The notes dangle like receipts from mirrors, on bed frames, and in tiny journals with gold ribbons for spines. One could write a book on Anna Hall, but like the finish line at the Stade de France, she’s already beaten you to it.
Today I will become an Olympian
I am in control of my body, it does what I tell it
There is nothing I can’t do.
“I just really feel like when you write something down, it’s way more likely to happen,” Hall, the Greenwood Village native, first-time Olympian and the best female heptathlete in the country told me last week. “It’s almost like telling my brain, ‘This is what we’re doing.’
“And so (where) I think that ties into journaling, and especially vision boards, it’s like I’m putting up things that I want to be. Even if I’m not there yet.”
Pretty soon, she’ll be everywhere. The Summer Games are driven by superstars who move merch and narratives that move your soul. Anna ticks every box.
Colorado’s finest could be NBC’s biggest summer hit since “Seinfeld” debuted 35 Julys ago. Hall’s 23. She can nail the 100-meter hurdles in about 12.7 seconds. She can toss a javelin 150 feet. She can play the guitar and piano.
Whenever the fates threw a curve, Hall swung for the fences. She underwent knee surgery in Vail back in January. She rehabbed and rallied to win the heptathlon at the Olympic trials in June.
One of her youth soccer coaches was ex-Broncos great John Lynch. Her dad, former Michigan quarterback and multi-sport standout David Hall, used to hang with Jim Harbaugh. Her corporate partners include heavy-hitters such as Coca-Cola and Comcast.
At a pentathlon last year in Austria, Anna scored 6,988 points. Only four other women in the history of the sport have ever bettered that total. The only American to do so was the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee — who’s now a mentor and friend.
“Tony Wells used to say, ‘When the real deal shows up at the door, don’t mess it up,’” chuckled Chuck Dugue, a Denver track icon who was Hall’s club coach when she was a teen. “And (Anna) was the real deal.”
•••
This is my event, my title, my spot, I am going to take it
I will fight for every hundredth, inch, point
I have done everything I could possibly do to get here, now it is time to have fun. This is the easy part.
The journals serve as both sanctum and dictum, an ink parade of affirmations, reminders, Bible verses, goals and mini-pep talks. Hall’s been jotting it all down for 15 years or so now, a habit she copped from one of her older sisters’ track coaches. If the medals are in the margins, the keepers are in all-caps:
ENJOY THESE MOMENTS
1. EVENT. AT. A. TIME.
I’M STILL HERE
PROVE THEM WRONG
“I don’t know really where I got it, I guess,” Hall said, “but from even the beginning of high school, I’d always just write down whatever my goals were for that year and whatever sport I was playing.”
While doing a little home inventory recently, Dad found one of Anna’s first attempts at turning words into deeds. On a 3-inch-by-5-inch card, an 8-year-old Hall had scribbled her high-jump goal for that track season.
“And I think it was a foot higher,” David laughed, “than it reasonably should have been.”
Hey, shoot for the moon, you might land on a star. Or become one.
“I still have a vision board in my bathroom right now,” Anna said. “I’m just very much like if there’s something I want to do, I write it down. And I want to see it every day.”
The days of rehab to start the year? Long. A few got dark. Patience, by her own admission, has never been one of Hall’s strong suits. Every time the knee buckled, her heart sank.
“There were definitely a lot of times with jumps and re-learning to long jump and high jump where I just wouldn’t take off,” Hall recalled. “So I just went through, or kind of just flopped — bailed mid-jump into the high-jump mat. So, yeah, that was another mental battle that was just kind of hard to (tackle) and very humbling — almost to be like, ‘I used to be really good at this. And now I’m out of practice and I can’t even convince myself to take off the ground.’”
Joyner-Jersey helped put some wind beneath Hall’s wings again, calling regularly to offer advice and assurance. She even made a point to fly out to Oregon last month to watch Anna rock the trials.
“It was like, ‘OK, can I get through the warm-up? Can I try this hurdle drill?’ And so it was like every single thing I was doing all day was like I was at war,” Hall recalled.
“I mean, it was definitely a difficult time. I think just fighting the mental battles, every single day, just wore on me. I was exhausted every single time I went home. Every day felt like a marathon. And then it was like, ‘Wake up and do it again tomorrow.’ It just kind of felt like there was no end in sight. But luckily I have really great people around me that I was able to lean on.”
•••
I can, I will, I must
I can, I will, I must
I am ready, my knee is ready, go fly!
About three years ago, after moving to Florida, Hall decided to have a few peaks and the area code “303” tattooed above her left foot.
“Just because I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do something to pay homage to my Denver roots,’” Anna explained. “Yeah, it’s just a reminder, I guess — where I’m from, where I grew up. Because Denver always has a special place in my heart.”
The mountains on the ankle are a memento. Of home. Of the journey and the climb. Of the loved ones who never wavered, never doubted, even after Hall had accidentally broke a bone in her foot during the 2021 trials.
“One or two days after the surgery, they found her on the rowing machine, trying to figure out how to row with her good leg,” recounted Brian Kula, Anna’s old track coach at Valor High. “That’s just who she is.”
Faster than a mountain stream, sure as a Flatirons sunset. Colorado tough. Colorado proud.
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Originally Published: July 20, 2024 at 5:45 a.m.
