For a seventh-straight Olympics, Team USA Track and Field showed their dominance in the Women's 4x400 Relay, they haven’t given up the gold since 1996. The Tokyo team was star-studded, but come 2024, Hamden's Alexis Holmes could be the newest name to help the United States to gold.
“Because I am such a confident person on the track and in my everyday life people sometimes think that I’m cocky or that my success must have been easy to obtain or something but I'm like no…you know my journey to success has never been a straight line,” said Holmes.
Holmes shares a lot of her life on social media: workouts, outfits, hairstyles. A regular look at a day in the life of the University of Kentucky track star, filtered. But a year in the life is a different story.
“For a while I was in a really low place,” said Holmes. “I was just sad and discouraged.”
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Covid-19 canceled Holmes' sophomore season. She was looking forward to 2021 but just as the indoor season got started, a fluke ankle injury crossed that off the calendar, too. To make matters worse, not long after the injury, Holmes tested positive for Covid-19.
“It was really just accepting what happened and...what do I have to do mentally, physically, spiritually to get to a healthier place,” said Holmes.
That place would always lead back to the track. Holmes had set a world record in the U20 women’s 4x400 relay in 2019 just about two years since she got serious about running in her junior year of high school. She has her sights set on the world championships next year and Paris 2024.
Sports
Holmes may share a lot of her life on social media, but now she’s ready to share her talent with the world.
“People are kind of just like who is this girl, where's she from,” said Holmes. “But I think I have a lot of track in me...so I'm just excited to see where my career can take me.”
