"With 200 yards to go, I hit empty on my gas tank," she begins. "At that point I started to have a panic attack. In my mind, I knew winning was the option, only winning could be a success."
With the finish line in sight, another runner passed her and she thought, "OK, silver." Then two more women passed and with them her chance at a medal.
"In fourth place I decided fourth was not good enough and I somehow needed to vanish," she says. "But how do you vanish when the whole world is watching?"
She recalls the flurry of thoughts that followed. "I thought of my best friend who was dying of cancer and was watching the race. I thought of my family, and my brother had passed away a year before, and thought if I could win they would be happy. I was thinking about my husband and my coach. And people had told me, If you can win the gold just think about the impact that would have on the sport.' "
Then comes what she calls the toughest admission of her life: "I was thinking about everyone, how happy they would be. And at that moment I had let them all down, so falling was the option. And I fell." badgerbeat.com
What a powerful story- Suzy went to high school in Stevens Point, the town where I went to college and lived for 10 years. What a story about an amazing talent.
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