Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – More than 12 years ago, Queen Harrison walked to Rector Field House for her first practice as a Virginia Tech track and field athlete.
She had arrived on the Hokies' campus just a few weeks prior as a state champion long/triple jumper, and she fully expected to compete in those events. But then-sprints coach Lawrence Johnson had her working in another discipline, the hurdles. She kept asking him, 'When do I get to jump?' and he always replied, 'Next week.'
Long story short – her career as a jumper lasted all of one meet.
"They [Tech's coaches] did the whole bait-and-switch on me," Harrison said, laughing.
Harrison wound up sticking with the hurdles, and it certainly worked out well for her. She won three national titles, made the 2008 U.S. Olympic team as a collegian and won the Bowerman Award in 2010 – an award that goes annually to the outstanding male and female track and field athlete.
Looking relaxed and happy after marrying three-time Olympic medalist Will Claye just a few weeks ago, the 30-year-old returned to campus this past weekend for Homecoming at the invitation of Dave Cianelli, the Hokies' director of track and field and cross country. He requested that she to talk to Tech's current track and field athletes at a team meeting Friday night, and she also attended the Tech-Boston College football game Saturday with members of the staff.
The occasion marked Harrison's third time speaking to the Tech track and field team since she graduated in 2010, and her brief career as a jumper was one of several stories that came up in her hourlong session with the current Hokies. She also discussed adjusting to college life as a freshman, becoming Tech's first female Olympian, how she overcame an injury to make the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Beijing in 2008, and wrapping up her career with national titles in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships – something that no other person in college track and field history ever has done.
But Harrison's most important message centered on legacy. She told the track and field student-athletes that their legacies weren't about them at all. They were about Virginia Tech and its future.
"Take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you – but not for yourself," she told the group. "I want you to think about doing that for the class of 2023, the class of 2025, the class of 2050. I want you to leave a portion of all the hard work, all the blood, sweat and tears that you put in every day … I want you to deposit a little bit of that into the legacy of Virginia Tech. Because that's what we are. All of us in this room are the legacy of Virginia Tech in one way or another.
"I want you to have in the back of your mind that, 'I'm not doing this for myself.' You never were. Maybe you thought you were, but you never were. You were doing it for the legacy of Virginia Tech. I know for me, if I'm doing something just for myself, yes, I'll give max effort, but when there is somebody that is relying on me, you go above and beyond, right? You go that extra step."
Harrison's credentials give her proverbial street cred no matter her audience, but certainly more so to those with orange and maroon ties. She arguably ranks as the best athlete ever to wear a Virginia Tech uniform in any sport, but her path to stardom wasn't easy and remaining a star hasn't been either.
Born outside of New York City, she moved to Richmond with her three older sisters at the age of 10 not long after both of her parents were incarcerated for drug-related crimes. Her sisters – she is one of her parents' nine children and her father has a total of 23 kids from previous relationships – watched out for her until her mom's release from prison following an 18-month stint (her father was released during her junior year at Tech).
Her brothers and sisters refused to go down the wrong path, and so, too, did she. Harrison became a very good athlete at Hermitage High School, pouring her energy into basketball and track and field. During the recruitment process, though, she did not necessarily attract the attention of scores of college coaches. She only took two official visits, and she once admitted she might have ended up at Hampton University had she not made the decision to come to Blacksburg.
"It just felt like home," she said. "I know that sounds corny, but it really did. It felt welcoming and also huge at the same time. I had never been to a university that was this big, so I needed to come and conquer it."
She certainly did that. On the track, she won nine ACC championships (counting relay appearances) and earned All-America honors six times. She also earned her degree, something in which she takes tremendous pride.
She readily credits both the coaching staff and Hokie Nation for helping her do both. Like many other Tech student-athletes, she needed a scholarship to be able to go to college, and Virginia Tech's donors helped make that a reality.
"Being able to get a scholarship and having such thoughtful and giving donors wasn't just an investment in me coming and being an athlete here," Harrison said. "It was really an investment in me as a person to help me become the best version of myself when I left Virginia Tech and while I was here. Yeah, it was an athletics scholarship technically, but really it was an investment in me the individual, and I'm forever appreciative of that."
Harrison also spoke to Tech's track and field teams about disappointments – and she has dealt with several. In 2012, she did not qualify for the finals in either the 100- or 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials and missed on going to the Olympics held in London. She gave up the 400-meter hurdles after that to focus solely on the 100 hurdles, but four years later at the U.S. Olympic Trials, she missed again on qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team that went to Rio de Janeiro.
The margin of that disappointment – two-hundredths of a second.
It took a long time for her to get over that race. She had trained perfectly, felt great, and ran a terrific race – and still came up short.
"It was very difficult," Harrison said. "It still is to this day. I spoke about checking off the boxes and doing everything that you can to put yourself in position to win and be successful, so when you do come short, you're always searching for the answer, 'Why now? Why did I hit a hurdle this time? Why?' So it's always difficult, but I think the ride wouldn't be as exciting if it didn't have the bumps along the way."
Harrison isn't ready to give up the goal of qualifying for another Olympic team. She continues to train and compete, with her eyes set on running at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
She will be almost 32, a time when most hurdlers start to lose some burst. Yet she feels great.
"I feel like I'm getting better with time, honestly, which is not something that happens a lot," Harrison said. "To be going into year 9 [as a professional], I just was ranked No. 8 in the world [in the 100 hurdles], which is crazy, this season, and I was dealing with a foot injury the whole time. So for me, it was a confidence builder, like a healthy Queen Harrison-Claye is going to be someone to really look out for.
"So 2020, there is no doubt in my mind that I'll be in Tokyo. I've got all the tools, the education, talent, and I'm checking off all my boxes."
She knows all too well that doing so doesn't guarantee success. But without doing so, she knows she has no shot.
That was another of many messages in which she delivered last Friday night – and the current group of Hokies would do well to heed them all.