I feel glorious, glorious
Got a chance to start again
I was born for this, born for this
It’s who I am, how could I forget?
— from “Glorious” by rapper Macklemore
Allison Halverson didn’t feel glorious when she learned last month that she wouldn’t compete in the women’s 100-meter dash at the Paris Olympics.
In June, the former Mission Valley resident was told she’d represent her mother’s ancestral home of Armenia as a “universality” entry.
But then her spot went to a male middle-distance runner.
Halverson, an SDSU graduate who 10 years ago was NCAA runner-up in the heptathlon (competing as Allison Reaser), had spent years jumping through hoops to change her national affiliation from American to Armenian. (She has dual citizenship.)
She’d hoped to do the seven-event grind at the 2021 Tokyo Games — qualified via world rankings. But she was hampered by a foot injury incurred during a hurdle race at the Mt. SAC Relays.
In July 2021, she said on Facebook: “I thought I’d go to Tokyo this year, I thought I’d retire after this year, and I thought Nic and I would start a family after the Olympics this year… luckily for me, the Lord hears my plans but he plots my steps and knows what’s best for me. … God will open and close the right doors for me to prosper for His glory and not my own. But one thing is for sure! I didn’t get this far just to get this far!”
Foot-dragging by the sport’s global governing body on her appeal to represent Armenia didn’t help.
Inspired and guided by her Aztecs coach, two-time heptathlon Olympian Shelia Burrell, Halverson soldiered on to 2024. But this time she’d try to qualify in the 400-meter hurdles.
When her best time didn’t meet Paris standards or rankings, she hoped Armenian track officials would slot her in the 100 — where nations without track-and-field qualifiers are allowed a single entry.
Yet after hopeful words from long jump legend Robert Emmiyan, president of that former Soviet republic’s track federation, the rug was pulled. No Paris for Halverson.
I got a new attitude and a lease on life
And some peace of mind
Seek and I find I can sleep when I die
Wanna piece of the pie, grab the keys to the ride
During this summer’s emotional roller coaster, Halverson spotted a meet announcement on Instagram for the “inaugural Women’s Decathlon World Championships.”
“I wouldn’t let my mind go to the fact like, you know, if I don’t get this Olympics, I’ll do this,” she said in a phone interview Thursday on her way home to a suburb of Austin, Texas.
But when that Olympics slammed shut in early July, she opened herself to joining the women’s decathlon Aug. 3-4 in Geneva, Ohio — 3,900 miles away from the Stade de France.
So last weekend, in hot and humid conditions at the Spire Institute, Halverson at age 31 did the same events as the men in Paris (with shorter hurdles and lighter throwing gear as per usual).
And she triumphed.
She defeated 28 other elite women from a dozen countries — the only one to break 7,000 points. (Runner-up to her 7236 score was Roseva Bidois, 24, of France with 6962.)
“It was definitely the perfect opportunity at the right place, right time because I had all this fitness and I’m never going to be as fit again in my life,” she said.
A mother of 2-year-old son Beau Bubba with her husband Nic, CEO of Occuspace, Halverson added: “I’m just gonna get older. I’m gonna have another baby. … I want to use all this fitness I’ve had for the past two years.”
I’m on my wave, I’m on my wave
Get out my wake, I’m running late, what can I say?
I heard you die twice, once when they bury you in the grave
And the second time is the last time that somebody mentions your name
Allison Halverson knew the name of her sporting challenge from an early age: the “multis” — sometimes called combined events.
At El Segundo High School in 2008, the lefty set eight school records and was ranked the No. 5 prep heptathlete in the nation — recruited by 60 universities.
At San Diego State, Halverson was a teammate of triple jumper Shanieka Thomas, who as Shanieka Ricketts won the silver medal last week at the Paris Games.
She ended her Aztecs career as a nine-time Mountain West Conference champion (five indoor titles, four outdoor titles) with two school records.
But the Olympics beckoned.
As detailed here, Halverson made herculean efforts to represent Armenia on the world stage. She finally wore that nation’s blue uniform internationally at least four times — including last weekend in northeast Ohio.
She was warmly greeted by the Armenian public — with media in that southwest Asian nation hailing her as their hope in Paris.
“I did this because I wanted to represent Armenia,” she said. “Just a few Armenians … weren’t really on my side, but I still love Armenia and I was proud to represent them at that World [Decathlon] Championship.”
She had set an Armenian national record in the 400-meter hurdles and wore their “kit” at several major meets.
How and why she lost the universality spot to Armenian runner Yervand Mkrtchyan is unclear, however. Armenian track officials and the International Olympic Committee didn’t respond to my queries.
But Halverson told me of her summer travails and also detailed them in Facebook posts.
On June 10, former Soviet jumper Emmiyan called her and said: “Allison, I pushed for you.’ … like ‘your name is in’ or something.”
She replied: “Oh, is this good news?”
He replied: “Yes, it’s good news. You can tell your family.”
But Halverson learned that Emmiyan, at a European meet, “told everybody that I’m going” to Paris — sparking dismay among other athletes.
Two weeks later, Armenian media reported that Halverson “received the right to participate in the Paris Olympic Games with a [wild] card.”
But the same story said that Emmiyan told NEWS.am Sport, that the “likely candidate to go to Paris-2024 is the runner Yervand Mkrtchyan … if Armenia is allowed to participate in the 1500-meter race.”
Emmiyan denied a statement made by another outlet that Halverson would run in the 100-meter dash preliminary round — where the top finishers advance to Round 1 with the regular qualifiers.
He said said another female sprinter, Gayane Chiloyan, had a higher world ranking than Halverson.
(Triple jumper Levon Aghasyan had the highest world ranking among Armenian track athletes but was hobbled by injuries, the story said.)
Amid these conflicting reports, Halverson on June 26 messaged officials right away.
“I said: How do you know and they said, ‘Oh, Armenian Olympic Committee and Ministry of Sport announced it today,’ and I said, ‘Oh, do you have it in writing?’ They said: ‘No, but you can go ask [the] Armenian Federation.”
Despite seeing another story that the Armenian Olympic Committee website listed her and two Armenian swimmers as headed to Paris, she never heard back.
Six hours later, Emmiyan phoned her.
“Oh, maybe he’s calling to congratulate me,” Halverson recalls, despite worries. “I didn’t want to post anything or share anything” until final national rosters were posted July 2.
Emmiyan told her: “Allison, we have a problem. …. You’re getting switched” for Mkrtchyan, who would take last in a Paris 800-meter heat and advance automatically to the repechage round (where he took eighth in a heat).
(In his first race, Mkrtchyan set a national record of 1:49.91 — a time that wouldn’t rank among the top 30 times in California high school history.)
So with Paris hopes shattered, Halverson switched her focus to the women’s decathlon 1,200 miles away in Ohio.
I made it through the darkest part of the night
And now I see the sunrise
Now I feel glorious, glorious
I feel glorious, glorious
She had only three weeks to learn two new events — the discus and pole vault.
Fortunately, Halverson’s neighbors include her friend Amy Acuff, a high jump Olympian married to pole vaulter Tye Harvey — a world indoor silver medalist with a best of 19 feet 5 inches.
Four times in two weeks, Harvey showed Halverson the ropes. She started at 6 feet and progressed to 8-6 — “the higher the bar went, the more you had to be upside down. I did not know how to do that.”
She also practiced discus nearly every day — using a beginner’s technique instead of taking one to 1 1/2 spins around the ring.
On Day 1 at the Spire Institute, Halverson opened with a personal best 11.92 in the 100-meter dash — a women’s world record in the decathlon. The time would have advanced her to Round 1 of the Paris 100 — with the likes of Sha’Carri Richardson and gold medalist Julien Alfred.
She followed that with a first-place long jump of 5.88 meters — 19-3 1/2. (Her collegiate best was 6.22 — 20-5.)
Then came her 8.8-pound shot put of 11.94 — 39-2 1/4.
In the high jump, the 5-7 Halverson tied for fourth with a clearance of 1.64 (5-4 1/2) — equalling her collegiate best of a decade ago.
And in Saturday’s last event, the 400-meter dash, she clocked 55.86 — almost two seconds ahead of runner-up Maria Sartin of New Zealand. Halverson’s best at SDSU was 57.25.
Halverson’s older sister from New York baby-sat Beau, and husband Nic led the cheerleading.
But on Sunday, she woke up thinking she was really sick.
“Like I was very dehydrated,” she said. But after being advised to “put a bunch of electrolytes in water,” she drank and “instantly felt better.” She added ibuprofen, “which I never really take.”
Day 2 began with a specialty — the 100-meter hurdles, part of the heptathlon. Her winning mark of 13.87 was an Armenian national record. (At SDSU, she did 13.30.)
Between events, with half-hour rest allowed, she took a cold shower – “I’ll take less warmup time because I need to feel awake and I need to feel refreshed,” she said.
In the discus, she threw 24.47 — 80-3 1/2. That was short of her practice best of 92 feet but not bad considering she hadn’t tossed the 2.2-pound plate since high school.
In the pole vault, Halverson pushed the pole down the runway instead of carrying it. She upped her best to 2.73 — 8-11 1/2 — also an Armenian national record.
And in the javelin, she stuck second place with a mark of 37.13 — 121-10 — only 10 feet off her collegiate best at the 2012 NCAA championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
Finally the 1500.
Only a football field short of a mile, the race is the bane of most male decathletes.
For Halverson, not so bad. Only 28 months earlier, in giving birth, she required a blood transfusion after hemorrhaging and fainting. “I was rushed to the hospital,” she wrote.
She called the metric mile “actually easy,” having trained for it amid her quarter-mile hurdles fitness. “I’m shooting for like 5-flat pace. … like 20-second 100s are super easy for me.”
Her time of 5:18.08 took sixth — equivalent to a 5:41 mile.
Her 7236 score was an Armenian women’s decathlon record, of course. (The American record is Jordan Gray’s 8246 points, just behind the world record 8358 by Austra Skujyte of Lithuania in 2005.)
She popped a bottle of bubbly and displayed the Armenian flag.
While Norway’s Markus Rooth took home the Olympic decathlon gold medal (plus at least $50,000 in prize money), Halverson got a swag bag and pocketed $500 from organizers to defray travel expenses in their trailer (four days to Ohio and four days back).
She also collected a “really cool” epoxy trophy made by dec record holder Gray.
But her biggest prize was taking part in what event organizers labeled “a call to action for the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics to embrace inclusivity.”
The event site elaborated:
As men line up at the start for the Decathlon at the Paris 2024 Olympics, an inequity persists: women are still barred from competing in this iconic event which crowns the world’s greatest athlete. We’re done waiting for permission to compete – we’re organizing our own competition. … It is a statement of solidarity with every female athlete striving for recognition and the opportunity to compete on the world stage.
It’s unlikely that the decathlon will replace the heptathlon at LA 2028. But Brisbane 2032 looms.
After all, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics saw the first women’s marathon. On the track, the 400-meter women’s hurdles debuted. (But the longest women’s track race that year was 3,000 meters — the just-under-2-mile race in which Mary Decker Slaney was tripped by barefoot South African Zola Budd. Women now run the 5000 and 10,000.)
Halverson says she lost 6 pounds amid stress over Paris. By the time she competed in Ohio, she was at her collegiate weight of 135 pounds.
“I think that’s God helping me, like: Lose some weight so you can do this decathlon,” she said.
Bottom line: “It ended up like I’m OK with not being an Olympian. My name’s in history now and I can actually have a legacy, and I really believe women should have decathlon — after doing one. Like we can do it.”
I said amen and hallelujah, let me testify too
Another morning, a morning, don’t let self get in my way
I got my breath, I got my faith and I remember why I came
I feel glorious, glorious
Got a chance to start again
— from music used in Halverson’s Instagram post