Tasha Danvers chose her unborn child four years ago over her hopes for an Olympic medal. Now she has both.
Running for Great Britain, Danvers won the bronze medal Aug. 20 in the women's 400 meter hurdles, with a personal best time of 53.84 seconds. Jamaican Melaine Walker won the gold medal with a time of 52.64; American Sheena Tosta claimed the silver at 53.70.
In early 2004, Danvers appeared to be a good prospect for a medal at the Olympics in Athens. She was the sixth-ranked hurdler in the world. Then, she learned she was pregnant. Danvers reportedly was pressured by some in the track and field world to have an abortion. She admitted later that she and her American husband-coach Darrell Smith briefly considered that choice.
"The thought did cross our minds as an option," Danvers told the Telegraph, a London newspaper, in May 2004 before citing Mark 8:36. "But this line from the Scriptures kept coming into my head: 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'
