If you didn't hear the absolute horrible news this past week you must have not been awake or care that much about T&F. This past weekend in front of his home crowd, at his final regular season meet, of his final high school season T.C.Williams superstar Josephus Lyles went down. He hit the track and the crowd went silent. He even had to be carted off of the track due to his injury.
It was the worst news of the week and heart wrenching to say the least. Especially considering the fact that he is the twice defending 400m outdoor national champion, chasing the state record in the 400 and just a few fractions of a second away from hitting the Olympic A standard.
The injury and any injury are hard to stomach but they are inevitably part of our sport. This injury in particular conjures up memories of the last horrible injury and it happened almost 10 years ago to the day (5/12/06). That injury of course is when Fracena McCorory pulled up with a hamstring injury in the 100m dash at the Southern Track Classic.
Just like with Josephus, we are talking about an absolute superstar. She had just run 51.9 indoors on a flat track and 36.96 in the 300 the season before. She had already won 20 state titles and was going for 23... until this happened.
That injury really cost her a lot and it wasn't just state championships. She was a lock to win national titles and shatter state records. She set the state record of 23.22 in the 200 the year before and likely would have gone sub 23 had it not been for that injury. She would have also shattered the state 400 record by two or three seconds also. It was really an unfortunate end to a dominant career.
It is unfair that this happened when it did to Josephus. He, just like Francena, was on his victory lap. He had the state and national titles and now it was just about enjoying the stardom and preparing for college and future Olympics.
He, just like Francena, was not too big of a star to joke and take pictures with other athletes who may have tried to act like they weren't star struck but we all know they were. He is still though going to be seen at many meets cheering on his older brother Noah and Titan teammates like he always has.
But for all of these scary comparisons between these two athletes ten years apart, there is one great comparison that we hope to make in a couple years. This injury 100% helped Francena. It refocused her and made her stronger. The training she did after her injury and into college shaped her into an athlete built for the long haul.
She wasn't training for the next day but for the next Olympics. In 2010 (4 years after her injury) she won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles. In 2012 she made the Olympic finals in the 400 and ran on a winning 4x400 relay that came very close to a World Record. She then in 2014 reached the mountain top by winning the 400m indoor world title.
She isn't done though, just like Josephus, she is the future of the 400 for our country and each day she is getting better and training through everything that gets thrown her way.
VA is the 400 state and when Josephus returns from this injury you won't have to see his name on top of the high school record list to know who the best 400 runner our state ever had was.