Inger Miller aiming for another Olympic Gold

Inger Miller and her father hold the distinction of being the only family in athletics to have won Olympic medals. The distinction doesn’t end there though, because the achievement also makes them the only pair to win Olympic medals representing separate countries.

Inger is the daughter of Jamaican 1968 Olympic 100-metre silver medallist and former 4 by 100-metre relay world record holder Lennox Miller. She gained the accolade as part of the United States gold medal winning relay team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. That victory holds special meaning as the athlete had a lucky escape, and made the US Olympic team just five weeks after her car flipped three times on the freeway.

The native of Los Angeles, California has had a fair amount of success representing the United States, winning gold medals as part of the U.S.A’s 4 by 100 metre relay teams not only at the 1996 Olympics but also at the 1995 World Student Games, the 1997 and 2001 World Championships and the 1998 World Cup. Miller’s biggest individual achievement came in 1999 when she won the 200-metre World Championship title. The athlete has also been a recipient of the Jesse Owens Award.

Miller, who holds dual citizenship, says she gets a chance to visit Jamaica now and then, though she says it’s been a while since she has landed on the Caribbean island’s shores.

” I’ve actually come almost every year for the last couple of years on vacation to visit family. I have not been there for competition since 1996. I would love to come back one of these days, maybe next year,” she said.

The petite athlete has been plagued by injury in recent years. She had gone into the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia as a medal favourite in the 100 and 200-metre events as well as the 4 by 100-metre relay. She was however forced to withdraw just days before the first qualifying rounds of the 100 metres and was later forced to pull out of the Olympics entirely with a strained left hamstring, an injury she suffered in early September 2000.

Naturally, the injuries have upset her, ” It’s been very difficult to recover from the injuries, both physically and mentally. But I think that I’ve finally found my balance and things are going very well at this point.”

That hasn’t stopped Miller though, and she was part of the United States winning 4 by 100-metre relay team at the recent Penn Relays in Philadelphia. She has been making slow progress but is building up her strength once again, ” I’m happy with the progression…(I’ll) run a couple of open races in the next couple of weeks,” she told all woman.

Miller has been working hard to get back into shape and prepare for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in August. She says her preparation has also been going well and she hopes to make the US team at the national trials, ” I’m definitely looking forward to that. My form is coming back and I think that I should be a force to reckon with come Olympic trials and then come Athens,” she explained. “Basically I wouldn’t be running if it wasn’t for those goals. My goals are set for gold in the Olympics. This is probably the last time I’ll have an opportunity to do it so I really want to make this year very good.”

Miller thinks that the Athens Olympic Games will be her last, but she does however say she won’t stop competing just yet. The sprinter, who holds a degree in biological sciences/pre-veterinary medicine and is involved in business as well, may go into that full-time after retiring. ” After my career in athletics I do have a couple of other businesses that I have going at this point and I’ll probably be a small businesswoman,” she said.

Once coached by her father Lennox, Inger is goddaughter to Jamaican sprinting legend Donald Quarrie who also won Olympic Gold in the 200 metres in 1976 in Montreal, Canada. Quarrie also coached her for some time but she now trains with John Smith whom she has been with since 1999.

Although the athlete doesn’t haven’t have a definite plan to go into coaching when she retires, she does say it is an option. ” I haven’t really thought about coaching, I don’t think I have the patience for it, but if the opportunity arises, maybe.”

Dania Bogle is a sports journalist with KLAS Sports Radio.