Taylor Set For Athens Glory

Unlike some of America’s more well-known track athletes, Brenda Taylor ’01 has actually gotten more attention for what she has said about performance-enhancing drugs off the track than what she has actually done with them on it.

The 400-meter hurdler and former co-captain of the Harvard women’s track and field team, Taylor said that, at the 2003 U.S. championships, she thought she was the only person not to have taken the banned substance modafinil, even though it was offered to her. Taylor’s former coach, Remi Korchemny, is also one of the figures featured prominently in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal which has ensnared high-profile athletes from several major sports.

But then, Taylor—who will be making her Olympic debut tomorrow morning in Athens—has always been one to raise a few eyebrows.

Despite winning the Honda Award—presented to the nation’s best collegiate female track and field athlete—during her senior year for the Crimson, many thought Taylor’s track career was over.

“After 2001, I thought she was done,” said Taylor’s high school track coach Joel Williams of her senior year at Harvard, where she won the NCAA championship in the 400-meter hurdles. “Coming out of high school she was the number 10 in the country, but she certainly wasn’t at the very top.”

It did seem unlikely that Taylor was going to continue to pursue an Olympic career, especially after she was offered a high-level position with The Gap following her completion of the executive training program. Instead, she decided to move to Chula Vista, Calif., to train at the Olympic Training Center, in the hopes of making the Olympic team.

Thanks to the training, Taylor posted a second-place finish at the U.S. Olympic trials—where she ran a personal best 53.36—and suddenly she was on the road to Greece. Sheena Johnson, who recently graduated from UCLA, came in first with 52.95, and South Carolina senior Lashinda Demus finished third in 53.43.

The threesome ran the event faster than anyone else has in 2004, and Taylor currently sits with the sixth fastest time overall. Johnson is on top with her mark, but has never run at the international level. Australia’s Jana Pittman is the reigning world champ, and has the second fastest time with 53.22, but has recently had to recover from arthroscopic surgery on her knee.

Also a threat to Taylor’s medal hopes are Russia’s Yuliya Pechonkina and Yekaterina Bikert and Romania’s Ionela Tîrlea. Along with Johnson and Pittman, those are the only women who have run the event faster than Taylor.

“Other than the fact that I’m running 400 meters with hurdles, pretty much everything else is different,” Taylor said of the difference between the Olympics and the NCAAs. “And I’ll be cheering for my teammates because it’s better if the U.S. does well, but obviously I want to hit the finish line first.”

Of course, there were others who were more optimistic about her chances of reaching the podium.

“Brenda is highly ranked in the world, so she definitely has the talent to compete for a medal,” Marna Costanzo ’01 wrote in an e-mail. Constanzo was co-captain with Taylor at Harvard, and currently lives in South Africa. “I think her chances for a medal are excellent.”

“I wouldn’t bet against her,” Williams said.

Taylor’s most enthusiastic supporter, however will most likely be her twin sister Lindsay, who was a heptathlete at Brown.

“Imagine having the most talented, dedicated, hardest-working person, and then doubling it,” Williams said of the sister duo.

Also cheering from the sidelines will be Chris Lambert ’03, who will be running in the 200-meter dash--—in which he is reigning British national champion—and in the 4 x 100 meter relay for Great Britain. Despite the different nationalities, Taylor said she would still be rooting hard for her old Crimson teammate.

“I love Chris, I’ll definitely be cheering him on,” Taylor said. “It’s actually pretty awesome that we’re all here, and are from all over the globe.”

Should Taylor prove successful in Athens, it would certainly add to her long list of accomplishments. During her years in Cambridge, Taylor won 19 individual/relay Heps titles and has a share or owns outright 10 school records. She has also placed third at the U.S. Outdoor Championships from 2001 to 2003, and recently came in first at Mt. Sac and at Martinique.

“Brenda was, and probably still remains, an inspiration to everybody who trained and competed with her on the women’s track team,” Costanzo wrote. “So rooting for her in Athens? I will be cheering in front of the TV and taking her splits.”

Taylor begins her quest tomorrow morning at 2:04 a.m. EST. The semifinals will take place on Sunday at 2:20 p.m. EST and the finals will be held Wednesday at 2:55 EST.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.