading 42.36 clocking. Cal State Fullerton’s Joshua Hornsby won his 110 meter high hurdles heat in 13.51, one of the Top 10 collegiate marks in 2025, and putting him within striking distance of Dedy Cooper of San Jose State’s 49-year-old Big West Conference record of 13.43.

Fred Kerley, the 2022 World 100 champion and one of only three men under 10 seconds for the 100, 20 seconds at 200 and 44 in the 400, focused on the quarter-mile Saturday, holding off Arizona State’s Jayden Davis 44.73 to 44.86.

U.S. women’s short hurdles may be the deepest event in the sport, making the 100-meter hurdles one of the toughest events to qualify for in the Olympics or World Championships. This is largely due to the talent of Harrison.

On July 22, 2016, Harrison’s 12.20 clocking in a London Diamond League meet lowered the world record of 12.21 by Bulgaria’s Yordanki Donkova that had stood since 1988 and set in an era of less stringent drug testing, especially in Eastern Europe. A year later Americans accounted for eight of the nine fastest times in the world.

The U.S. depth was evident again at last summer’s Olympic Trials, where Harrison ran 12.39, a time that would have been just two-hundredths off the gold medal-winning time at the Tokyo Olympics but was only good enough for sixth in Eugene.

Harrison has three of the four fastest times in the last 37 years yet an Olympic and World Outdoor Championships gold medal has proven elusive. She was second to U.S. teammate Nia Ali at the 2019 Worlds and claimed the silver behind Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho Quinn at the Tokyo Olympics.

Her pursuit of gold is what led her to leave legendary coach Bob Kersee and her Los Angeles-based training group that also included two-time Olympic 400 hurdle champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the off-season to train with Behm in the Phoenix area. Behme previously coached 2012 Olympic 110 high hurdles champion Aries Merritt, who set the world record (12.80) a year later.

“There are some things last season that I wanted to improve on, and I felt like Andreas could help me get that job done,” Harrison said. “And, you know, the goal is to make that world championship team and go get gold there. You know, that’s the one thing I haven’t done in my career, and that’s one thing that is keeping me hungry.”