When Lashinda Demus found out that she would be the first US gold medalist in the 400m hurdles, it wasn’t the same moment most Olympic gold medalists experience. There was no stadium. No competitors. No fans. No podium and no gold medal.
Lashinda Demus was coaching at Culver City High School’s track practice when she found out from a friend, who had read an article about Lashinda earning the gold medal. The Russian athlete, Natalya Antyukh, who crossed the line just .07 seconds before Demus, was disqualified for doping, and twelve years later Lashinda will be awarded the gold she worked so hard to earn.
“Initially, I didn’t even believe it…” Lashinda shared. “I hadn’t heard anything official, so I was like, where is this news coming from?”
The details of how the medals would be re-allocated, at this point, were also unofficial and appeared unclear.
“They wanted me to send my silver medal through the mail, and they gave me a couple of options to receive my gold medal…I just wasn’t okay with sending off something without knowing… How is everything going to unfold? I wanted to know more details.”
It was then that Lashinda decided to speak with an international sports lawyer to seek transparency and clarity for how the medal re-allocation process would be handled. Lashinda and her lawyer, through conversations with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) were able to figure out an honorable way for Lashinda and the other medalists to receive their medals.
With other athletes in mind, Lashinda advocated strongly for the ceremony to be held in the Olympic stadium at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“I remember athletes that received their medals under crazy conditions…I knew athletes where it was so underwhelming that I couldn’t even believe it. So, that is already in the back of my head, and I think that came to the forefront of my mind as soon as I found out the information, and that’s why I instantly reached out to a lawyer.”
“My initial statement was ‘I want to be in the Olympic stadium,’ but there’s laws against that and, you know, all kinds of rules where that couldn’t happen. So, I think they did the best they could to do what I wanted.”
The medal reallocation ceremony will be held on August 9th in Champions Park with the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. This is the first medal reallocation ceremony to take place at an Olympic games. Although not exactly what she had initially advocated for, Lashinda appreciated the efforts to make the ceremony significant and honorable for the athletes involved.
For Lashinda, more than just a gold medal was lost in 2012. From this one race, Lashinda lost up to seven figures in potential money from sponsors. However, even more impactful on Lashinda and her family’s life, was the process of healing that followed the transitions that took place after those Olympic games.
During the 2012 London Olympics, Lashinda’s twin boys Dontay and Duaine were 5 years old.
Going into the race, Lashinda was confident she would come away with the gold. She had raced all the women in that race prior to the Olympics for years.
“…On the balance of probability, I rarely lost…The only time I lose races is if I mess up. So, if I’m in shape, and I’m running well, I typically don’t lose.”
“I honestly thought I should have won, and that I was the best competitor at that time.”
“I always say that I probably lost seven figures of income from this one race, but I think the more impactful thing was I lost a piece of who I was. And I often tell people that, when I think back to that point, I literally only look[ed] at myself as a great athlete, and I think I held onto that because who wants to be average at anything if you can be great. Right away, when you take that thing away from someone…and then you say…Okay, now start over…That was very hard for me.”
Immediately following the race, Lashinda’s disappointment was apparent, but her determination to train and earn a gold medal was unbroken. After battling injury, Lashinda was unable to secure a spot on the 2016 Rio Olympic team. This time was difficult for Lashinda and her family.
“I can tell you my kids lost a mentally healthy mom for a time, you know, it was a very hard loss for me mentally.”
“Them seeing me in the mental condition I was in impacted them.”
“We all know the financial situation would have been different and impacted my life differently as well…but I don’t think other people realize what you go through as an athlete when your identity is tied to that.”
Lashinda’s dreams and identities in sport began at a young age.
“As a child, when I saw I was good at something, I kind of clung on to that, and then, once I saw how good I was, I wanted to be the best at it. It was something that pushed me to just want more, like it felt good to me to be the best at something…it’s something that no one can take away from you…That was something that I wouldn’t let go, and that was something I didn’t take for granted, and I was like that from a very young age. I knew I had something. I knew I had a gift.”
Lashinda’s mother and father spoke belief into her and nurtured the gift they saw in her.
Her parents repeatedly told her the type of athlete she would be, how great she would be, and what she would accomplish, and through their encouragement, she pretty much accomplished everything they said she would.
It wasn’t until college that Lashinda’s Olympic dreams began to become her own. Coach Frye at the University of South Carolina sparked a newfound love of the sport for her.
In college, Demus was a four-time NCAA champion and 11-time All-American for the Gamecocks. She also was a part of the Gamecock National Champion team in 2002. Lashinda made her first Olympic team in 2004, while still in college, advancing to the semi-finals when she placed 5th in her heat.
After years of training, using her gift with the encouragement of her supporters, Lashinda felt prepared to walk away with a gold medal in the London Olympic games.
However, when she walked away with the silver, there was a realization that her dream of being a gold medalist was delayed for at least another four years. After not returning to the 2016 Rio Olympics, it seemed as if she would not live out her mission of earning a gold medal.
However, on August 9th in Champions Park, Lashinda will wear that gold medal. Although receiving the gold medal now cannot change how Lashinda felt about the race then.
“I am so far removed from that person…I tell people it was simply a life-or-death mindset I had. If I would have continued in that mindset, I don’t know where I’d be today because it was a low moment for me.”
“I had to force myself to realize I am more than the athlete I was. That is a part of me, but not all of me. I had to do that in order to move forward.”
Like many other Olympic athletes who have shared their stories of mental health following a career or Olympic build up, Lashinda experienced a sense of loss in her identity and had to go through a difficult time of transition. Though awarding Lashinda the gold is just and well-deserved, it cannot go back and change the life experiences she has already lived through.
“Getting the medal now, doesn’t change the emotions I went through then, and it doesn’t change my happiness. It just feels like justice was served and that people do still care about the integrity of the sport, and I hope it continues that way.”
Lashinda’s advice to other athletes or people in a similar situation was to, “Always be prepared, that is the best way to get the closest outcome you want.”
Lashinda prepared before starting conversations to advocate for herself and other athletes who have unfortunately found themselves in a similar situation due to doping and cheating in the sport of track and field.
Though the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs and substances in athletics has been recognized worldwide, and even after the Russian state manipulation of the doping control process was revealed in 2016, Lashinda still gave her competitor the benefit of the doubt.
“Did I suspect drugs?… I think that’s something we expect to happen in the sport. I don’t think that goes away. Even now, I don’t think anything has changed. There are going to be athletes on stuff right now.”
“But I feel like you can’t waste your time thinking just because you lost a race, that somebody is on drugs…So, anytime I thought of that instance I would quickly take my mind off that because …that’s disrespectful to other athletes who compete and work that hard.”
“I knew up to that point she’d never beat me in a race, but I didn’t go straight to she’s doping.”
While the world anti-doping agency (WADA) works to maintain a system to discourage and prevent cheating in sport, athletes continue to test positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
“At a certain point, when you see things consistently happen…like the medal reallocation and how people were receiving their medals, you see people complaining about that. I’m not the first athlete who spoke up about it. I knew plenty of athletes that spoke about the disappointment of how they received their medals…Something has to change…So, I think when these organizations see these patterns of events or complaints…a changing of the guards needs to happen…We need to mix something up and change things.”
As science and the sensitivity of testing improve, so has the number of samples once considered to be clean that have now been identified as positive for performance enhancing drugs.
“I also hope that the science and technology with the testing improves…because you don’t want this to continuously happen to other athletes.”
Instances like these serve as a call to awareness and action. Like Lashinda, many athletes continue to hope for fairness and honesty in sport and increased testing to accurately represent which athletes have competed and are competing fairly. For many athletes, their sport is their livelihood. It doesn’t just affect their goals, it affects their daily lives, their incomes, their families, and even their identities.
Though medals are re-awarded, what athletes lose in earnings is not re-awarded. Their life experiences are drastically different than they would have been had the competition been truly fair on the day.
Lashinda’s life went on after 2012, and Lashinda has found a way to use her gifts and experiences to help others. She currently coaches at Culver City High School in California.
“[Coaching] is just the greatest experience, you know, the kids they respect me as a coach, they respect me as an athlete, and we have this sort of relationship because I’ve done what they’re doing.”
“They look at me as their coach. I’m not like this Olympian girl who they are in awe of, no, I’m their coach, who’s an Olympian, and they respect it, so that is what I love the most. It’s a humbling experience, and it’s taught me a lot about myself as well.”
Lashinda will enjoy this moment of receiving her gold medal while the athletes she works with and inspires cheer her on.
Thanks to the generosity of those who have resonated with Lashinda’s story, and the success of her GoFundMe, her children, Dontay (16), Dwayne (16), Syre (5), Sincere (4) and her husband Jamel Mayrant will also be able to join her in Paris. Some of her greatest supporters in life, her parents, Yolanda and Dwayne Demus will be there too.
Donations can be made to the family’s GoFundMe, linked here.
“It was overwhelming to see the response. I almost didn’t even do that because it is not my personality, but I am so happy that I did because there is no way I could have afforded everything. It helped my parents to come over. My mom was my coach, and she wasn’t going to come because she couldn’t afford it.”
Back Row: Duaine Mayrant (16), Lashinda Demus, Dontay Mayrant (16)
Though Lashinda doesn’t know exactly how it will feel when she finally wears that gold medal around her neck in Champions Park on August 9th, it adds to the experience that her family will get to be there with her, and she knows she will be happy.
“I’m just so happy they believed in me and wanted to see me happy. These supporters wanted to see this for me.”
“I’m definitely looking forward to the ceremony and traveling with my family. For my two youngest sons, this will be their first time traveling overseas. It’s going to be interesting to see their reactions to things like people who are speaking a totally different language than them.”
“I’m excited to see their expressions on their faces when I’m getting the medal and seeing all these people clap and cheer. I know they are going to be so confused, so I think that’s going to be funny.”
“I want to enjoy the food and enjoy the culture because when you are competing you don’t really enjoy these things…I’m also excited to see some track events.”
Although we now know that Demus was the first gold medalist in the 400m hurdles, she wasn’t the first to receive her gold medal, as Dalilah Muhammed won gold for the US in 2016 and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won gold in the 2020 Summer Olympics. As the current world record holder, McLaughlin-Levrone will defend her title on August 8th against European record holder Femke Bol of the Netherlands, and Lashinda will be there watching, one day before the medal reallocation ceremony Lashinda worked to initiate.
All photos and media in this piece are provided courtesy of Lashinda Demus and Michelle Young
