Five years ago, Keni Harrison mustered a smile as disappointment welled in her eyes. “I don’t know what happened,” she said.
She had arrived at the 2016 U.S. Olympic track and field trials as the prohibitive favorite in the 100-meter hurdles, not just to win the event but also potentially take gold in Rio. Instead, she had finished sixth – shocked, heartbroken and off the team entirely.
For the next 1,851 days, the disappointment of that moment fueled Harrison. And on Monday, she finally got redemption. The 28-year-old won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics with a time of 12.52 seconds, narrowly defeating Jamaica’s Megan Tapper, who won bronze, and finishing behind only Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who took gold.
“I think missing out in Rio, it’s always in the back of my head when I’m training,” Harrison said. “That’s what continues to make me work hard – just remembering that moment of getting sixth at the U.S. trials.
