Abbey Cooper spoke to Milligan’s female athletes on Nov. 4 for Milligan’s NAIA Champions of Character night. She discussed sportsmanship and faith through her experiences competing in the highest level of running.
Cooper was a member of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro USA women’s track team where she competed in the 5000-meter event. Though a stellar athlete, Cooper is best known for her extreme show of sportsmanship after a fall in the qualifiers. The incident during her qualification race for the 5000m finals for Olympic gold shaped her future, and she declared it a show of God’s grace through her.
The fall happened when New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin tripped on the inside edge of the track and took Cooper down with her. Cooper was able to get up immediately and helped Hamblin back to her feet. After Cooper stumbled again, Hamblin stopped and helped her. Both runners were able to finish the race and even advanced to the finals due to this circumstance. Unfortunately, Cooper was unable to compete in the finals because the fall tore her ACL.
The event at Milligan was mandatory for all female athletes and was held in the Gregory Center with almost every seat filled. Milligan’s Track, Field, and Cross Country Coach, Chris Layne is Cooper’s coach, and he helped organize the event.
Hannah Bell, a cross country and track senior loved the event. “It’s nice to know she wants to share her story with us.” Said Bell. “She has an awesome perspective, having raced in high school, college and professionally.”
Bell runs the 3k and 5k on track, the same as Cooper.
Cooper spoke for about an hour and told both her story and how she feels it fits into God’s bigger picture. “God has, is and will use whatever you are going through.”
“There was just this peace that washed over me,” Cooper explained. “I didn’t qualify for worlds but that was okay. I wanted to get to know this God that had helped me to experience peace.”
She also spoke about perseverance in sport after suffering a different injury every year herself over the course of her career.
“I had ‘to Him who is able’ written on my hand,” Cooper said as she remembered her fall at the Olympics. “The display of selflessness and kindness that day, that was not me. Everything happened so fast. I wasn’t thinking … that was the work of the Holy Spirit.”
She spoke about how it wasn’t her ability to make that split-second decision to help. “That desire to help, that is of God. He had prepared my heart through the years of trial and injury,” she said.
The event was specifically aimed at the college athletes because of Cooper’s superior performance while she was in school. Cooper holds the record as the most decorated athlete in Ivy League Track and Field as well as Cross Country Running.
Headline photo: Olympian Abbey Cooper speaks to Milligan’s female athletes. Photo from Milligan Athletics Website.