| |
By Dr. Cathy Utzschneider
 Runner or not, you’ve probably seen Suzy Favor Hamilton – the blond, pony-tailed, perfectly “abbed” Olympian – if not on TV, then in a magazine… maybe Vogue, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, or Harper’s Bazaar?
Hamilton is a runner who has starred in the media – who excelled consistently, season after season, year after year, for over twenty years.
From age 12 to 36, particularly through the eighties and nineties into 2000, she won on the track, on the roads, and in cross country. She talked with me candidly about her running and her life as a whole.
Photos Courtesy of Suzy Favor Hamilton. For Hamilton, transformations – not transitions – in training would best describe the difference between her today, at 41, and her as an open runner. This is the first of two articles about her transformation. This article tells her story as an open runner. The second tells her story today.
As an open runner Suzy Favor Hamilton seemed the picture, in fact the epitome, of success and happiness. Underneath, there were private struggles. This article covers first her successes and then her struggles.
Success in School
Raised in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Hamilton knew she was born to run from the time she was in fifth grade.
“As a 5th grader, I knew I had a talent to run,” said Hamilton, whose father was a professional boxer. (Neither of her parents ran.) “There’s no doubt it was a gift I was born with. I beat all boys in elementary school. That moment I said I would be a runner someday… All my peers were chanting my name when I crossed the finish line of the race.”
In elementary school, she won and won and won.
Success in High School
Her focus grew stronger in high school. Losing “just twice”, she won 11 state titles and three USA Junior 1500 titles. Twice, she was the Junior Pan American gold medalist (’84, ’86) and she held the U.S. Junior record at 1500 meters. W-o-w.
“I trained hard…as a high school runner I worked really hard, sometimes training twice a day. Running in my mind was like brushing your teeth – it was so normal today. I had such a euphoric feeling… I never felt so good in my life. It became a driving force,” she said. “I remember telling my dad boys aren’t important. Running is important….nothing was more important than running…school? No way.”
During summers in high school she ran all over the world with the junior national team, all expenses paid.
Success in College
“I was recruited all over the country,” said Hamilton. She chose the University of Wisconsin. It had just won the NCAA cross country championships, her sister ran there, and there was a runner, Stephanie Herbst, who was faster than she was. “The pressure of always winning could come off me,” she said. Specializing in the mile, Hamilton also ran the half mile, the two mile, the 5000, and cross country.
“College went great,” said the nine-time NCAA champion, whose multiple honors included winning 14 All-American Awards, 23 Big Ten Championships, the Honda-Broderick Cup Award for being the top US female collegiate athlete (’90), four Big Ten Athlete of the Year Awards (now called the “Suzy Favor Award”), and the award for the Big Ten Athlete of the Decade for the 1990s.
The greatest happiness for Hamilton, though, came when she met her husband Mark, a college baseball player, to whom she’s been married for the past 18 years. “I was just discovering for the first time that there was a person who was more important than my running,” she said.
Like to comment on the Suzy Favor Hamilton story? Post it here.
Success after College: The Olympics and More
The highs kept coming for Suzy Favor Hamilton. She made three Olympic teams in 1992, 1996, and 2000, focusing on the 1500 meters.
“In 2000 I was ranked number one in the world in the 1500. I had the fastest time (3:57.40). Mary Decker Slaney and I were the only two under 4 minutes. I was one-tenth of a second off the American record.”
Her accomplishments, again, were multiple, and included being:
- 3-time USA Outdoor 1500 meter champion (’90, ’91, ’98).
- 3-time USA Indoor champion (’01, ’98, ’99).
- U.S. record holder for 1000 meters and for 800 meters.
- Bronze medalist at the 1998 Goodwill Games
- Ranked number one in the 1500 in the U.S. (’89, ’90, 2000, 2001, and 2002).
Top of Page Under the Surface: Struggles
Yes, there were struggles.
In high school, she developed an eating disorder. “I developed that because I lost to a girl who was anorexic,” said Hamilton. Weighing 105 pounds (at 5’4”) throughout her competitive career, Hamilton wished at the time that she was thinner than that.
“I was never at a comfortable place with eating,” she said. “I would skip breakfast and lunch and then I was starved to death so I would eat a lot at dinner. Thankfully I was never successful at being an anorexic…which was a good thing!”
Her erratic eating continued in college. “As a freshman, my eating disorder was getting worse,” she said. “I was injured at one point and felt that if I ate little, it made me feel better…I had control.”
“My husband got me to start eating healthily,” she said. He encouraged her to eat regular, balanced meals.
In addition to the challenges associated with being a top performer, Hamilton was coping with a tragedy and sadness in her life outside running. Life was particularly tough just before and during the 2000 Olympics, the year she hoped to win the gold medal in the 1500 meter.
In 1999, her brother, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness that causes mood swings from excitability to depression), took his life. He jumped off an eight story building.
 At the starting line of the 1500 in the 2000 Olympics, here is what she was thinking.
“I felt that by winning this race I could make people stop blaming each other and make everything perfect. I was also thinking about my best friend, a runner, Mary, who was dying of cancer. I thought if I could win the race for her, it would be really cool.”
She also wanted to win the race for Nike, her sponsor, for what it had invested in her and for the hopes it had for her. “By winning, I could somehow bring more popularity to the sport of track and field,” she said.
Suzy Favor Hamilton. She felt pressure, also to win for her husband. He was an attorney who had put his career on hold for 15 years while they traveled the world for her competitions.
Her win never happened.
“With 200 meters to go in the race I had an anxiety attack,” she said. She started seeing white spots. “I was the Ferrari on empty. With 100 meters to go I could see the gold medal being put around my neck,” she said. “And at that point somebody passed me…. And then another…and then another… Never ever in my life could fifth place be an option. I faced the humiliation of fifth place.”
“I wondered…How can I vanish? I decided to make myself fall at that moment, to look as if I were tripping. I made myself collapse. It looked as if I got tripped…and I hit the ground. I remember lying there with my face on the track yelling You idiot! What have you just done?”
“I felt terrible. Remembering that people don’t like it if you don’t finish a race – it means you’re a loser – I walked to the finish line. And then I saw the media and reporters ready to ask what happened.”
“At that point I couldn’t tell anyone that I made myself fall…so I made myself pass out after the finish (there are fake pass outs). So they took me away in the wheelchair, and I could hear my husband sobbing near me. I just wanted to vanish, to get out of Sydney, Australia,” she said.
The next day she was on a flight back to Los Angeles.
“I was depressed,” she said.
Read Part 2 of Cathy's interview with Suzy Favor Hamilton.
Like to comment on the Suzy Favor Hamilton story? Post it here.
Cathy Utzschneider Ed.D. (human movement), M.B.A., professor of goal setting and competitive performance, Boston College; coach, Liberty Athletic Club, MOVE and Women-Running-Together.com.
Cathy's article was originally printed in National Masters News.
Top of Page Return from Suzy Favor Hamilton to Running Stories
Post Your Comment
Do you have a comment on this story? Share it!
|
