 |
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, wife of UNMC dental student, Bronsen Schliep, won the bronze medal on Tuesday in the women’s 100-meter hurdles in Beijing. |
Lopes-Schliep — a Canadian who was an All-American at Nebraska — ran 12.64 to earn the medal.
“I feel like I’ve jumped out of my body, went to heaven and back,” said Lopes-Schliep, who was the first Canadian athlete since Donovan Bailey in 1996 to win a track and field medal. “This is a huge accomplishment. It went by so fast and here I am with a medal.”
Lopes-Schliep and silver medalist Sally McLellan of Australia each ran 12.64, with officials having to go to the one-thousandth of a second to break the tie. The gold medal was taken by Dawn Harper of the United States, who posted a personal-best time of 12.54.
Lopes-Schliep started the Olympics with a time of 12.75 in the preliminaries on Sunday, and then improved to a time of 12.68 in the semifinals on Monday. The two-time Olympian has made great strides since her first Olympics in 2004 in Athens, when she was unable to advance past the preliminaries.
(This story contains information from the NU Sports Information Office.)