Champions of equality: Daring to dream

As part of the US Open’s celebration of 50 years of equal prize money for men and women, USOpen.org is featuring a series of essays from successful women in a variety of fields, each offering personal perspectives on the importance of equality as well as individual insights into the challenges they’ve overcome in their respective career journeys. In this installment, Vonetta Flowers, the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games, talks about the importance of tenacity, self-belief, and adaptability in realizing your dreams.

Dreams do come true. Even if they might not necessarily be the dreams you started out with.

Athletics have always been a big part of my life. From the time I was a little girl, I have always dreamed of achieving greatness in sports. I’ve always loved to run, and like most kids, I loved to race in the street with the other kids in my neighborhood and I loved to win. I was fast, but I wasn’t just fast, I was athletic and I loved playing all different types of sports. But, running allowed me the ultimate freedom to express my God-given talents.

I remember the day my first track coach, Dewitt Thomas, came to my elementary school recruiting for the Alabama Striders. All of the kids took part in the tryouts and he wrote down the first initial and last name of the kids he was most impressed with, along with their times and phone numbers. When he got home and reviewed his notes and saw V. Jeffery (my maiden name), he called my mother asking if her son would like to be part of the team, only to have my mom inform him that the only “V” in the house was her daughter, Vonetta. He was amazed because I recorded the fastest time in the competition – boys included. At that time, I was faster than most of the boys in my neighborhood. But to his credit, he saw talent, not gender, and invited me to one of his practices. I immediately fell in love with track. It became my obsession.

Track was my life as a kid. I felt like it was the place I belonged; the place that always brought out the best in me. It’s so important to your personal growth to find that thing that makes you feel that way. When you do, embrace the feeling and embrace the environment, because that will help you discover your authentic self. Doing that is the first and most important step in the pursuit of your dreams.

There was nothing fancy about the part of town I grew up in. Growing up in Birmingham (Bessemer), Ala., we grew up with the necessities of life. Most of us were from low-income families, so we spent nearly as much time fundraising as we did training, just so we would have money to travel and compete. We’d stand out on the street corners, almost every day, asking people for donations to help fund our track trips. I believe people felt sorry for us and they also understood that we were out there for a good reason. Before GoFundMe, school discount cards, and the traditional fundraisers that kids use these days, we had to basically stand at busy intersections and beg for money.

Track was a way for us to escape from our everyday life and it was the place where the “playing field” was equal. We learned at an early age: life is not fair–if we wanted something bad enough we had to make sacrifices, do what others were not willing to do and be willing to work harder than others to make it happen. And that’s just what we did.

Coach Thomas helped me develop as an athlete, but more important, he gave me the vision that I could perhaps be the next Jackie Joyner-Kersee. At 9, I didn’t even know who she was, but when I found out, I thought, absolutely, I want to be like her. She became my inspiration, and Coach Thomas encouraged me to believe that I could be just like her. He really was the first one who made me believe that my dreams might just be within my reach; that with commitment and hard work, I could dream the impossible.

So I trained hard, did everything that I was supposed to do and got a college scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). This sport that I loved allowed me to become the first in my family to graduate from college. It also afforded me an opportunity to chase my dream of representing my country in the Olympics; of standing on that podium just like Jackie Joyner-Kersee. My vision was clear and unwavering. I was laser-focused on my goals.

But injuries hampered my bid to make the 1996 Olympic team, and although I was disappointed, I was also only 22, so I knew I’d have another shot in four years. I was not going to give up. I kept my dream alive throughout those four years, never losing sight of my ultimate goal to represent my country. Unfortunately, in 2000, I was plagued by another injury that kept me from being my best when the trials were held in Sacramento, Calif. I gave it my all—but I didn’t make it.

At some point in life we all realize that life is either better or worse than what we dreamed of as a child. This reality hit me when I was 26 years old. It would have been easy then to give up; easy to say I’d given it my best. Because I had. I was married by then to my husband, Johnny, who I’d met when we were both undergraduates at UAB. I was mentally ready to walk away from athletics. But I knew in my heart that I was so close to my dream, and Johnny, who has always been my biggest supporter, knew exactly what that dream meant to me. Even when I wanted to—he wouldn’t let me quit.

Success, so often, is the direct result of teamwork. My ultimate life teammate saw an opportunity that could possibly allow me to live out my dream. So make sure you always surround yourself with others who believe in you. Make sure your village is filled with people who will always support you, keep you grounded and challenge you to think beyond your current situation. They will have a huge impact on how you measure success and what happens when failure knocks you on your face.

It was Johnny who first spotted the sign that U.S. bobsledder Bonny Warner posted at the 2000 Olympic Trials, recruiting track and field athletes to try out for the bobsled team. He told me that this just might be my chance. I was 26 years old, and anxious to start a family. He and I both talked about what life would be like if I didn’t make the summer team and none of those conversations included leaving each other for months at a time, traveling around the world or freezing my butt off. But the road to success is filled with those who quit, those who are about to quit and those who decided that quitting is not an option.

One month later, I was in Germany learning how to push a bobsled.

Now, if that seems like a wildly improbable transition, it’s only because it was. All I knew about bobsledding was from the movie “Cool Runnings.” My training as a brakeman was all about speed and strength. As a track athlete I was already faster than most athletes in the bobsled world, but I needed to change my body type, gain some weight, make my legs stronger, because a bobsled weighs over 450 pounds. It was the first time in my life that I trained to gain weight (muscle). I had to prepare my mind and my body differently . And then there was the cold. As a girl from Alabama, “cold” was my kryptonite.

It was painful. And it was tough. And it was scary. But after a while, it became comfortable. And after a little while longer, it actually became fun. It’s important to remember that “tough” can absolutely eventually evolve into “fun” if you work at it. The work becomes fun when you see your goal within reach. People always tell you, “Never give up,” but giving up is a good option sometimes when it means that the alternate choice is better than the current situation. I took the skills that I learned in track & field and applied them to my new sport. Bobsled.

Responding to a want ad (placed by Bonny) and being ready for the opportunity are the two keys to my unscripted and unbelievable story. By deciding to accept a new challenge and stepping out on faith, I walked out of the routine of my past and ran into the unpredictable path of the future. It was life-changing. Again, self-belief coupled with others who believe in you is a powerful and unbeatable combination. Make that happen for yourself—because I guarantee it will make a difference for you.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City were, in every regard, a magical, unforgettable experience. It began with the Opening Ceremonies. As an athlete you see it on TV and you envision what it would be like, and it’s a thousand times more incredible than you can imagine. To have the Games in your home country and be the last country to walk in, I was in tears before we ever even made it into the stadium.

I was confident coming into these Games because I knew we’d trained hard and my driver Jill Bakken and I were as prepared as we could be. And when we won the gold medal, every piece of every dream I’d ever had came together perfectly in place. No words can describe the overwhelming feeling that overcame us as we stood their at the foothills of Park City and the crowd yelling and screaming, “USA, USA, USA!!!”

And when I stood on that podium and they hung that gold medal around my neck, I realized a dream for so many that believed, so many that doubted and for so many that were unaware what this victory meant for our country and for people around the world. It was a culmination of a dream deferred and catalyst for dreams to come. I look at it now and I still tear up. I learned the words to the national anthem when I was nine years old, so I was ready. Emotional. Proud. I thought of all the people who helped me get there, including coach Thomas, who drove all the way from Alabama just to be there and watch me.

I admit that I had no idea that I was the first Black athlete ever to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics until we were doing our interviews afterward. Knowing that I’d made that sort of history made the moment even more special, and I still take a great deal of pride in that. It’s humbling to know that I’ve opened the door to let other little Black and brown kids know that if they can see it, they can be it.

If you truly want something, you need to understand and accept that it’s probably not going to happen overnight. When I started dreaming at age nine, I could never have known that it would take me 17 years to realize that dream. But I kept striving and I kept learning—about myself and about life. I’ll be 50 this year and I’m still learning. That never stops.

You should know that if you hit a wall, it’s ok to try something new and transition. It’s ok to be afraid. Fear is part of the growth process. Just don’t let that fear paralyze you. Once you move past fear and operate in faith then that’s when growth occurs. It doesn’t matter how you move as long as you keep moving forward.

Dreams do come true.