The Queen of Adversity

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Welcome back! Today’s edition features the “queen of adversity”.

She overcame a would-be career-ending surgery and the death of her mother to reach the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Now she’s turning tragedy into triumph on her sport’s biggest stage.

Let’s dive in 👇

How McKenzie Long Overcame Potential Career-Ending Injuries & The Sudden Death of a Loved One to Become an Olympian

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90 minutes.

If 90 minutes is all you had to completely change your life, could you do it? 

McKenzie Long could. And did.

The electric sprinter won three races in an hour and a half in her last college track meet: the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4x100-meter relay.

In the process, Long became one of only six women in NCAA history to complete the sprint “triple”.

To top it all off, she turned around and qualified for her first Olympics in the 200-meter dash later that same month.

Both are monumental, life-changing events. Especially in a sport where many never win a race on the biggest stages, not to mention three races.

Or get the chance to represent their country on the most important stage of all, the Summer Olympics.

But Long’s life had already changed drastically months before her college and Olympic Trial triumphs.

She’s gone from constantly injured, having hip surgery that took her away from the sport for a year, to suddenly losing her mother in February, to 3x NCAA champion and now Olympian – all by 24 years old.

Long has two master’s degrees to accompany her long list of achievements, but she’s truly mastered the art of perseverance.

McKenzie's journey onto the track circuit started in recess as a kid. She discovered she was fast racing against other boys and girls at her school.

Hailing from Ironton, Ohio – a town of 10,571 people on the Ohio River – Long started running track at Ironton Middle School.

She took to it quickly, winning the 200-meter race at the state meet in the eighth grade. Even though the family moved to Columbus, Ohio before her freshman year of high school, she didn’t lose touch with her winning ways.

While at Pickerington High School Central, she set records for the 60-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter races that still stand.

Long ended her high school career as a 2x AAU Nationals All-American in 2017 and was the runner-up in Ohio’s AAA state outdoor 100-meter and 200-meter races.

Smooth sailing mostly for her up to this point, until she enrolled at NC State in 2018.

"I did undergrad all 4 years. I was constantly hurt. Battling with shin injuries, groin pain, I had a pelvic stress fracture. I was always hurt at NC State."

She was still fast though.

Her best performances while at NC State came at the Raleigh Relays in 2019 where she won gold in the 200 meters at 23.58 seconds.

And at the Virginia Challenge in 2022 where she ran 11.49 seconds in the 100 meters, the third fastest time in school history.

But she wasn’t quite able to translate all the potential she showed in high school into consistent success on the track.

While at NC State, Long never won an ACC Championship or advanced to the NCAA Championships.

And then she hit her first major hurdle.

McKenzie suffered a severe hip injury in 2021. So severe that she was evaluated for a hip replacement.

She ended up having hip surgery which forced her to miss the entire 2021 outdoor season and 2022 indoor season.

While recovering from her injury and hit in confidence, Long decided a change needed to happen.

“My coach was a big fan of me leaving; he told me to go find somewhere where I would be able to grow and become the McKenzie Long he knew I would be able to be.”

So she transferred to Ole Miss as a graduate student after the 2022 outdoor season.

She never missed a beat with her education, by the way.

McKenzie earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and one in Communications from NC State. She added a master’s in Criminal Justice in August 2023 and is working towards a master’s in Public Health at Ole Miss.

Recovery from the hip surgery took 12 grueling months of rehab, including pool workouts and cross-training. But once she stepped back onto the track, McKenzie ran with a new energy.

She put the college world on notice in the spring of 2023 at the Texas Relays. Her time of 10.80 seconds in the 100 meters was almost a full second faster than her previous years.

She also became one of seven women worldwide to run at or below 11 seconds in the 100-meter dash that year.

That includes professional sprinters as well as collegiate ones.

McKenzie won the SEC title in the 200-meter Outdoor Championships and had her best showing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She won silver in the 200 meters but only finished ninth in the 100 meters.

She'd started to build momentum towards maximizing her potential but was falling just short.

But she never stopped believing in herself. Thanks in part to her biggest cheerleader, her mom Tara Jones.

Jones was a psychiatric travel nurse in Hawaii and was very close to her daughter McKenzie. The two talked almost daily and McKenzie would fly to Hawaii to spend time with her mom during school breaks.

In December 2023, she talked to her mom about the possibility of making the upcoming Olympic team.

“That’s all we talked about…She always said be McKenzie Long, be who you are and who God raised you to be and everything will happen and fall into place. Ride the wave of life.”

But Long’s wave was about to crash in a tragic way.

In February, her mother passed away from a heart attack. The 45-year-old went to sleep one night and never woke up the next morning.

Her death couldn’t have come at a worse time, with the indoor season for track already underway.

It would’ve been easy to understand if McKenzie decided to step away from the track.

Or push through to still compete, but not run at her best due to her devastating loss.

Instead, she dedicated the rest of the season to her mom and put on the best performances of her career.

“Constantly getting second place last year, I was like, ‘Come on!’ But I don't think I was able to tap into this version of myself yet. I think losing my mom… That's when I was able to come into myself more and just really focus on things … I was able to zone in on that more this year. So I think that's really what created this momentum.”

She broke down from the grief of her mom’s death during an indoor invitational meet early in the season.

But right after that, McKenzie used her new perspective to fuel her.

She placed second in the 200-meter dash at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships. And she was just getting warmed up for her strong suit: outdoor track meets.

At the SEC Outdoor Championships, Long became the second woman in 10 years to win the 200-meter dash in back-to-back years. Then came her astounding performance in June at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships.

“Last year I didn't win anything, so I wanted to come in this year and win it all. That was the main objective, that was the main goal.”

And win it all she did.

She ran the second fastest time in collegiate history in the 200 meters at 21.58, ran the 10th fastest 100-meter race in collegiate history at 10.82, and led the Ole Miss 4x100 meter relay to the school’s first outdoor relay title.

Her gold medal performances earned 22.5 points out of the 38 total team points Ole Miss scored at the meet. That helped big in securing their best finish as a team in school history.

But her biggest accomplishment to date came three weeks later. On June 29th at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Long finished third in the 200-meter final.

Some claim it’s harder to race in the U.S. Olympic Trials than in the actual Olympics.

She capped off an incredible several months of racing by qualifying for her first Olympics. McKenzie will be one of three women representing the U.S. in the 200-meter race in Paris.

This is all after dealing with a devastating hip injury and surgery.

Her doctor had told her it’s very rare sprinters come back from that type of surgery.

And it’s all after the tragic death of her mom at the beginning of the track season.

Her close companion who she keeps alive by talking to in the stands before races and listening to her mom’s workout playlist.

McKenzie Long hopes to be a beacon of shining light to others dealing with tragedy.

She looks to continue her success in Paris and beyond now that she’s turned professional.

"I would tell them to dream big. You know, I'm the queen of adversity. I overcame hip surgery. I'm overcoming my mom passing three months ago, so anything's possible as long as you put your mind to it. Winners dream big. Don't fall short."

🐶 

Today’s story was written by the incredible Rodney Reeves. If you’ve got a friend who’d enjoy it, why not share it with them?

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Tune in next week for the story of a D3 football alum who became a $80 million man.

Til next time,
Tyler

Extra Innings…

👀 In case you missed it: Shane Van Boening was a teenage pool hustler. But one day, he messed with the wrong guy. Here's how he became the #1 pool player on Earth.

🏅 “No legs, no limits.” Kanya Sesser just set a jaw-dropping world record.

🫶 My favorite reader reply from last week: “Such a cool and inspiring story…Thanks for the time you spend putting this out there for us to enjoy.”