With a track world championship gold medal hanging from her neck, Georganne Moline returned home Monday to a warm welcome at Tucson International Airport from her mom, UA athletes and her longtime athletic mentor, Wildcats track coach Fred Harvey.
Moline, a UA alum and now a volunteer assistant track coach for the Wildcats, ran a sizzling 400-meter leg on the American 4-by-400-meter relay on Sunday. The U.S. quartet took the gold at the IAAF World Indoor Championships.
That moment in Birmingham, England signaled a high point for Moline, whose athletic story for the last six years has been framed by success, struggle, persistence and resurgence. Call it true grit in overcoming life’s hurdles.
“It was awesome to be part of a world championship relay team,” Moline said, noting that “it was a long time coming, with everything I’ve been through.”
Moline’s specialty is the 400-meter hurdles, which is not run indoors, so the indoor relay race was her first since college. And winning the gold medal wasn’t exactly the track and field equivalent of a slam dunk.
The four American women lined up Sunday against runners from Jamaica, Poland, Britain and other outstanding teams. The relay race, popularly known as the “4-by-400,” requires each runner to run nearly all-out for 400 meters before passing the baton to the next runner.
As the second of the four U.S. runners, Moline was cruising in first place. But with 100 meters to go, she clicked the indoor track’s low railing with her foot and stumbled. When she regained her balance, she had lost some of the lead but was still was able to finish strong, retaining the U.S. advantage. Her time for her leg of the 400 meters was 50.87 seconds, the second fastest of the American runners.
The team finished in 3:23.85, a record for the indoor championships and the second-fastest indoor time in history.
“I was lucky to be part of a great team with three fabulous women,” Moline said, referring to Quanera Hayes, Shakima Wimbley and Courtney Okolo.
Watching on a subscription-service TV broadcast from Tucson, Harvey cheered her on. Moline’s coach for the last eight years, Harvey later posted on Twitter: “As a Coach you dream of moments like this for your athletes!”
Harvey has been in Moline’s corner ever since he successfully persuaded her to run for the UA out of Phoenix’s Thunderbird High School. Moline had once considered ASU as her dream school, but soured on the Sun Devils when their coaches told her she could join the team as a walk-on.
“Looking at how she ran the hurdles mechanically,” Harvey said, “you knew” she could accomplish great things in college and beyond in the 400-meter hurdles.
Harvey not only helped Moline with her hurdling technique, but also helped her to improve her diet, physical strength, endurance and self-assurance.
Moline’s successes have come with disappointments. After an undefeated season in the 400-meter hurdles as a UA junior, she took a tumble in the NCAA championships semifinals. However, she surprised track veterans by later qualifying for the U.S. team for the 2012 Olympic Games and finishing fifth against much older runners.
Moline completed her UA eligibility in 2013 by finishing second in the 400 hurdles at NCAA nationals. Moline has continued to train under Harvey, who is nationally known as a specialist in Moline’s event. (Harvey has also coached Sage Watson, who won the NCAA championship.)
In 2016, Moline was prepped to run in the U.S. Olympic Trials when she suffered a herniated disc in her lower back that slowed her to a limp. “My back just seized,” she recalled, “I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t walk.”
In 2017, Moline suffered a stress reaction in her foot. This year, she ran successfully indoors and is ready to complete in the Diamond League professional circuit.
Harvey said the 400-meter race, with its 10 hurdles, each 30 inches high, involves both a physical and mental challenge.
At one time, Moline said, “I looked confident, but I wasn’t.”
Now, she feels self-assured and at full strength. And further down the track, she says, she has her eyes on competing in two more Olympic Games.
Her Mom, Carrie Moline, joined the welcome home on Monday and to wish her daughter a Happy Birthday. Moline turns 28 Tuesday.
