Johnson gets second chance at Olympics

By Dave Utnik

Published: June 24, 2008

GiGi Johnson doesn’t have to search for inspiration at the track. It is all around her — in a pair of national championship performances from Penn State sprinters, in her life-long ambition to represent the U.S. in the Olympic Games and in her own incredible comeback from an arm injury.
Every day seems to provide an opportunity for the 1997 Gar-Field High School graduate to discover something new about herself as an athlete.
She’s learned how to deal with disappointment and failure, how to make up for lost time after getting thrown off a horse last November and, most importantly, that despite missing two months of training she can still hold her own against the world’s best competitors in the heptathlon.
On the eve of the U.S. Olympic Trials, Johnson, formerly GiGi Miller, is wiser and tougher than she’s ever been. In some events, like the 100-meter hurdles, she’s also faster. And that is why the former national champion believes it is still possible to earn one of the three spots on the American squad that will compete in Beijing this summer.
“I feel like I’m ready and in the best shape of my life,” said Johnson, who has run the 100 hurdles in under 13 seconds twice this season. “It’s my time now. I feel like this is my year.”
That is what she thought four years ago, too. Only things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to that summer. She finished sixth in the 2004 Olympic Trails and was the last athlete cut from the team.
She’s waited four years for a chance at redemption.
“When you work so hard for something and it doesn’t come to pass it’s very disappointing,” Johnson said. “It’s been a driving force. It gave me motivation for these past four years.
“In 2004 it was really more of me just being quick and fast,” she said. “But you have to focus on mental toughness. I was in great shape then but as far as mental toughness is concerned I was very inexperienced. I couldn’t put a bad event behind me.”
A lot has changed since then. And there have been far more good events than bad ones.
Johnson moved to College State, Pa. after graduating from the University of Arkansas, where she was a Southeastern Conference Champion and an NCAA silver medalist; she’s married to her coach, Penn State assistant Chris Johnson; and she rose to the height of her sport by capturing a U.S. national championship in 2006.
The only thing missing is an Olympic medal.
“As a kid growing up my goal was to make the Olympic team,” she said. “This is one of my childhood dreams.”
Just a few months ago, that dream seemed implausible at best. During a Thanksgiving holiday trip to Franklin County, she decided to go horseback riding and wound up with a dislocated left arm.
“Sometimes you forget that [as an elite athlete] you can’t do things that other family members do,” she said.
Johnson has spent every day since coming back from that injury. Just six weeks after she resumed training, she competed in three events at an international competition in England and proved that she can still perform against the best in the world.
Recently, she spent one month training with her brother-in-law at Virginia Tech and she was inspired by the NCAA championships won by Penn State sprinter Shana Cox in the 400 meters and by the 4x400 relay team.
“Being around those girls, seeing them sweating and working hard to become national champions gave me motivation,” she said. “I feel like I’m way ahead of where I was.”
Where Johnson has been doesn’t matter nearly as much as where she’s going.
Since breaking into the national rankings eight years ago, Johnson has distinguished herself by competing in the 2007 Pam Am Games and the 2005 World Championships. On American soil, she has prospered with three consecutive trips to the medal podium and seven straight finishes among the top 6 at the USA Outdoor Championships.
Now the 29-year-old Johnson is poised for perhaps her greatest achievement at the Beijing Olympics.
“It will be very sentimental to me,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot different. There’s a lot more at stake. I’m getting older and at this point I really want to make the Olympic team and I want to medal.”