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It's a small world
Debbie Ferguson won a silver medal at the 1996 Olympics as part of the Bahamas' 400-meter relay team. She enjoyed a record-setting collegiate career at the University of Georgia where she was a 19-time All-American, a four-time NCAA champion and broke Gwen Torrence's school records in the 100 and 200 meters. Debbie is now training for Sydney, where she plans to compete in the 400 relay, 100 and 200 meters. Check out her diary every two weeks on CNNSI.com.
May 29, 2000
Welcome to Debbie's world. I once had that greeting on my answering machine and thought it would be an appropriate way to introduce myself to you. So welcome to my world.
I'll be writing to you in the coming weeks and months leading up to the Olympics in Sydney. Even though the Games are still more than three months away, they will be here before you know it. In the coming weeks I hope to give you some insight into my journey to Sydney. I thought I'd start by telling you a little about who Debbie Ferguson is. I started training for track when I was 10 years old, and it was a trip to Cuba for the Youth Central American and Caribbean Games that really sparked everything. That trip was the first time I had traveled out of the Bahamas, so I got a chance to see what life was like there. Not a lot of athletes or anyone else for that matter can say they have been to Cuba because it is a communist country. It was there I realized that if I trained hard I could have a chance to travel the world over.
In Cuba, one of the things that stood out to me was the poverty. I felt sorry for the athletes. I met a young Cuban lady there, and I tried to give her $10. She said no. Even though she could have used the money, she knew if she took it she would have gotten in trouble with the government.
For me as a child, that trip was a huge experience for me. It changed my life in the way that I looked at and treated other people. Whenever I thought I had it bad, I realized that there are people in the world that had it worse off than me.
After the memorable trip to Cuba I started traveling and competing throughout the Caribbean -- places like Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados. Then in 1992, I had one of the biggest trips of life when I traveled to the site of the 1988 Olympics -- Seoul, Korea. Just seeing places other than the Bahamas opened my eyes. I had learned about these places in geography in high school but I never thought I would ever get to see them.
At the Junior World Championships in Seoul, I met people like Marion Jones and Ato Boldon. A lot of the junior athletes back then are famous now. It seems like all the people I met at juniors grew up to be superstar athletes.
I really didn't start to shine until I got to college. That was my chance. I was the first person on my mom's side of the family to attend college. It was there where I started to crank it up and get things done. If I could sum it all up in one word it would be magnificent.
When I came to the University of Georgia as a freshman, I didn't know what it meant to qualify for NCAAs, but in my very first meet, I qualified. Everybody told me that I should be more excited that I qualified. Here I was in college and I was beating people that once beat me at Junior Worlds. With what my coaches and teammates were telling me and what I saw myself doing on the track, that's when I first realized, "Girl, you've got some talent. You can do this."
I started focusing more on my training and later in my freshman year, I broke Gwen Torrence's school record in the 100 meters. Everybody knows Gwen Torrence is the bomb. When I first came to Georgia and saw Gwen Torrence's school record in the 200 was 22.35, I couldn't believe she ran that in college. My personal best was 23.32 when I came in. I got her 100 record my freshman year and got her 200 record my senior year.
Over the years, I've grown to believe that you can do anything you want to do if you work hard. Being one of first in my family to graduate from college was a big accomplishment. It wasn't easy being a student and it wasn't easy being a student-athlete. For me, academics has always been first and then track, but I've used them hand-in-hand to take me places.
After graduating last year, I went home to the Bahamas during the fall, but returned to Athens in January. One of my goals is to attend medical school, so I have been reviewing to take my MCAT while training for Sydney. One of the things I try to have in my life is balance. When I have a lot of things going on I function better.
Right now in my training I am focusing on some of the things I haven't focused as much on in the past. I'm trying to maintain a stricter diet. I'm trying to get stronger in the weight room, but at the same time lower my body weight. I'm working on a lot of technical and finer aspects of my form, especially my starts. I bought a camcorder and have been recording my practices and breaking them down, looking for things I'm doing right and wrong. It's a lot of different things to consider.
I'm trying to keep my mind on Sydney and doing my best. Right now it's still a little difficult because I don't have a training partner and I haven't started competing. My first meet will be June 7 in Italy. I plan on competing in the 100 and 200 later at the Olympic trials.
I'm really looking forward to Sydney. It will be my first trip there. The 1996 Games were a learning experience for me. I was somewhat in awe of all of the other athletes competing. Even though I was used to seeing them on TV and in the media, I couldn't believe I was running with them. I was more intimidated by their presence, but the more I ran with them the more confidence I gained. It gets better with time.
As you can tell, track has been very significant in my life. At the end of the road, I will have lots of different stories from all of my travels. If it wasn't for track and field, I probably would still be in the Bahamas doing who knows what. I'm really thankful for all of the experiences I've had, and they have made Debbie Ferguson who she is.
People think the world is huge, but it's not at all. When I think about all the places I've been, people I've met and things I've done, I am reminded that's it's a small world.
It truly is a small world after all.
-- Debbie
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