Jasmine Lew’s gold medal jump of 5.99 metres at the Legion National Track and Field Championships in Brandon, Manitoba was more than just her personal best. It was her triumph over an injury that could have ended her season.
Lew, who’s going into Grade 12 at Heritage Woods secondary school, was competing in the Fraser Valley district high school championship last May in her other preferred event, the 100-metre dash, when she blew out her hamstring.
Lew said while she’d been injured before, none were as calamitous as the searing pain she felt when her hamstring popped at the 60-metre make, just as he entered her finishing stride.
“I felt like I got hit,” she said. “It was blinding pain.”
Lew’s coach, Raquel Chin — who also happens to be her mom — was so focussed on evaluating her charge’s starting technique, she didn’t see her pull up lame.
But when she saw her daughter hobble slowly across the finish line, she knew what had happened.
She’s been there — Chin’s own athletic aspirations were ended by a hamstring injury when she was competing in high school.
She also knew what to do so Jasmine wouldn’t endure a similar fate.
Within two hours Lew was on the examining table at a physiotherapist, embarking upon a rigorous 40-day program of intensive therapy, icing and heating and workouts in the swimming pool.
“It was a program of co-ordinated care,” Chin said of the program developed with Lew's co-coach, Robert Esmie. “We had to make sure all the pieces were in place.”
Opportunities to meet qualifying standards for the Canadian nationals and the Pan Am championships slipped by but Lew wasn’t discouraged.
“I never focussed on the injury as ending my season,” Lew said. “I focussed on getting better.”
Lew set her sights on the B.C. High School championships, which were on same weekend as her 17th birthday.
But even that didn’t happen.
Lew’s first meet back was at one of the biggest stages of her young career, at the Harry Jerome International Classic at Coquitlam’s Percy Perry Stadium. Not only would she be testing the results of all her hard work to come back from her injury in front of thousands of spectators, she’d also be competing against one of her long jump heroes, Canada’s Christabel Nettey.
“It was so mind-blowing to be on the same track as her,” Lew said.
Her leap of 5.59 metres placed her fifth.
But more importantly, Lew said, the experience of competing alongside top athletes like Nettey, Andre de Grasse and Damian Warner inspired her to keep moving forward despite her injury.
“You know that part of sports is getting injured, but they’ve also overcome injuries and still had success,” Lew said.
At the Trevor Craven Memorial track and field meet in Burnaby on July 7 to 8, Lew jumped 5.84 metres.
A week after that she won her age bracket at the BC Athletics 2017 track and field jamboree back at Percy Perry Stadium.
Heading into her final year competing at the high school level, Lew said the experience of battling back from a tough injury has made her a better athlete.
“The foundation is there,” she said. “Once I set my mind to a goal, I know I can achieve it.”
Her mom hopes it’s made her a stronger person.
“You have to learn to adapt and be flexible,” Chin said. “The discipline it takes to tweak, refine and participate in sports, it transfers into all aspects of life.”
