Pristine Springs:

Demus Clears the Final Hurdle to a Great Career

Lashinda Demus is now getting what she deserved a long time ago. The former South Carolina (2002-2004) track and field All-American and National Champion will finally have an Olympic gold medal placed around her neck, a dozen years after she should have received it, this summer in Paris, France, in the first-ever Game’s Reallocation Ceremony.

“I’m excited,” said Demus, who is now officially recognized as the gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles from the 2012 London Olympics. Demus had originally taken the silver medal in the event, but two years ago, Russian hurdler Natalya Antyukh was stripped of the 2012 gold medal due to doping.

“I’m excited to be a spectator once I get there. I haven’t been to an Olympic Games as a spectator. It will be the first trip to Europe for my youngest kids. It will be a great experience and a great family celebration that we can have. I have two little ones who weren’t able to see me in my prime and competing at the level I was. At least they will be able to see some of the accolades that came with me doing that. I’m excited to have this experience with my family,” Demus expressed.

When she accepts the medal in Paris’ Champions Park on August 9 with the Eiffel Tower behind her, it will mark the first time that a reallocation ceremony has taken place at the Olympics. “Once I found out that I was declared the gold medalist, it was already a part of my thought process that because this was an international competition where millions of people were watching me compete, why should we not be rewarded internationally as well,” said Demus.

Previous Olympic medal reallocations were not handled with as much pomp and circumstance as the athletes deserved, but times have changed for the better. New silver and bronze medalists, Zuzana Henjnova of the Czech Republic, and Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica, respectively, will also be honored. When Antyukh was officially stripped of the medal in 2022, it was Demus who was out in front to make sure that she and the other athletes from the event were properly honored.

Demus said, “We will all be there! We were all a part of this process. I had immediately reached out to both of them to let them know what I wanted to try to do. I’m happy that we will all be there.” This will make Demus the first American woman to win the gold in the intermediate hurdles, and it is a testament to her work ethic and drive.

Demus hung up her running spikes in 2017, but she hasn’t slowed down. She works as a clinical research associate for IQVIA and also coaches track part time at Culver City High School in California. “What I love about clinical research is that it is a goal driven career,” Demus said. “We have deadlines, and it’s very structured. I love that. I get to travel and work with different people in different states, and I can work from home and be with the kids when needed. It allows me to be who I want to be.”

Demus has been a champion at every level of her career. She was an 11-time All-American sprinter and hurdler, a two-time SEC Champion, and four-time NCAA Champion for the Gamecocks and a big reason South Carolina track and field won its first team national championship in any NCAA sport in 2002.

“It was such a huge developmental stage in my life as an athlete and as an adult,” Demus said of her time on campus. “I started my family there and was married there. Being a Gamecock and being part of the track team taught me a lot about surrounding yourself with champions and how it benefits you as a person, especially if you have big goals. It was a great championship environment.”

Lashinda Demus has always been a part of history at South Carolina and for U.S. Track and Field. Now owning an Olympic Gold, she is a part of corrected history, and in some ways her athletic career is now complete. “It doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t cross the finish line first at the Olympic Games and get to do the victory lap,” Demus said. “Yes, my career is complete, but I don’t look at it