LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — With many records to be broken, track and field events have begun in the Paris Olympics.
After a nearly 30-year losing streak in the women's track and field 100-meter event, many are hoping the steak ends for the U.S., including the last Olympian to win the event, Gail Devers.
11Alive caught up with the three-time Olympic gold medalist at the track in Lawrenceville, where she coaches high school athletes, including her youngest daughter, Legacy Phillips, who is a rising Junior at Mountain View High School. The Olympian is also mom to a college sophomore, Karson Phillips, who runs on the University of Georgia's track and field team.
"I see parts of me in them, but I see better. Because there's things I see that I'm like, 'I didn't have that growing up'... they're my platinum medals. I won gold, but Karson and Legacy are my platinum," Devers said.
Gail Devers and her daughters | Photos
As a three-time Olympian, appearing in the 1988, 1992, and 1996 games, Devers has battled hurdles her entire life. She was diagnosed in 1992 with an autoimmune disorder called Graves Disease, only two years before winning her first gold medal.
“During that time – I was having problems with my eyes," Devers said.
Years after that, she would also be diagnosed with Thyroid Eye Disease.
"My eyes were bulging. They were red. They didn’t close all the way," Devers added.
The Olympian ended up seeing a thyroid eye disease (TED) specialist before finding relief. She works with the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, the Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation and Prevent Blindness to help people living with Graves’ disease learn more about their eye health.
“Everything I did in track and field… that dedication… that commitment. You take that to life and correlates the same," Devers said.
As she gets ready to cheer on the athletes who have come after her, she hopes another will make a run for it and bring home the gold medal in the women's track and field 100-meter race.
“I believe this is the year. We’ve sent a great team to Paris. Our 100-meter team is led by Sha'Carri Richardson, and as she says, 'She’s not back—she’s better,'" Devers added.
