Grace hoped to do better in the high jump event because she tied for second place at the 2014 Junior Olympics . She also won sixth place in 2015 .
“ After I thought about it , I realized that a lot of people would have been happy to take my sixth place spot ,” she says . “ I will definitely be back next year .”
Grace qualified for the 200-meter sprint but decided to focus on the hurdles and high jump instead . She also competed in the 80-meter hurdles and achieved a personal record of 14.52 seconds .
“ Running with the wind blowing in your face is really fun ,” she says .
Grace was inspired by watching the 2016 Olympics on television after returning home from Sacramento . Allyson Felix is her favorite runner and she won gold in the women ’ s 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays and silver in the women ’ s 400-meter sprint .
“ She ’ s very relaxed when she runs , and her reaction at the start is very good ,” Grace explains . “ She smiles at the end too , which is very nice .”
Felix ran from lane four , which is now Grace ’ s favorite starting position . She wants to improve her reaction time because she noticed that many other runners at the Junior Olympics hesitated when the starting shot was fired . “ My goal is to be the first one out of the blocks ,” she says . Grace started running when she was six years old . She was living in Texas as the time and she beat older boys in the neighborhood in several races . “ It was the first clue she had a natural running ability ,” says her mother , Yvette . Grace runs on the Wings of Moon team . Yvette says she will support her dream to compete in the Olympics , but notes that her daughter will have to put in a lot of hard work and make sacrifices . However , she won ’ t pressure her to aim for the Olympics either .
“ We will support her in the sport she loves and excels at ,” she says . “ The future is the future .” n
Moon Township | Winter 2016 | icmags . com 11