Athlete: Gail Devers - The Many-Splendored Faces of Today's Black Woman

Ebony, March, 1997 by Walter Leavy

Gail Devers has never been one to give up and quit, and it has been that level of perseverance that was the foundation of one of the most incredible comebacks in sports history. Hers is a story that exemplifies the triumph of the human spirit over physical adversity. Before Devers became "the worlds fastest woman" in 1992 -- after winning the 100-meter dash at the Olympics in Barcelona -- she had to battle a crippling disease that almost forced doctors to amputate her feet. In 1988, she had set an American record in the 100-meter hurdles (12.61 seconds), was set to compete in the 100-meter hurdles in the Olympics in Seoul, and was, she thought, in the best condition of her life. But then her body began to betray her. "At the Olympic trials in Seoul, I was running poorly and didn't make the finals. I knew something was wrong because I ran slower than I had in high school," says Devers, a former member of the UCLA track team and whose life was the subject of the Showtime movie, Run For The Dream: The Gail Devers Story. "[Later on] I was losing a lot of my hair, I had a large goiter on neck; I would lose vision in my left eve for hours at a time, my resting heart rate was 150; and I had extreme weight fluctuations."

When Devers was finally diagnosed with Graves disease, a chronic thyroid condition, she chose to undergo radiation treatment rather than take medication that was on the U.S. Olympic Committees fist of banned drugs. The radiation caused her feet to swell to the point that her skin cracked and bled, and the pain was so excruciating that the world-class sprinter had to crawl from her bed to the bathroom. "I would cry because it felt like my feet were going to fall off," says the dog lover and voracious reader. "But I knew that if I could weather the storm, then the sun was going to shine again."

It did. Just two days before Devers' feet were to be amputated, doctors realized that her radiation treatments may have been to blame for her problems. A month after the therapy was changed, she was able to walk and had begun the amazing comeback that has made her one of the most successful sprinters in history. She worked her way back into olympic form and, in Barcelona, Devers won one gold medal in the 100-meters and was on the verge of winning another in the 100-meter hurdles when she hit the final hurdle, tumbled and literally crawled to a fifth-place finish. "It [the gold medal in the hurdles] just wasn't meant to be," she says.

After Barcelona, Devers -- undaunted by her hurdles fiasco -- continued her reign as the worlds most dominant splinter in both indoor and outdoor competition. And that position was solidified at the Atlanta Olympics when she became only the second woman to win back-to-back gold medals in the 100 meters (Wyomia Tyus was the first), beating Merlene Ottey of Jamaica in a photo finish. Devers picked up another gold medal as a member of the women's 4 x 100 relay team, exhibiting the competitive spirit that became evident when she was only 7. That's when her father, in an effort to get her to stop biting her fingernails, challenged her to a fingernail-growing contest. It worked and led to Devers, fascination with long nails.

As a result of last years success, Gail received the Jesse Owens Award that is annually presented to the top American athlete in track and field. It was the second time she has received the award, joining Jackie Joyner-Kersee as the only other woman to win it twice. But even with all of her amazing accomplishments, there still is a void, she says, one that she hopes to fill when the world will compete in Sydney, Australia, in the year 2000. "At the Olympics in Sydney, I hope to run in the 100 meters, be a member of the 4 x 100 relay team and compete in the 100-meter hurdles again," she says. "I have yet to capture my gold medal in the hurdles. That is something that's keeping me motivated, and I'm willing to work extra hard to get it."