SUCCESS CAME EARLY for Anna Cockrell — she won the World Junior 400H in ’16 — but any careful study of her career shows that the high points haven’t come easily. The 4-time USC team captain captured 3 NCAA titles individually and won All-America honors 11 times. Her honors extended to the classroom; in ’20 she was named the COSIDA Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for Track & Field. That’s what the public saw. Behind the scenes, she struggled with depression.
She said in her commencement speech, “The quest to maintain this image of the perfect scholar, the perfect student-athlete, the perfect leader, it began to crush me.” Yet she has forged on, becoming one of the sport’s strongest voices for mental health.
As a pro, Cockrell overcame a rough first Olympics in ’21 and under the tutelage of hurdle guru Lawrence “Boogie” Johnson has become one of the world’s top hurdlers. In Paris, she won silver in 51.87 to become the No. 4 performer in history.
Refreshingly open about the choices she had made to be the best she can be, both mentally and physically, she took the time to share her story from her home base in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Continued below)
T&FN: After living in LA, how do you like Fayetteville?
Cockrell: It was definitely a difficult transition… There are times where I’m like, “OK, it’s nine o’clock, every restaurant is closed and it’s pitch black outside. What am I going to do?” But for the most part what I do really appreciate about it, you have the local feel. I like going to all the coffee shops here. I drink a lot of coffee. Honestly, that’s my biggest hobby.
T&FN: Looking way back, how did you end up choosing track?
Cockrell: My brother played a bunch of sports. My sister and I were gymnasts and my dad was always trying to get us to play basketball, but we didn’t want to. And then once we moved to Michigan, my sister and I both decided we didn’t want to do gymnastics anymore.
I wasn’t going to quit without her. She wasn’t going to quit without me. So we ended up quitting together. My dad finally was like, “Oh, play basketball.” We hated basketball, but we did a bunch of sports. My sister gravitated towards volleyball.
In the spring of that year, sixth grade, I started running track for the middle school team. And that was pretty much it. I think at that time, as the baby of the family, I wanted to find something that was going to be mine. Once I started hurdling, it just made sense to me. I never wanted to do field events. I never wanted to be a short sprinter. I always wanted to be a hurdler.
T&FN: Before your move to North Carolina, you made the hurdle final at the Michigan State indoor meet as an 8th-grader. And you won a World Junior gold as a high schooler. With both your siblings being athletes also, were sports big in your home?
Cockrell: My mom and dad were really, really serious about us being well-rounded people. People have talked about us being a family of athletes. But my mom, not to say she didn’t care about sports, but that wasn’t her priority for us. I think she viewed it as a good extracurricular. My mom was the first in her family to go to college and did it through academics. It was really important to her that we were going to be good students.
We were going to do summer enrichment programs. And we were going to go to museums. I think that at the time, track was another thing that I was good at, but it was one part of me. My parents were never the type that were at the meet, you know, trying to be coaches; they were never the type that could rattle off every single person’s stats. They knew what I was doing. They knew I was good. But I don’t think it was anyone’s obsession.
T&FN: Was USC a tough decision for you to make?
Cockrell: I almost went to Texas with Coach [Tonja] Buford-Bailey. If I hadn’t taken a visit to USC, that’s where I would have ended up. I loved UT and had a great time. And I love Coach Buford-Bailey as well. But I mean, the second I got to Southern Cal — my dad came on that visit with me — before the end of the first day, he called my mom and he told her that I was going there before I even really knew I was going to go. It was a tough decision, but I was meant to be a Trojan.
T&FN: To say you did well at USC is an understatement. You won NCAA titles, were a captain for four years, and were very active off the track as well.
Cockrell: Being voted a captain as a sophomore, I remember just feeling really overwhelmed, honestly, because it was such a huge responsibility. It was something I took very seriously. I think that I viewed myself as a person with leadership qualities, but something coach Caryl always emphasized was leaders still have to learn. You have to become a better leader.
I was also involved in the foundation of UBSAA (United Black Student-Athlete Association) at SC. Doing that while working on my master’s and finishing my last year on the track, I was definitely a little bit overstretched. That whole process, it changed my life. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of that I helped to achieve at USC.
T&FN: The 2021 season culminated in your first Olympic appearance, which had to have been huge. But then to end up with that unfortunate DQ, was that tough to get past?
Cockrell: You know, people always ask me about the DQ. To be honest with you, I was more upset about running a not-great race and getting absolutely smoked in that final than the DQ. At hurdle 3, D [Dalilah Muhammad] was gone. And I was like, “Oh crap, I don’t have an answer for that.” So my race plan got all messed up. It wasn’t the worst race of my season, but I’d been looking for a better race and I was looking for at least a PR and it wasn’t that. So the DQ was like, great, it just couldn’t get any worse.
It was disappointing, but I was already disappointed. I saw the board change from 7th to DQ. I was like, is there really a difference? In my mind at that point, there wasn’t.
What makes that the whole experience hard is when you’re talking to somebody who says, “Oh, you were in the Olympics, did you get a medal?” And you’re like, “No, I was 7th,” or “I was DQed.” Actually, I was just saying I was 7th, you know, because whatever. And you see people’s faces fall. Like they’re so disappointed. And you’re like, “I thought that was pretty good, but I guess not.”
T&FN: Take me back to your silver medal race in Paris. How do you remember a moment like that, that is so life-changing? Is it all a blur?
Cockrell: It’s not a blur. I was just ready. There’s no other way to say it. We’d been working so, so, so hard, so hard all year. I mean, everybody does. But we’ve done so many different race plans. We’ve tried so many things. We’ve watched so much film. Ralph Mann had come out twice and had helped us out, had gotten film on us.
In the final at the Trials, we intentionally ran a more conservative race because Boogie was like, “Just make this team.” I knew I was gonna run faster at the Games than I did at Trials based off that.
I’d been dealing with some like Achilles pain between Trials and the Games and I finally was pain-free. I’m gonna run pain-free. I warmed up and Boogie just was talking to me before I went out. He was like, “Have fun. This is your thing. It’s not a funeral. Go do your thing. Go be a star. Go be Beyoncé. Look at that camera. Go channel it. Go find it.”
And he was like, “At the end of the day, this race is going to come down to desire. How bad do you want it? And how great can you execute when you want it the most?”
And so I got in the call room. I remember I saw my dad before the race. I set my blocks. And I just remember, I think it’s the quietest my mind has ever been. Normally, I have a rush of thoughts. I didn’t even really have to repeat my race plan to myself. I knew exactly what I was going to do. We talked about it, we figured it out, we actually made a change in my race plan from the semi to the final.
Now that I think about it, the last three big finals we’ve done from Worlds in ’23, Olympic Trials in ’24 and the Games in ’24, I actually ran a different race plan in the final than I did in the semi. I trust Boogie. I think that my philosophy with him is I ask lots of questions. And we go back and forth and we toss up these ideas around in practice. But once we get to the end of May, my thinking is over. I trust in him and his vision. I know I’ve done enough work that if he’s seen something, and he says we need to do it this way, I’m going to do it that way. Regardless of what I think, I’m going to do it that way, because I trust him. So when he changed my race plan for the final, I didn’t even need to think about it.
The gun went off. It’s the quietest my life’s ever been. I always count my steps. I was counting. I knew I was in there, I knew I had to make a move at 5. I knew I had to make a really big move from 7 to 8. And I remember that space between 7 and 8, I was just thinking to myself, “It’s now or never.”
It was funny that I don’t remember a lot after the race. I was just, I just cannot stop crying. And I couldn’t find my family. I didn’t even do my victory lap. I didn’t do anything I was supposed to do. Because I was just like, “Where are my parents?” So that’s a bit of a blur.
T&FN: Your post-race interview was very emotional. It struck me when you talked about various family members who believed in you a lot along the way but weren’t there to see it. Have their been times in your life when you run more for other people than for yourself?
Cockrell: It’s always a combination. Honestly. I think that I am always running for myself. But sometimes my strength comes from other people. I’m gonna get emotional just talking about it now. I lost my grandfather when I was in my freshman year. And then my first year as a pro, my grandmother passed.
After the Tokyo Games, I actually got to Louisiana; she had recently had surgery. And we basically sat on the couch and watched Lifetime movies for a week. What that ends up meaning is that I came to Coach Boogie really out of shape, because I just been sitting on the couch with my grandma.
But when you asked about coming back from the disappointment of Tokyo, that was a big piece of it. I was just hanging out my grandmother. My cousin sent me this video of my grandmother actually watching the final in Tokyo. And my grandma’s like, “Oh, Anna’s way in the back.” [laughs]
But I just knew I knew I was gonna go back to Paris. I didn’t imagine… I think we all think that our loved ones are immortal. I just didn’t imagine a world where she would not be physically present here to see it.
Like I said, my mind was so still before that final, I just felt so much peace. And not to be super spiritual and religious, because I’m not the most spiritual or religious, but I felt their presence that day. And I felt at peace with that.
I felt that peace about the journey that I’ve been on and that my family and my friends have all been on with me. And I think that in that moment, I was running for me because I wanted it so bad. But in those moments where training was rough, in those moments where I had to find another gear, I think that strength comes from other places. And the culmination of that was that final.
T&FN: Did the number surprise you? 51.87?
Cockrell: Yes and no. When we talked about it, we were like, 50-point is going to win it. 51 is going to be 2nd. And maybe 51, if not 52-flat, is going to be 3rd. I knew I was 2nd when I crossed the line. And I knew I was going to run faster than I did in the Trials, but it was still a little bit surreal to see it. I was glad that it was like 51.8, not like 51.99. I was like, “Oh, it’s a real 51.” I wasn’t surprised that I could do it. I was just overwhelmed by the fact that I had actually done it.
T&FN: You know, you’re unusual or even perhaps weird that your 400 hurdle PR is faster than your 400 PR.
Cockrell: I know, I know I’m working on it! (laughs) Very embarrassing.
T&FN: Fate has led you to this event where we’re seeing such dominance by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. How do you process that, fighting for gold in an event where so many people say, “Oh, it’s already locked up”?
Cockrell: I think people said the same thing about 2nd, it was a battle between Femke [Bol] and Sydney. I think there are people who didn’t even predict me to be on the podium. I control what I can control and that’s me. I can’t really change what people think about my ability or anyone else’s ability. I can’t change what a narrative is going to be, or what the NBC package is going to be.
I was talking to my brother once; I don’t even remember what I was mad about, but he texted me after our conversation. He was like, “I think we come from a family of late bloomers. It takes us more time to find our stride.” He was very undersized in high school. And then he went to Duke and had gained a lot of weight and got drafted. He got drafted, then he got traded. And his NFL career was a case study in being a late bloomer. He was like, “I think it’s a point of pride. I think it’s what makes us special.”
I’m 27 and people are like, “Oh my God, you’re 27. That’s so old.” And I’m like, I feel like I’m just entering my prime. I’m really just now figuring it out, which in a way is a little bit embarrassing. I wish I had figured it out a little bit earlier, but I think my brother was right about being a late bloomer and it taking more time to put some of the pieces together. So when it comes to the competition in this event, I find the challenge exciting.
I somehow have the great luck or great misfortune, depending on who you ask, of having chosen two events that are undergoing a Renaissance right now, especially in the U.S. I view it as a privilege and exciting. And I look forward to being the best me that I can be.
T&FN: What adjustments are you and your coach making on how to approach this year?
Cockrell: There are a lot of adjustments we’re making, but to be honest with you, I think I’m keeping some of them a little bit close to the vest, Jeff.
T&FN: That’s fair.
Cockrell: The race plan is going to be different, which has been different every year that I’ve been with Coach Boogie, but I think we’re going to do some of the most aggressive racing, that I’ve ever done. I already know it’s going to be so, so hard. I’m looking forward to it though. I think that’s the biggest change. I’m pretty good with both legs, but we’re still continuing to just really drill my right leg. At this point I feel my right leg is my non-dominant side. I feel like my right leg is pretty even with my left, but then I’ve watched race footage and I watched my arms and I’m like, “Ah, not quite there yet.” I can still tell. So still just drilling, really drilling hard, both legs. (Continued below)
And I mean, every year that I’ve been with Coach, we’ve just increased the volume in terms of training. And I think that’s been the biggest difference, honestly. When I was at SC, we really were a speed-power-plyo program. Coach Caryl’s kind of known for that. And so when I went pro, the speed-power-plyo stuff doesn’t really go away, but I had to run 600s and 700s and 800s and 1Ks and a lot of repeat 400s. Which I don’t like, but I continue to do that kind of stuff.
I think Boogie’s way of doing things is he really wants us to be strong and then he develops the speed piece later in the year. And the speed stuff is the reason I run track. That’s what I always say. Like I run track to hurdle and to be fast. Whenever we have to do the repeat 4s, I’m like, “This is the worst thing in the world,” but I’m really embracing that kind of work more.
We’ve done so many 1Ks this year. I feel like we finally are getting out of the woods on that piece. So I’m just grateful for that.
But yeah, a lot of stuff is in the works. I’m hoping to run an open 400 sometime so I can have a PR in the open 4 that’s not so embarrassingly bad compared to my hurdle PR [laughs].
T&FN: Any final thoughts you’d like to leave our readers with?
Cockrell: The one thing I would just want to get across is there’s so much desire to have it all instantly. And that happens for some people. It didn’t happen for me. I won State titles and I won NCAA titles, but the big breakthroughs in times I was looking for… I ran 55 in high school and didn’t break 55 until my last year of college. So that was a long, long slog of not having a PR. And now, it feels like from 2023 to ‘24, I’ve PRed a million times.
Things happen, not necessarily according to your plan sometimes, and you just have to be along for the ride. That’s the main thing I would just say. I don’t want to be too much on my soapbox — as I’m standing firmly on a soapbox — but I just get discouraged when I hear these high school and college athletes, the way they talk about their careers and the way, honestly, I was talking about my own at one point.
You just have to give it time. It doesn’t mean you suck. It doesn’t mean you’re washed up, give it time and great things will come. So I’ll get off my soapbox now. ◻︎
