The Force behind the storm

Since 1999, World Indoor champion Gail Devers has been busy running and promoting the Gail Devers Foundation, a non profit organization that offers help and assistance to people in need. The US champion believes her foundation is the force behind the storm, the catalyst that makes her dreams become a reality. By Tony Peters

AS if her feet do not take enough pounding during the season. "Each year," says Gail Devers, "We try to do something different. We pick an auto-immune disorder and raise money for it. This time it was diabetes and we walked to raise money. Why? I want people to feel we have done something to change their lives."

This is the story of a remarkable athlete, a competitor who is 37, who is still as hungry as the first time she decided she had had enough of her brother beating her in races when they were kids and decided to do something about it. "He used to tease me when I lost so I began to practise and it paid off," she says, delivering one of the smiles that seemed to have a constant place at the end of most of her sentences.

We are chatting in Birmingham, England, prior to one of the season’s biggest indoor meetings and she makes fascinating listening.

Devers remains one of the biggest names in track and field. Her longevity has become a trademark because while younger opponents have tried, they cannot knock this American off her pedestal as one of the greatest sprinters in the history of the sport.

Take this year. Would Devers have been the favourite to win the 60m title at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest a fortnight after Kim Geveart, of Belgium, had beaten Marion Jones?
But like she has achieved so often in her career, Devers delivered on the big stage. She won the 60m with a run full of the feistiness that has made her such a character and 48 hours later she was a matter of milli-seconds from becoming the first athlete to win the 60m and 60m Hurdles doubles at this event. This time she was beaten into second place by Perdita Felicien of Canada, but she will be back. You can bet on it.

By the time of this year’s biggest event, the Olympic Games in Athens, Devers will be ready for what is likely to be her last tilt at this competition.

She has won two Olympic titles but it is beyond standing on the podium that Devers’ name is widespread in America; her pursuits off of the track have become as established as what she has achieved on it.

In 1999, she decided it was time to give something back to the country that has supported her to gold.

She established the Gail Devers Foundation, a non-profit organisation that offers help and scholarships, educational and vocational programmes and even food and shelter to people.

The schemes are based in her hometown of Atlanta, but whatever decisions are made they are put into action by people working for her in the other places she has lived: Florida, Missouri, Los Angeles and San Diego.

"I call them enhancement centres," says Devers. "We want to make a difference in people’s lives if we can. We are there to help people and families whose lives have been troubled. We give them toys at Christmas and age does not matter. From 0-100. But I am not doing it for effect; I am doing it because I want to."

The fact that Devers, the daughter of a preacher, was able to establish herself as a world class runner, a reputation that has taken her onto this level of creating a foundation, is a miracle in itself.

Before the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, Devers discovered that she was suffering from the thyroid problem Graves Disease. She had been training in South Korea in preparation for the Olympics when she began to suffer from loss of vision, headaches, she would faint and she could not sleep.

Graves Disease was diagnosed and it almost ended her career. One of the symptoms saw her feet swell, bleed and crack and Devers even feared that they might have to be amputated.

She refused to quit, gradually making a recovery that was so spectacular that by the time of the next Olympics, four years later in Barcelona, she won a gold medal in the 100m, an event where feet move quicker than any other.

She had been given another chance; her foundation follows her lead. As she says, defiantly, on the website www.gaildeversfoundation.org:  "Throughout the years, I've realized that life can be unpredictable and a person can never really know what hurdle will fall into his or her path. From disappointing athletic performances to overwhelming health crises, I've definitely had my fair share of obstacles to overcome.

"But there's one thing I've learned during these challenging times - you can never give up or get down on yourself. A true champion keeps his or her chin up and always takes life one race at a time. This is how I keep focused on my goals and racing toward my dreams."

The motto of the Foundation is F.O.R.C.E - Focus On Respect and Commit to Excellence. "By joining forces, we can make a difference in others' lives and inspire positive change," says Devers.
Even in this Olympic year, she shows the importance that the foundation plays in her live.

As she says: "My foundation does a walk for health each year. This year we were raising money for diabetes. I lost someone very dear to me to diabetes, so I put myself on a mission. Each year my foundation picks an auto-immune disorder, and we walk for something different.

"The money that came in was just from the community, not from businesses. We didn't have business money. Our sponsors gave us in-kind contributions, like bottled water. That's what the foundation is about, the community coming together and making a difference.

"When I look at what I've accomplished during my life thus far, I realize I've been truly blessed. Now I want to share my good fortune by passing it on and helping others. Then I'll consider myself a true champion."

A true champion? Gail Devers needs to do nothing to prove that.

Published in IAAF Magazine Issue 1 - 2004