Tapper embraces role model status
Sprint hurdler Megan Tapper is aware many of Jamaica’s youth look to her as an example.
Although a veteran in sprint hurdling, Tapper’s stardom rose when she became Jamaica’s first woman to medal in the 100m hurdles at an Olympic Games when she claimed bronze in Tokyo in 2021.
Since then, her personal brand has grown, leading her to become more of a household name with her charismatic television interviews and commercials. She is also the official patron for the European Union – Jamaica 5K and 10K Run which takes place in downtown Kingston on March 10.
With this fame, Tapper acknowledges that she is now a role model to many and says she understands the responsibilities that follow.
“The first thing I wanted to do is, yes, to run fast; yes, I wanted to be a world beater, but it is to show people that anything is possible,” Tapper told the Jamaica Observer recently. “We didn’t just born, live, work, then die. We are able to achieve great things. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter where you come from, it doesn’t matter where you start. Once you put your mind, your energy, your focus towards it, anything is possible. That is what I champion – just being the best person that you are, not falling back and thinking because I wasn’t given that opportunity or because I was not from that place or because I’m short or dark or not the image of success that I can’t do it. Anything is possible, and that is important to me.”
With celebrity, egos can grow and humility shrink. But Tapper says she is always mindful of this and sees it as important to keep herself grounded.
“Life is just too hard to think that you’re better than anybody,” she said. “Life is just too hard to sit on a high horse, because absolutely anything can happen and at absolutely any time. I don’t take that lightly because I’ve been through so much. It doesn’t matter who I am, what I do, what I’ve accomplished, at the end of the day, I’m human, you’re human, you cut me, I bleed red.”
Tapper recently said her objective for this season is to win gold in the 60m hurdles at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, now on in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 100m hurdles at the Olympic Games in Paris, France, this summer.
The first target comes into view when Tapper contests the 60m hurdles at 11:00 am Jamaica time.
Tapper will be in lane three of heat six, from which she will be challenged by Great Britain’s Cindy Sember who competes from lane four. This will be Tapper’s fifth 60m hurdles race this season, having already competed at the Astana Indoor Meet in Astana, Kazakhstan, and at the Millrose Games in New York on the World Athletics Indoor Tour. Her personal best is 7.98 seconds, which she ran last month at Millrose.