ANAHEIM, Calif. — Bald, beautiful and powerful, Chaunte Lowe sat on a podium here in late January and smiled radiantly at an NCAA convention audience. She projected confidence. She’d been diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2019; she’d undergone a double mastectomy; she’d fought through chemotherapy; and none of that was going to stop her from making her fifth U.S. Olympic team as a high jumper come June.
It was an attitude we’d all aspire to have. But around the sport—and assuredly in a small corner of her own relentlessly optimistic mind—there were doubts.
Any 36-year-old athlete is fighting the tyranny of time, but what about a 36-year-old mother of three who is recovering from a body-ravaging disease?