Suzy is 48 and living the “California Girl” life in Manhattan Beach, an L.A. suburb.
In February 2016,
I wrote here about an Olympian with a mental illness who briefly led a life as a high-priced Las Vegas call girl. I gave it the headline: “Memo to Suzy Favor Hamilton: Masters track would welcome you.” I noted
her account on the BBC website, and I posted my invitation on her blog. She either didn’t see it or didn’t feel like responding. So I left it there. But two weeks ago, a publicity lady for Jewish Family Service of San Diego wrote me about Suzy speaking at a May 15 luncheon in La Jolla and asked: “May I set up an interview for you?” Duh, YEAH! I spoke to Suzy for an hour, and
here’s the resulting story on Times of San Diego. The big news: She turns 50 in August 2018 and “definitely would” be interested in Senior Olympics — in her old events of the 800 and 1500. (She was a three-time Olympian and won a bunch of NCAA titles at Wisconsin.) Since she so courageously answered my questions, I felt emboldened to use the first person in my story. Hope you like it.
4 Responses
Great story, Ken…and Suzy’s work to destigmatize bipolar disorder is important.
It’s still a stigma? Thought that was so 2000.
Not interested in seeing the film if it is made, but I would be interested in seeing the W50 800 go down. 2:16 is pretty tough though.
I’m a little concerned she may be exploiting bipolarism in order to justify her actions and she seems to thrive on the attention, but I guess I should just keep that opinion to myself.. to late.
Glad to see that Suzy is getting her life back together and is doing well. Also glad to hear that she is planning on giving masters track and field a try. Perhaps age group records in her events will be threatened or broken. Certainly we should all welcome her into the larger masters track and field family. One caveat though is her taking of Strattera for ADHD. An amphetamine class medication, it is a banned substance for athletic competition unless she can get a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). If that can be done, she should have time to do so, since she is 48 and does not plan on competing until age 50. If that cannot be done, perhaps there is another effective, or even somewhat less effective, medication not on the banned list. If that also cannot be done, she will be confronted with the choice of continuing to take an effective medication and forsake masters track and field, stop taking the medication and perhaps have her ADHD less well controlled, or take the chance of being drug tested and labeled with the stigma of being a “drug cheat”, which is the last thing that she needs as she seems to be getting her life back together.
Excellent story
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