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Alaysha Johnson ran in shoes she borrowed from a fellow hurdler and in a uniform she designed herself.
Both fast and fashion-forward.
The 100-meter hurdler earned a spot to the Paris Games with a second-place finish in a competitive field at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials on Sunday. Johnson, the hurdler who has hypothyroidism and trains around NFL and NBA players, ran a personal-best time of 12.31 seconds to finish .06 behind winner Masai Russell.
To think, Johnson was a long shot to make this team — a long shot, that is, to everyone but herself.
“People like me who come from the inner city of Houston … it’s hard for us to get opportunities,” said the 27-year-old Johnson, who ran at the University of Oregon and at Texas Tech. “It always takes what I say is double the effort to get half as far. I always tell people if we had a little bit more support, I probably could have been here a long time ago.
“But it made me understand that regardless of how many people have your back, I’m still strong enough to do this on my own two feet.”
Running down the track in borrowed spikes, no less. Tonea Marshall, who finished fifth, was gracious enough to give Johnson a pair after the first round when Johnson said the “bubble popped” on the only pair she brought.
It hasn’t been the traditional path to the starting line for Johnson.
For one, she doesn’t train around sprinters/hurdlers so much as some recognizable names in the NBA and NFL realms. She said the list includes Kansas City Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman and Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant.
