The Paris Olympics will award gold medals in 329 events. A few lucky winners will convert that gold into stardom.
Anna Hall could be one of them.
TV viewers saw why at the U.S. track and field trials. It was as if NBC called Olympic Central Casting and said, “Send over someone who is poised, telegenic and has a redemption story that tugs at the heartstrings.”
The network got it with the women’s pentathlon. Hall ran, jumped, threw and hurdled herself to exhaustion. When she collapsed after clinching first place in the final 800-meter race, the tears flowed.
“I’ve waited for so long,” Hall said. “My Olympic dreams have been really, really hard.”
Track devotees know her story, especially those around Gainesville who watched her do her thing in 2022. By the time the Olympic flame is extinguished, millions more could become Hall aficionados.
The Colorado native originally signed with Georgia and was favored to win a medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games. But she hit a hurdle at the Olympic trials, breaking a foot and tearing ankle ligaments.
Her coach at Georgia had resigned, so Hall came to Florida looking for a fresh start. She made the most of it, powering the Gators to the 2022 indoor and outdoor national championships.
Hall turned pro after that but stuck around Gainesville to train. She scored an eye-catching 6,988 points in a pentathlon in Austria last year. It was fifth-highest total in history, and best ever for an American not named Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Then Hall’s knee started bothering her. The last thing an athlete wants heading into an Olympic year is a trip to the surgical ward, but by the Christmas holidays Hall knew there was no choice.
Doctors repaired her posterior cruciate ligament in January. The clock to the Olympic trials started ticking.
The minimum recovery time for that procedure is usually 16 weeks. Hall’s doctors and trainers plotted a path they hoped would have her sprinting by Week 13.
“With the Olympics, we rushed back a little,” Hall said.
But would the rush job work?
Hall not only had to whip her body into Olympic shape, she had to overcome doubt and depression. She competed in a couple of meets before the trials, and the results didn’t exactly scream “Paris!”
“Every single meet I did was just so hard to compete not feeling yourself, and then put up marks that were underwhelming,” she said. “Every time I kind of left them just feeling defeated.”
This is where the story takes a made-for-TV twist.
Hall had been befriended by Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic pentathlon champ in 1988 and 1992. Joyner-Kersee called, counseled and cajoled her protege through her rehab.
“She’s been such a good mentor and role model,” Hall said.
Not to mention a compelling angle to Hall’s story. Olympic media converge on stars like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky. NBC seems to know it has a potential ratings-grabber in Hall.
It taped a feature on Joyner-Kersee and Hall going into the trials. It was no coincidence that cameras routinely cut to Joyner-Kersee sitting in the stands as Hall competed.
The most dramatic moment came in 100-meter hurdles, the event in which Hall crashed in 2021. She made it through, which led to the most emotional moment.
After finishing the 800 meters, Hall picked herself up off the track and spotted her three sisters sitting in the front row.
She went over and the four engaged in a long, tearful group hug. The cameras ate it up.
Hall later posted on Instagram, “To my family & friends, the UF coaching and admin staff, my many physical therapists, my agents, sponsors & more. I am forever thankful.”
Her score of 6,614 points showed that Hall is not quite back to her 2023 form. She’ll have time to sharpen up before the Olympics, but it will be a challenge to catch two-time defending champion Nafi Thiam of Belgium.
A challenge, but also an opportunity.
The American audience got a taste of Hall’s story at the Olympic trials. If she can repeat that closing scene in Paris, a star could really be born.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Anna Hall has the perfect story for Paris Olympics 2024
