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Clearing Hurdles, On And Off Track
Associated Press file photo (2006)
U.S. athlete Damu Cherry runs in the women's 100-meter hurdles race in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2006.
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Published: July 5, 2008
Updated: 07/05/2008 12:47 am
EUGENE, Ore. - EUGENE, Ore. - She is the fastest 100-meter hurdler in the world this season. But at this week's U.S. Olympic track and field trials, some might say Damu Cherry is a ghost athlete.
Suspended in 2003 for failing a drug test, the former Leto High and University of South Florida standout received a two-year suspension from the sport for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
Cherry still denies knowingly taking the drug, which she said she ingested via contaminated vitamins. She served her two-year suspension but kept training at a high level, and she is now in a strong position to make her first Olympic team.
Despite the fact that Cherry has paid her dues and has returned to being among the world's elite hurdlers, she is somewhat invisible as she prepares to race as the No. 1 seed in today's opening round of the event at Hayward Field.
It doesn't faze her. Cherry thinks that things happen for a reason and that dealing with the suspension has made her a better person.
"It made me tough. It made me real tough," Cherry said. "If it wasn't for God and my family and people around me, my coach, I wouldn't be running still.
"If anything, it's made me stronger, because not many people can come back after two years down and run better than they have in their whole entire life. So that's God's blessings for me."
USA Track and Field, the governing body of American track, doesn't even list Cherry among the athlete biographies on its Web site. And comments by some USATF officials indicate that Cherry's strong performances since her comeback have not made people forget her "doping suspension," as it is labeled next to Cherry's entry in the USATF media guide for the years 2004 and 2005.
It doesn't help that Cherry's coach and fiance, Dennis Mitchell, a former world-class sprinter from the University of Florida, also failed a drug test in 1998. He was later cleared by a USATF drug panel.
In a sport in which so many stars have let down fans, it is difficult for athletes like Cherry to get the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't help that she has become much faster since she started her 2006 comeback. Heading into today's qualifying rounds, Cherry's time of 12.47 seconds leads the world.
"Is there redemption for the fallen?" is the question in Eugene, where track is king and those who love the sport have felt betrayed by athletes who have failed tests.
Acting USATF head Bill Roe says yes.
"We've had athletes come back from suspension before, and I think the general public views them with some measure of skepticism, and probably rightfully so," Roe said. "There are people who will not forgive somebody who doesn't tell the truth once. That's why we have a system which allows people to come back into competition, because you don't know 100 percent that it was entirely the athlete's choice or the athlete's fault to do it."
Like so many athletes who have failed drug tests, Cherry is adamant that she didn't knowingly enhance her body with steroids.
"No, I did not use anything illegal on purpose, no," Cherry said. "I don't believe in that. I don't do that. ... I know in my heart I didn't do anything wrong. .... but I paid my dues and did what I had to do."
Cherry's biggest fans and supporters are her parents, Don and Hassie Cherry, who stuck by their daughter through the hard times.
"I know our daughter, and I know that nothing was done intentionally," Hassie Cherry said. "You can't always change what other people think. You can't live for how other people think about you."
Don Cherry said the suspension was difficult for his daughter. He argues that if she was benefiting from the illegal drugs, his daughter would have been running faster.
"When she was suspended she was struggling," he said. "She was up and down. She wasn't rich or famous. She was a person out there trying to make it. She bought the cheapest vitamins she could get."
Hassie Cherry is also a cancer survivor, a fact that inspired her daughter.
"She's one of the reasons that I keep running," Damu said. "Right now, she's in remission and she's doing awesome. And I saw her fight through that. Me watching her and then me going through my situation and looking at me training every day; how dare I complain about being tired from a workout, or how dare I complain about anything in life when I saw her struggling just to live."
Cherry's anonymity will abruptly end if she earns a berth on the U.S. team in Sunday night's final. She said she is in Eugene to win.
"It's going to be a fight. There's at least five or six of us that can definitely be on this team, so it's going to be a fight," she said.
Cherry's dreams go beyond Beijing. She has her eye on Gail Devers' American record of 12.33, not far off her 12.44 personal record.
"My goal has been to really get close to that," she said. "That's just what's exciting to me is that I know I'm on track to do some big things."
If she does, Cherry won't be a ghost any longer.
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