Interviewing Dee Dee Trotter was fun. She is incredibly passionate about her sport and her foundation and it shows. I actually had to cut off our first conversation because the power in my cell phone ran out. For the record, I had started with three of five bars. Never mind that I had already broken a pen from writing so fast!
The graphics department of TrackSide magazine did a fantastic job with this article, putting the opening line in place as if it were on "Batman." Dee Dee was quite happy with the superhero theme, but you know, some people can get away with being compared to a superhero. She is certainly one of them. Oh yeah, AND I was happy to hear that she was tweeting the article link :)
POW!! BAM!! KABOOM!!
Dee Dee Trotter is a high energy woman, and when she
speaks of her charity, “Test Me I’m Clean,” the narrative is fast and furious,
like something out of the final fight sequence from the old Batman TV show.
Everything about Trotter is done in double time. Her
personality belies her surname; in fact, there is nothing about the 2004 and 2012
Olympic relay gold medalist and 400-meter bronze medalist that resembles a slow
gallop. So when she speaks about her involvement with TMIC, it is an advisement
to listen, and if one is reporting, to bring extra pens and a cell phone
charger.
It was the underlying perception of track and field
athletes as cheaters that got Trotter interested in the movement. But it took
an airplane ride to put her at the front and center of the movement.
Prefacing the story, she goes back to 2006.
“There was a lot of negativity going on. You had
BALCO and the Barry Bonds situation. It put a bad taste in everybody’s mouth
and created a stigma that in athletics, everyone was cheating in general, and
that was not the case.”
“So I’m on an airplane, and the guy behind me was
reading the sports section, and clearly seeing something about BALCO.”
It was his next line that sent Trotter into action.
To read the rest of this article, click here and turn to page 50.
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