THE CANADIAN PRESS
BEIJING — Priscilla Lopes-Schliep drove hard to the finish — leaning with all her might — and in that split second, she raced out of the shadows for good.
The unheralded athlete from Whitby, Ont., won bronze in the women’s 100-metre hurdles at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, capturing Canada’s first Olympic track and field medal in 12 years in a thrilling performance that perhaps changed the pecking order in Canada’s crowded hurdling scene.
"Everybody overlooked this girl," said Anthony McCleary, her coach since she was 16. "I just told her `You’re on the back burner, you are the dark horse, step out into the light, change it all."’
Lopes-Schliep, who has long raced in the shadow of the best hurdlers in the world including injured teammate Perdita Felicien, had hoped to play spoiler in the Olympic final after coming into Beijing ranked ninth in the world.
In fact, all three medallists were considered underdogs, helped to the podium when favourite Lolo Jones of the U.S. caught her foot on the second-to-last hurdle.
As Jones lost all her momentum, American Dawn Harper drove past her to win gold, Australian Sally McLellan taking the silver and Lopes-Schliep the bronze.
"We were the underdogs, nobody expected anything out of all three of us," said Lopes-Schliep, a bright grin stretched across her face. "And for us to go out there and place 1, 2, 3 and prove to the world that we are here and we are competitors, it’s such an exciting feeling.
"I feel like I’ve jumped out of my body, and gone to heaven and back. This is a dream that’s become a reality of mine."
Twelve years after Canada captured its last track and field medal — a pair of golds from Donovan Bailey in the 100 metres and the men’s 4×100-metre relay in Atlanta — it would be several more minutes before Lopes-Schliep officially earned hers.
Just two one-hundredths of a second separated second through sixth place, and the hurdlers had to wait for the final results as the words "photo finish" flashed on the screen at the 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium.
McLellan and Lopes-Schliep were both timed in 12.64, while American Damu Cherry, in fourth, and Jamaica’s Delloreen Ennis-London in fifth, crossed in 12.65.
"It was so close from my angle I couldn’t really tell," said husband Bronsen Schliep, who was sitting in the stands with McCleary, clad in a red T-shirt with his wife’s photo displayed on the front. "It just started flashing `photo finish, photo finish, photo finish’ for what seemed like about 10 days.
"Once her name popped up, I went just ecstatic," added Bronsen, a six-foot-eight former University of Nebraska Cornhuskers basketball player. "This is the pinnacle of sports. To be an Olympic medallist, that’s more impressive than a Super Bowl ring."
After the results were posted, Lopes-Schliep and McLellan turned and embraced, screaming hysterically.
"She was the first person I saw," McLellan said. "There were no words, just screams, but we knew what we were saying to each other in those screams."
Lopes-Schliep, who turns 26 on Aug. 26th, then draped herself in a huge Canadian flag and jogged a victory lap, slowing when she reached the spot where her husband and coach were seated.
"I knew they were on the sixth hurdle, so when I ran around the track and got to that sixth hurdle mark I was looking around for them and they were just swinging the Canadian flag back and forth," she said. "They were so ecstatic, so happy."
Lopes-Schliep was one of three Canadian women’s hurdlers at the Olympics four years ago in Athens but, coming off a tiring NCAA season at Nebraska, she didn’t get out the preliminary round.
Felicien was favoured to win gold, but her Games came to a disastrous end when she crashed into the first hurdle. Angela Whyte of Edmonton went on to finish sixth.
Felicien had to bow out of Beijing with a stress fracture in her foot while Whyte was eliminated here in the opening round, leaving Lopes-Schliep alone in the spotlight.
That’s exactly where she belongs, according to McCleary.
"A lot of people didn’t think she could do it, a lot of people didn’t think she should have been here in the first place, but she actually went out there and proved the whole world wrong," said the coach from Pickering, Ont. "My thing to her when we got here was: `There’s three cookies in the jar, just get one.’
"That’s all I said to her."
Lopes-Schliep started out in track as a sprinter, and wanted nothing to do with the hurdles. She finally gave in after pestering from a high school coach.
"He said, ‘Run over the hurdles,’ and I said, ‘Are you crazy? No way.’ I did it," Lopes-Schliep said. "The second time I went over the hurdles I wiped out so hard, I took off the first layer of epidermis on my left shoulder. But I was like, ‘I don’t care — I want to hurdle now.’ I had the taste for it."
The hurdles final ended a busy day for Canada at the track. Megan Metcalfe of Edmonton advanced to the final of the women’s 5,000 metres while Tabia Charles of Pickering, Ont., made the final in the women’s long jump.
The 26-year-old Metcalfe knocked nearly four seconds off her best time, running 15 minutes 11.23 seconds to finish eighth in her preliminary round and 12th overall.
"It’s a good place to run a p.b.," said Metcalfe, whose previous best was 15:15.73. "It’s a dream come true. That was my big goal to make the final, and hopefully crack top 12, and get a little more experience, and just belong with these girls. I believe I belong now."
Charles, from Pickering, Ont., jumped 6.61 metres in morning’s qualifying round morning to earn a spot among the top 12 in Friday’s final.
"Making it to top 12, oh my goodness, my goal this year was to make it here, so this is amazing to make it to the final," said Charles. "I was comfortable with 6.61 metres, I thought that would get me through."
Ruky Abdulai of Coquitlam, B.C., a native of Ghana who obtained her Canadian citizenship in January, jumped 6.41 but didn’t advance.
Jared Connaughton of New Haven, P.E.I., was eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s 200 metres. The 23-year-old finished seventh in his semi in 20.58.
"It was tough. It’s so late in the night, you really have to control your emotions throughout the day, but I feel like I put in a pretty good effort," Connaughton said after the 9:30 p.m. race. "I’m not pleased with the time but I think ultimately I learned a lot."
Adrienne Power of Halifax was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the women’s 200 metres. The 26-year-old was sixth in her heat in 23.51.
"It’s super exciting, you walk into the stadium and it’s hard not to be in awe of almost every seat being sat in," Power said. "I sort of zapped when I came in, because I hadn’t been in the stadium, and walking in the stadium for the first time for the heats (earlier Tuesday), I was completely freaked out."
