Born and raised in New York in a Jamaican family, Chelsea Hammond Ross was surrounded by the history and culture of her roots and assumed she would represent Jamaica in competition. It wasn’t until she got to the University of South Carolina that she realized anything else was possible.
Hammond Ross built two families in track and field: her Jamaican teammates and her fellow Gamecocks. Now officially the bronze medalist in the 2008 Olympic women’s long jump, she will be surrounded by both when she is one of 10 athletes receiving reallocated Olympic medals at the 2024 Games in Paris.
“It’s the backstory that makes the 2008 Olympics so extremely special, hurtful, and a lot of other feelings mixed in,” said Hammond Ross. “I changed coaches, I moved to Atlanta to train with Dwight Phillips. We then ended up going to Texas together to train with Tom Tellez.”
People were telling Hammond Ross to give up competitive athletics and move on, but she was determined to prove everybody wrong. “I knew deep down inside that I was capable of great things although no one else saw it,” she said. “Dwight saw it. Tom Tellez saw it.”
After some outstanding results in 2007, a hyperextended knee injury took her out of action. Hammond had only been training on the track for six months prior to the Olympics. In the qualifying round, she placed 12th, advancing “by the skin of my teeth,” she recalled. Prior to the medal round, an athlete was disqualified for doping, thus bumping up the athlete who was in 13th place.
“The person who wasn’t supposed to be there, knocked me out of a bronze medal,” she said.
What makes it most frustrating is that every long jumper who placed ahead of Hammond Ross has had a doping infraction before or after those Olympics.
“To me, no one clean beat me that day,” she said. “It’s a moment in time that was stolen that I can never get back…but I’m able to share this moment with my husband and my children. My kids are going to get to experience Mommy getting acknowledged for something I worked so hard for.”