Anna Hall is an Olympian.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s protégé from Greenwood Village won the final event of the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon Monday night—the 800-meter run—in two minutes 4.39 seconds—finishing 2.29 seconds ahead of runner-up Michelle Atherly.
The victory completed Hall’s comeback from knee surgery in February and means she’ll go to the Summer Olympics next month as America’s heptathlon champion with a first-place total of 6,614 points. Former Utah State star Chari Hawkins—10 years older than Hall—finished second, 160 points behind.
Hall led Hawkins by 10 points after four events on Sunday, and by only six after the first two events Monday.
“It’s been so hard,” Hall gasped on national television when interviewed after the race. “Getting here has been so much harder that I imagined it would be.”
Hall did not compete for more than three months following surgery at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail.
Starting in Lane 8, one row from the outside, Hall matched Atherly stride-for-stride in the early going then pulled away about halfway through the half-mile run.
After collapsing on the track upon crossing the finish line, as she always does, she tearfully hugged her three sisters at trackside then shared an embrace with her mother and father.
In the stands was Joyner-Kersee, beaming broadly.
“It meant the world to me,” Hall said when asked about having the support of the greatest heptathlete in history. “She told me, ‘I’m going to call you every day. I’m behind you. You can do this.’ I thought, ‘I need to be strong for her.’”
In her other events, Hall won the high jump and her heat of the 200-meter dash, was third in the shot put and javelin throw and fifth in the long jump but did not place in the 100-meter hurdles.