Three-tenths of a second doesn’t sound like a long time but split seconds can be a lifetime in track and field, and they were for 16-year-old Sonya Hardy.
The scene was the Olympic trials in 1976 in Eugene, Ore., and Hardy was an unknown teenager competing for the Boulder Cinderbelles. She almost made the United States team that would compete in the Summer Olympics in Montreal, but “almost” became a burden that lasted a lifetime.
Hardy, who was looking ahead to her junior year at Boulder’s Fairview High School, found herself surrounded by experienced world- class athletes.
Hardy’s race was the 100-meter hurdles, and her resume was filled with age-group accomplishments. She was tough-minded for her age, but in this race, she didn’t make the best use of her time.
“I got out ahead and for some reason I thought I had false started,” Hardy said. “I was just (16) and there pretty much on my own. The way I remember, I hesitated and at the end people asked me why I stopped running. I wasn’t able to tell them. I just fell apart. I was devastated.”
Regardless, Hardy still finished fourth, one spot from a place on the Olympic team, with a time of 13.71 seconds. Pat Donnelly finished third at 13.36.
Terry Altenborg, the track coach at Fairview at the time, remembers the race.
“There just was an eyelash between them,” Altenborg said. “She she was as good at that age that I’ve ever seen. She could flat-out run.”
Hardy encountered physical injuries later in her career, but she also discovered the damage of psychological pain. Her near miss at the Olympic trials was her last appearance in the limelight in track and field.
“I wanted to participate in a team sport so I switched to basketball in high school,” Hardy said. “I felt like I was burned out in track. I didn’t have the psychological intensity to continue. Maybe it was an excuse, but that’s the way I felt.
“I wanted to experience winning as a team. I doubt if I would have graduated from high school if it had not been for basketball.”
Her decision was a disappointment for Altenborg, who was anticipating some state titles from Hardy.
But for Carol Callan, the Fairview girls basketball coach during Hardy’s senior season in 1977-78, her decision was a benefit.
“Her ability on the basketball floor had the makeup of a world- class athlete,” said Callan, now the assistant executive director of the women’s program for USA Basketball. “She was smooth and strong at the same time and, as most athletes of her caliber, she made everything look so effortless.”
Even football coach Sam Pagano, whose teams were dominating the state’s top classification in the late 1970s, recognized the athletic prowess.
“I kept telling her to come out for football,” Pagano said. “I think she could have been a very good wide receiver.”
Hardy played in the first North- South all-state girls basketball game in 1978.
Her life became a series of ups and downs after high school. She went to Cal State Northridge, but an Achilles tendon injury ended any ambitions in track and field once and for all.
From California, Hardy made her way to the University of Alaska- Anchorage, where she played basketball and later coached. She returned to Colorado and lived for a time in Colorado Springs and Aurora with her two sons, Darius and Adriel Kennedy.
“I always wanted to be on the Olympic team and I think I could have won a medal if I had made it,” Hardy said. “If I had qualified in that race, it would have changed my life a lot. I don’t regret it much anymore. I don’t look back a lot.”
Hardy bio
Born: Sept. 22, 1959, Sulphur, La.
High school: Fairview
Colleges: Cal State Northridge, Alaska-Anchorage
Family: Sons Adriel (deceased) and Darius Kennedy
Hobby: Reading
Wish list: Wanted to compete in track in the Olympics.
