The first Olympics Anna Hall remembers watching was the Beijing Games in 2008 when she was 7. Soon enough, a dream was born.

After years of hard work, the Highlands Ranch native was on the cusp of turning her dreams into reality as one of the top heptathletes at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. Then Hall tripped on a hurdle in the 100-meter event and broke her foot.

Season over. Olympic dreams dashed — if only momentarily.

Fast forward one year, and the 21-year-old returned last month to the same Pacific Northwest venue where she broke her foot and claimed bronze in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships. Now, a path to the 2024 Paris Games has opened.

“I was in disbelief at how far I had come from last year,” Hall said in a telephone interview with The Denver Post. “Just making the world team was what was getting me through rehab, so to medal was beyond amazing.”

Before Hall became a track phenom, she competed on the USATF youth circuit as part of the Zoom Track Club in Highlands Ranch. There, she developed a love for track, but it wasn’t until she enrolled at Valor Christian that she tried the seven events of the heptathlon: 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter dash, long jump, javelin throw and 800-meter run.

“I loved them all.” Hall said. “You get the chance to show your athleticism in different things, it’s not just about who is the fastest or strongest…you have to be well-rounded.”

Hall was a standout from the start at Valor, earning state titles in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles her sophomore, junior and senior years and setting the national high school heptathlon record twice. As a senior, she capped a historic prep career running the final leg of Valor’s state-record 4×400 relay.

After graduating from Valor in 2019, Hall committed to the University of Georgia, where she competed one year before transferring to the University of Florida after Georgia’s head coach left. But before she left for her sophomore year last fall, she broke her foot at the Olympic Trials.

Luckily, her new Florida teammates helped push her through recovery.

“It was my takeoff foot in the high jump,” Hall said. “Overcoming that mental barrier was difficult. The team was so patient and relentlessly positive, supporting me through all the little victories.”

Hall’s coaches at Florida also played an important role during her recovery, specifically assistant coach Mellanee Welty.

“The beginning of our relationship was getting her back to who Anna Hall was,” Welty said. “It was an interesting dynamic because we were getting to know each other while going through the trauma of her foot.”

After months of rehab, Hall came back to win both the indoor and outdoor NCAA titles in the heptathlon. Not wanting to stop while in peak form, she later won the heptathlon title at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June to qualify for the world championships in Eugene, where she earned bronze for the first American medal in the heptathlon since 2001.

After claiming her first World medal with a personal best of 6,755 points, Hall’s Olympic dreams have never been more real.  She will start training again when she returns to Florida for her junior year, but for now, she is reveling in the high from her season with her family.

Welty, too, believes Hall can become an Olympian.

“She has the talent and mentality to do it,” Welty said. “It’s who Anna Hall is: She will continue to fight until she can’t anymore.”