{"id":2861,"date":"2012-08-07T22:40:46","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T02:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=2861"},"modified":"2012-08-08T01:25:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T05:25:36","slug":"u-s-olympian-dawn-harper-takes-silver-in-spectacular-100-meter-hurdles-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/08\/u-s-olympian-dawn-harper-takes-silver-in-spectacular-100-meter-hurdles-final.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Olympian Dawn Harper takes silver in spectacular 100-meter hurdles final"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Dawn Harper (Photo by Mitchell Haaseth\/Courtesy NBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dawn Harper shocked the world with a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still, she entered the 2012 Games with minimal hype for a defending champion. Much of the attention in the U.S., was still going to teammate Lolo Jones while the international press focused on Australia’s Sally Pearson.<\/p>\n

Add American standout Kellie Wells into the mix and you had the makings of one of the best races of the Games. And these women did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

In a photo finish, Pearson barely edged out Harper for the gold. In fact, Pearson set a new Olympic record of 12.35 but was just .02 ahead of Harper’s 12.37. Kellie Wells finished third with 12.48 while Jones was left off the podium again (she stumbled to a seventh place finish in 2008) with a solid time of 12.58. All three American runners have publicly confessed their Christian faith.<\/p>\n

At first, Harper seemed disappointed with the result. But once she was interviewed, her appreciation for what she had accomplished started to kick in. It shouldn’t be a surprise to those who know Harper best. As she stated in an Inspiring Athletes interview earlier this summer, since recovering from a knee surgery back in 2008, her purpose for running has always been greater than winning medals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is another plan for me that I may not see for myself,” she said. “I\u2019m supposed to reach out to other people and show them what God can do because of what He\u2019s done through me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more of that interview from Dawn Harper<\/a><\/p>\n

And for more inspiring stories from the Olympics, check out Chad Bonham’s book Glory of the Games <\/a><\/em>featuring legendary athletes such as Shannon Miller, Josh Davis, Dave Johnson and Bobby Jones plus current Olympians such as Ryan Hall, Tamika Catchings and Hunter Kemper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dawn Harper shocked the world with a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still, she entered the 2012 Games with minimal hype for a defending champion. Much of the attention in the U.S., was still going to teammate Lolo Jones while the international press focused on Australia’s Sally Pearson. Add…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,578,382,5,4,597],"tags":[847,958,923,1022,926,102,1106,1059,957,15,1146,922,344],"class_list":["post-2861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-olympic-athletes","category-qa","category-sports-features","category-sports-news","category-track-and-field","tag-2012-summer-olympics","tag-bobby-jones","tag-dave-johnson","tag-dawn-harper","tag-hunter-kemper","tag-josh-davis","tag-kellie-wells","tag-lolo-jones","tag-london","tag-ryan-hall","tag-sally-pearson","tag-shannon-miller","tag-tamika-catchings"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S. Olympian Dawn Harper takes silver in spectacular 100-meter hurdles final - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Olympian Dawn Harper takes silver in spectacular 100-meter hurdles final - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dawn Harper shocked the world with a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Still, she entered the 2012 Games with minimal hype for a defending champion. Much of the attention in the U.S., was still going to teammate Lolo Jones while the international press focused on Australia’s Sally Pearson. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2861"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2869,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2861\/revisions\/2869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}