Panamanian athlete Gianna Woodruff seeks gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics

“We're fighting for the gold medal,” said Woodruff in an interview with Global South World.

The American-Panamanian athlete, specialising in the 400-meter hurdles, is determined not to miss her second chance at the Olympics. After participating in the 2020 edition in Tokyo, she is now looking for a rematch.

In this interview, Woodruff shared with GSW her ambition to stand on the podium and her journey to reach the most prestigious sporting competition.

Watch the interview here:

GSW: How are you preparing for the 2024 Olympics?

Gianna Woodruff: My preparation for these Olympic Games has been different but very hard. We're getting ready to do what we need to do. We started off with an indoor season this year, running on the short track. My coach wanted us to be in competition mode a little bit earlier, and then we started transitioning into 400 hurdles while also doing some 400s just to keep my speed up so that we weren’t always hurdling.

The preparation for the 400 hurdles is not an easy event. We train like 800-metre runners, so we're always doing long endurance things and building strength all the time. But it's been good nonetheless. Very hard but very rewarding at the end of the day.

GSW: What do you hope to achieve at the competition?

Gianna Woodruff: We definitely hope to improve our mark from my first Olympics. We're also fighting for the gold medal. That's always the goal, and that's what we're trying to do: make it to the final and get a gold medal for Panama.

GSW: What do you expect from Latin America in these Olympics?

Gianna Woodruff: I expect it to be phenomenal. Definitely in the 400 hurdles with my representation. Marileidy Paulino will be doing great in the 400. We have a gymnast, we have a boxer, a cyclist… I think the variety that we have is going to be really good. I think everyone is going to play really well.

GSW: What sport do you most enjoy watching as a spectator?

Gianna Woodruff: This will be my first Olympic Games where I'll actually be able to watch some of the other sports because, in Tokyo, we weren’t able to because of COVID. I would love to watch gymnastics and boxing.

GSW: What challenges did you have to overcome to qualify for your first Olympics?

Gianna Woodruff: The initial challenge was the qualifying mark, which was faster than I had ever run at the time. I needed to run a personal best to make the Olympic team. I started off my first competition and I won at the Drake Relays [an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa]. My time kept getting better and getting lower. Initially, I had no idea how we were going to do it, but my coach was confident: ‘We're gonna do it, we’ve been training very hard for this.’ You need a coach like that, who can believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself. He saw it before I did. And we qualified.

Honestly, being part of the Olympic team was the best. When I was in college, or even when I was in high school, I had never won anything. So, qualifying for the Olympics was the biggest thing ever.

GSW: So far, what has been your greatest success on a sporting level, not counting qualifying for the Olympics?

Gianna Woodruff: Winning my first global medal at the Pan American Games last year was big for me. I had never won a global title before. So that was my first one ever. It was just a great feeling. When you get on the podium, you love being up there and it's like you're supposed to be up there. So it gives you more inspiration and motivation to continue to be on top of the podium.

GSW: What are you most passionate about in your discipline?

Gianna Woodruff: I'm most passionate about being able to compete because training for it is so hard. When I get to the competition, I only have to do one lap, so I only have to focus on one thing. But I love hurdling. Hurdling is my favourite event. I love the fact that I can run and jump over something at the same time. It keeps me focused in the race because the open 400 is not an easy race. So I think the 400 hurdles is easier than the 400. So I would say I'm most passionate about hurdling and being able to overcome the obstacles in the race to get to the finish line.

GSW: If you could change any rule of the 400-metre hurdles, what would it be?

Gianna Woodruff: I would say to space out the hurdles a little bit more, because that 10th hurdle, it's so far away from the finish line. I feel like, especially when you're at that point, you're like: 'Oh my God, 60 more metres to go'. It seems so long. It seems so far.

So I would say just spacing out everything, maybe five or 10 metres more so that the 10th hurdle could be 30 or 40 metres away from the line. Nothing very big because I think everything is pretty perfect in the race. It's going to be hard regardless, so there's nothing that can make the race easier.

GSW: What do you think Panama needs so that athletes can have more opportunities?

Gianna Woodruff: A lot of things are missing, but I'd definitely start with resources for the athletes, like training locations and physical tracks to train on. 

I was in Panama a couple of weeks ago, and in Colón, where my mom is from, the track wasn’t in good condition. You couldn't be on the track after 6:00 p.m. because the lights didn’t work. There was fake grass in the middle, but somehow the grass had grown onto lanes one and two, so you couldn’t even run on the inside of the lanes.

Many fast athletes come from Colón and Panama in general. There’s so much talent, but no one is taking the time to show them that we care enough about them. I don’t want to be the only Panamanian track runner out there. 

[We're missing] financial support and having the right coaches, too, who can coach the kids on the track and off the track. What happens outside at the home is very important. If you can't eat, if you don't have any shoes, if you don't have a certain family who can support you, you don't know what your potential is if people don't believe in you.