When Chari Hawkins entered the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021, her goal was clear: Tokyo Olympics. After missing out on the Rio Olympics, at 30, she felt this could be her final chance to become an Olympian. But she faltered again, and it was “heartbreaking.” It could’ve been so easy to give up, but she had a point to prove, and a mantra helped her to keep going when giving up was an easier choice. Three years later, she finally realised her dream at 33 years of age and revealed how the feeling of being an Olympian was “just human.”

Just recently, Hawkins opened up to USA Today about what becoming an Olympian at 33 truly meant to her. “I think it’s really fun because the biggest thing that I always say, I think my catchphrase is, ‘if I can do it, you can do it,” she said. “My whole journey was just kind of proving that you don’t need to be born as this elite, monstrous, like robotic human…to be seen as something… like a superhero. We see Olympians, and we think there must be something special about them. But realistically, every single Olympian is a human.”

But Chari Hawkins’s road to that point was filled with setbacks and rebuilds. Her 2016 personal best (5878 points) and 15th-place finish at trials ended Rio hopes; a pattern that repeated in Tokyo.

But she did not step away. Instead, she kept building. In 2023, she made the U.S. team for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and finished eighth with a personal best of 6,366 points. Even that carried over into 2024, as she made her best-ever meet in Eugene at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

With standout marks in the shot put, javelin, and 800m, she scored a personal best of 6,456 points and finished second overall. That result, along with her world ranking, secured her place on the U.S. Olympic team for Paris. But the Games themselves tested her differently.

Describing the moment, Chari Hawkins said, “It was only the second event, high jump, and I know what I did. I never cleared a bar, even though it was like a really easy bar for me. It was one of those moments…where we look back and we kind of just want to pretend it didn’t happen.”

And that early setback proved costly. She did not score any points in that event, and she came out with 5,255 points overall. Nonetheless, she stayed in the competition and completed all seven events.

Looking back at everything, Chari Hawkins shared a deeper reflection on her journey. “I didn’t just try for the Paris Olympics. I also tried for the Tokyo Olympics and didn’t make it. And I tried for the Rio Olympics and didn’t make it….” There were moments where she was “sobbing my eyes out for hours.”

At the end, Chari Hawkins learned to pull herself forward through those lows, asking what the version of her who once missed the team would need from her in that moment. For her, the answer was to keep going and recognize that she had still reached the Olympics. “I still made the Olympics, even when not one person who has ever met me really thought I would, including me sometimes.” That belief did not come overnight.

Years later, after finally reaching the Olympic stage in Paris 2024, Chari Hawkins says her mindset has shifted from chasing one moment to thinking about what comes next. Speaking about the future, she admitted that the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics is something she has thought about:

“The team is so hard to make,” Chari Hawkins said, reflecting on the depth of talent in American track and field. She added that she is currently enjoying a different phase of life, staying close to training while not forcing decisions about competition too early.

At the same time, she did not shut the door on the LA 28 Olympics. “You never know with 2028. It’s in L.A. I mean, it does seem like something that would be fun.”

The Olympics is a gold mine of stories for anyone believing they are too old to go for it. Mira Potkone, a multiple bronze medal winning boxer, debuted at the Olympics at 35. Sandra Sanchez’s gold medal in Karate at 39 is still fresh in our memory. Hawkins will be 37 when the LA Olympics begin, and a girl who once believed she couldn’t make it could just end her story with a medal at the twilight of her career.