6/27/08

For Stephanie Hightower, it was the most devastating moment of her life.

The four-time national champion in the women’s 100-meter hurdles entered the 1984 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Los Angeles as the gold medal favorite.

She was in the prime of her athletic life, the most dominant hurdler in the world, one who was further motivated as the champion of the 100-meter hurdles at the ill-fated “Trials to Nowhere” four years earlier in Eugene.

The 1980 U.S. team, of course, was forced to stay home because of the government’s decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics.