Gail Devers

One of the top track and field performers of 90's, Gail Devers’s story has inspired many people on and off the track. A champion who always believes that the race is never over, Devers was born in Seattle, Washington in November 1966. Her desire to beat her brother influenced her for athletics.

In 1988, Devers was in top form. She set a national record of 12.61 seconds in the 100m hurdles and qualified for the track-and-field team for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. During the training period for the Olympics, Devers experienced physical problems including, fainting, fatigue, insomnia and migraine headaches. She pushed herself but it was not enough to qualify for the finals.

Behind every champion's success is a timeline of challenges, Gail Devers is a three-time Olympic gold medalist (1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta) in track and field but on the other hand, she has been at the center of trials after diagnosed of Graves' disease in 1990, an immune system disorder that results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones. During the period, she had to undergo radioactive iodine treatment followed by thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Those days were tough times for her as Devers began to develop blistering and swelling of her feet. Eventually, she could barely walk and had to crawl and or be carried. Hence a doctor considered amputating her feet. Two days before her feet are set to be amputated doctors realized that Devers's radiation treatments are the cause of her dangerously swollen feet.

As she has been the true proof of a belief that every accomplishment begins with a decision to try, Devers recovered after the radiation treatment was discontinued, and she set her mind on returning to the track. She qualified for the 1992 Olympics, where she took gold in the 100-meter in a photo finish. In the 1996 Olympics, she repeated as the gold medalist in the 100-meter and added a gold in the 4×100-meter relay. 

Devers quit in 2005 to give birth to a child and returned in 2006. One year later, she retired from competitions.

PERSONAL BESTS 
100m: 10.82
200m: 22.71
400m: 52.66
100m Hurdles: 12.33
4x100m Relay: 41.47
60m indoor: 6.95

TRIVIA 

♦ Gail Devers is one of the fastest female combination sprinters and hurdlers in history, as well as one of the greatest track and field athletes.

♦ Inducted to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame since 2011. The following year she was elected into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. 2013 recipient of the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award...

♦ She has grown up at Sweetwater, near National City, California and enrolled on a track scholarship graduated in 1984. Sweetwater's football and track stadium named Gail Devers Stadium following her successes.

♦ She competed five Olympics starting from 1988, consecutively.

♦ While attending UCLA, Devers’s development as a runner was huge under the coaching of Bob Kersee, who is the husband of Devers’s closest friend, Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

♦ She became seriously ill in 1988 and it took more than two years for doctors to diagnose her problem, -Graves’ disease- an autoimmune disorder that causes an overactive thyroid. She overcame illness in 1990. 

♦ She has grown her fingernails for three years, which the period symbolizes the years she has undiagnosed. 

♦ A graduate from the University of California (UCLA) with a degree in Sociology.

♦ Her father was a minister, her mother was a teacher and her elder brother was a professional bodybuilder.

♦ At the age of 10, she had decided to become an elementary school teacher. 

♦ Devers was notable for having exceptionally long, fancy-colored fingernails, which came as the result of a contest her father devised to get her to stop biting her nails as a child.

♦ Married Ron Roberts, the captain of the UCLA men's track team in 1988, divorced in 1991. Her second marriage was with American Olympic gold medalist and triple jumper, Kenny Harrison, in 1996. She has two daughters.

Book on her:
My Life in Story: Stronger by Gail Devers, Braxton Cosby

Text by Evren Özüyener