'Crazy things happen right before something great is about to occur,' she said.
Less than an hour before her semifinal at the U.S. Olympic track trials, 400-meter runner Kendall Ellis was trapped in a porta-potty, banging on the door, screaming for someone to let her out.
Now, the 28-year-old who was considered mainly a relay specialist will go to the Olympics to compete for a title all her own.“Just believing in myself,” she said when asked what sparked this sudden resurgence. “The workouts haven’t changed, the results in practice haven’t changed, but finally something clicked up here that said, ‘You can do it. You can go out with the best of them and you can finish better than anyone else.
Halfway through the last lap of that 2018 relay, she was in third place, barely in the screen. A few seconds later, the TV announcer all but handed the race to the Purdue runner in the lead: “There’s no way, unless they drop the baton, Purdue’s going to win this, which we certainly didn’t see.”Ellis had a couple of things going for her. She knew the Purdue runner was a middle-distance specialist without the same closing kick as she has.
The win that made Ellis something of a mini-legend in the track world. She made a number of national teams in part on the strength of her relay prowess. In Tokyo three years ago, she won an Olympic gold by running in the prelims of the women’s 4x400 and also got bronze in the mixed 4x400.
U.S. Olympic Trials Kendall Ellis
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Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
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Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
Read more »
Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
Read more »
Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
Read more »
Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
Read more »
Kendall Ellis will compete in Olympics after being freed from locked porta-potty minutes before trialsThe International Olympic Committee says it doesn’t issue prize money for the games. Instead, each nation can decide whether it wants to compensate its athletes.
Read more »