Atherley fights her way back from knee injury
Sophomore will lead Hurricanes at NCAA championship meet
CORAL GABLES — Michelle Atherley arrived at Miami eager for a fresh start, the chance to work with an Olympic-level coach exactly what she thought she needed to improve as a multi-event athlete.
Not long after, though, doctors told her the nagging pain in her right knee was serious enough that not only would her first full season as a Hurricane come to an end, there was a chance her track career was over, too.
“That’s not an option,” Atherley recalled telling her doctors and coaches.
A little more than a year later, Atherley has emerged as not only one of the most dominant athletes at Miami and a leader on the Hurricanes’ track team, but she has become an ACC champion in the heptathlon, a two-day, seven-event marathon that can push competitors to their physical limit.
This weekend, Atherley, who endured months of painful rehabilitative work and has even had to adjust how she competes, will lead a group of eight Hurricanes entrants at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Oregon.
It’s a responsibility she takes seriously — and one she is grateful to have, considering how differently things could have gone after her injury.
“Every day that I come to practice, I’m just so happy to be here,” said Atherley. “It’s
fantastic. That’s why I don’t mind doing all these events and doing everything I can for the team. I’m lucky to be able to do what I can, and if I can just enjoy it all, why not? It’s great, really.”
While some of her Hurricanes teammates have been competing in track and field for years, Atherley — who has already earned Indoor All-American honors this year — is a relative newcomer to the sport.
She grew up a gymnast and hoped to land a gymnastics scholarship until her cousin Delayna Stirling, an assistant track coach at Port Charlotte High, encouraged her to try track and round out her resume.
After her first 2-mile run, Atherley wasn’t sold on the idea. But after dabbling in other events, including the hurdles, she became hooked. And she wasn’t content to limit herself to one or two events.
Before long, her goals shifted and Atherley began to explore the option of competing in college as a multi-event athlete, even if it meant having to learn new skills, like eventually, throwing a javelin.
“We don’t have that in high school, so I had never even touched one,” she laughed.
She made an official visit to Miami and met Amy Deem, the director of the Hurricanes’ track, field and cross country programs. But Atherley ultimately decided out of high school to sign with Auburn.
There, she was the only freshman in the nation to qualify for the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships in the pentathlon. But even with her success, Atherley wondered if the program at Auburn could help her rise to the next level considering the events in which she was competing.
She transferred to Miami as a sophomore and wasted little time making an impact during the 2017 season, becoming the Hurricanes’ first indoor champion and winning the women’s pentathlon with a school record and ACC Championship record score of 4,281 points.
She had high hopes for her outdoor season, but those hopes were eventually dashed by her knee injury, one doctors told her was the result of wear and tear after years as both a gymnast and track athlete.
While the initial prognosis wasn’t good, Atherley was determined to fight back. She worked for months with Miami’s training staff and eventually stunned Deem by getting
herself in shape for the 2018 indoor season, something the veteran coach hadn’t been sure Atherley could do.
Once cleared to start competing again, Atherley took on another challenge — learning to high jump off her left leg to preserve her injured right knee.
She’d eventually put together a season-best score of 4,257 points in the women’s pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships in preparation for an outdoor season during which she’d become a force for Miami.
Last month, Atherley was named the ACC Women’s Field MVP after winning individual titles in both the heptathlon and the high jump and helping the Hurricanes win the 4x400-meter relay. She enters nationals ranked 11th in the nation in the heptathlon with a score of 5,816 points.
“It shows you how athletic she really is, to be able to win ACCs on a brand new high jump leg. She’s a remarkable athlete, she’s extremely competitive and she’s a great leader on our team,” Deem said. “She’s been a great leader from a workout example and from putting up points, but now she’s starting to take the role of being a vocal leader on the team. To have her for two more years, with what we have moving forward with the team and who we’re bringing in, I’m really excited for her and what she brings to the team. … She’s going to keep getting better and that pushes the people around her to get better.”
Ultimately, that desire to improve is part of what drives Atherley, the sophomore said. Whether she brings home a national championship or not this week, having the opportunity to compete at nationals after her injury and to inspire her teammates might be enough — for now.
Especially because she knows her journey at Miami is far from over.
“I’m going to go in and say ‘This is what I want to do. This is what I need to do’ and if I win, awesome,” Atherley said. “I expect to myself to perform in specific ways. It’s not just the big idea of winning and getting this championship. Experiencing this with my team is kind of the biggest thing for me. The winning is cool, the medals are cool, but, I like to be able to share that with my teammates and that’s probably the most impactful part of this experience, seeing myself progress eventwise and learning so much from these coaches and also sharing it with my teammates.”