Simon Fraser University grad student Jennifer Johnson is getting a last chance to make her collegiate athletics career a dream come true. It was a fancy that at one stage of her university career, she felt she might not ever have again.
The 24-year-old master’s student became an All-American in long distance track for a second and third time at the NCAA Division II indoor championships last weekend after earning a first-ever honour at the national women’s cross-country championships earlier this year.
“It was extremely gratifying,” Johnson said in a telephone interview with the NOW.
To downplay the reaction of the American international student would be a disservice to what Johnson has been through over the past six years.
Recruited out of Corvallis High School as one of Oregon’s top-10 seniors in 2009, Johnson never got the thrill of competing at a national collegiate competition after a series of setbacks threatened to end a once-promising athletic career.
As a freshman at Swarthmore College, a top Division III Liberal Arts school outside of Philadelphia, Johnson suffered what was thought to be a stress fracture in her hip due to overtraining in practice prior to the cross-country season.
Later that same year, while running the lead 1,200-metre leg indoors, Johnson had to pull out of a distance relay race, when extreme pain forced her off the track.
She was diagnosed with a broken hip and operated on the following day.
Complications ensued and less than a year later, she had to have the rod implants removed prematurely. And while she returned to competition the following season, lingering problems resulting from the fracture slowed her recovery.
In 2012, Johnson graduated from Swarthmore with honours in linguistics, sociology and anthropology.
She moved to Georgetown University to study for a master’s in linguistics and was a walk-on the women’s track team.
But a sudden change in coaching and a misdiagnosed broken fibula in her very first cross-country race for the Hoyas resulted in her later being dropped from the team in a rather impersonal email.
“Being injured in my under-graduate years, I didn’t get to experience the fun and best part of being on a college team, and I very much wanted to be an All-American,” said Johnson.
Being unable to join a running club because it would jeopardize NCAA eligibility, Johnson spent the next two years training alone on the track in the hopes of one day getting a last chance.
“It was devastating,” said Johnson. “I wasn’t with the team. (Georgetown) had an incredibly talented group of women on the team, they had embraced me. But it wasn’t the best situation for me when they brought in the new coach.”
That last chance occurred when she earned an academic scholarship to SFU to continue her degree in international studies and international development.
“It’s been really rewarding to have that opportunity again. I never really wanted to end my running career on a low note,” she said. “I felt like I have overcome all the setbacks I’ve had.”
SFU head coach Britt Townsend, who had originally tried to recruit Johnson out of high school, made sure that would not be the case.
“It’s a great story,” said Townsend. “She wanted to see for herself what is possible.”
And to bring her life lessons and share those with the team was also a great benefit to the SFU program, Townsend added.
“I’m really looking for what she can do outdoors.”
After an All-American run in the Div. II women’s cross-country in January, Johnson faced one of her demons at the national indoor championships and ran the same lead leg in the distance relay, helping SFU to a second-place finish in the race that years before had almost ended her collegiate career.
Later in the meet, Johnson added a bronze medal in the women’s 3,000 metres, where she ran under the previous 30-year-old meet record in a personal-best time of 9:26.82 at the NCAA indoor championships.
“Track and field has been a huge part of my life. My athletic career has been marred by injuries and setbacks, but it has also been one of the most gratifying things I have ever pursued. ... Had I abandoned track and field before I had achieved a measure of success, I would have always wondered what could have been,” Johnson said.
“Now, every good workout I get to have is really a gift and I’m grateful for it every day.”
