Seeking one last chance
Easton grad Price says she’s headed to Europe and unsure if she’ll make another Olympic run
Chanelle Price was on the phone earlier this week with her 8-year-old niece, Imani, whom she has not seen in six months.
Price had been in Eugene, Oregon, training for a spot on the U.S. Olympic track & field team in the 800-meter run.
The Easton graduate came up short late Sunday night at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, finishing fifth (top three qualify).
The 30-year-old Price told her niece that she would be returning to Easton in September because she was going to retire from competition.
“I shouldn’t have told her because she doesn’t forget anything,” Price said laughing. “I talk to her every day, and the other day she asked me, ‘So you’re still retiring, right?’ “I was like, ‘Oh, no!’ ”
Price now is not sure about retirement. She missed out on what she’s trained for all her life by 0.34 seconds. She turns 31 in August, but her body has additional wear and tear because she spent about five years recovering from foot problems.
The PIAA record holder and NCAA champion (while at the University of Tennessee) was back on the track Wednesday morning in Eugene, where she has been living and training for nearly two years.
On Friday morning, she is flying to Europe to continue competing, training and pacing for women’s 1,500-meter events.
Price is doing so, but unsure of what’s next.
She and her coach, Mark Rowland, talked Tuesday on the phone. He suggested she establish the qualifying standard for the 2022 World Track & Field Championships while in Europe. Next year’s world event comes to the United States for the first time — in Eugene.
Price told Rowland, a 1988 Olympic medalist, that she was going to retire.
The two then had a face-to-face, heartto-heart conversation that left Price feeling comfortable about not rushing to a decision.
“It’s not a decision that has to be forced,” she said. “I’m just going to let it happen organically. I’m going to go with my heart. I’m 50-50 right now. Every day, it changes.
“The thing about the world championships next year being here in Eugene, in the town I train in … that makes me want to continue. What a way that would be to go out.”
Price’s fourth U.S. Olympic trials were her most satisfying because of how monumentally difficult it was for her to get there.
It took multiple procedures, a proper rehabilitation and training program, and a new coach (Rowland) to get Price back on the path toward the Olympics.
The COVID-19 pandemic delaying the Tokyo Games a year was a blessing for Price. It gave her more time to train in Oregon.
Price said her body feels great, but the physical setbacks left tremendous emotional scars.
“I’m just a bit mentally and emotionally drained from how much it takes to will yourself back,” she said. “It’s something people don’t talk about.
“If I do decide that this is it for me, it would because of that. Physically, I can go until the next Olympic trials. It’s just, ‘Do I have enough mentally?’ ”
Price has competed all over the world in pursuit of her lifelong Olympic dream: Czech Republic, Mexico, Poland, Trinidad & Tobago, the Bahamas, and Costa Rica.
She moved to Phoenix in 2016 to join a group of Olympic-hopeful athletes called ALTIS. She met her boyfriend, Akeem Haynes, who ran the lead leg on the Canadian men’s 400-meter relay team that won bronze in the 2016 Olym
pics.
She pushed herself to the limit physically and emotionally for the best chance to make the Tokyo Olympics.
Price made it to her first final in her fourth Olympic trials during an oppressive heat wave in the Northwest. Last Sunday’s final was delayed several hours because of the heat, but she was not bothered by it.
“I drove the mile back home,” she said, “ate again, stayed hydrated, stayed in the AC, took a nap. Before I knew it, I was back out there.”
Price said she did not deal with nerves in the hours leading up to the Olympic trials final. Instead, she became reflective and emotional about her journey, and the many challenges she faced leading up to the biggest race of her life.
The Easton native said she was caught off guard by those thoughts but understood them because it was more than just a grind. It was her life for years.
The daughter of Harry and Yolanda Price first dealt with the emotional side of training and competition in college when foot and hamstring issues developed.
Her support system, including her parents, brother, Domenique, who also still lives in Easton, and boyfriend, have helped beyond words. The last four years of stopping and starting, competing and rehabilitating, have prevented Price from thinking about anything other than her dream.
“Another reason I may continue running is because I don’t know [what’s next],” Price said. “I was talking to my mom and she asked what was next. I told her I didn’t have the energy to think about that. I was so focused on this goal since I was a little girl to be an Olympian that I didn’t want to think about anything else.
“Now it’s time to think about it. I told my mom that I’d let you know. But I’m really not sure. It’s a little scary when you’re doing something for so long, it’s the only thing you’ve done. I’ll figure it out.”
Price was not just a scholarship track athlete at Tennessee. Multiple times she was a Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll member. She earned multiple degrees, including in journalism and electronic media.
For the moment, however, Price is proud of what she’s accomplished even though she finished fifth in a race in which five of the nine competitors set personal bests — including Athing Mu, the winner who broke a 25-year-old Olympic trials record with a time of 1:56.07. This is also is the world’s fastest time this year.
“I walked off the track smiling,” she said. “I was exhausted, my legs were burning and I had lactic acid in my eyeballs. Of course, I’m slightly disappointed because I always wanted to be an Olympian. But at the end of the day, I gave it my all.”
On Wednesday, about 60 hours after the race, Price was back running on the track in Eugene. The temperature was about 40 degrees cooler than during the Olympic trials final. Most importantly, though, she was doing what loves.
Price is unsure of what is next, but one thing was clear from the many calls and texts she received after the race.
“Imani wants her Auntie to be home,” she said. “She helps keep things in perspective. She doesn’t care if I’m an Olympian. I’m her Auntie and she loves me no matter what.
“Those things allow me to step on the line, not put so much pressure on myself and run free.”
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