Olympian Spotlight: Dr. Gracie-Ann Dinkins

Finding opportunities and overcoming challenges

Dinkins enrolled in California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she took advantage of every scholarship and grant she could receive. From that point forward, track took a backseat and her education became her priority.

Ten years passed, before Dinkins found her way back to running. It was 1994, she had graduated from medical school and was two years into her surgery residency. At that moment, she decided to take a break and complete a fellowship in San Francisco. Dinkins said this allowed her to be closer to her mother who had moved to Northern California for  breast cancer treatment — sadly the illness would later claim her mother’s life. Moving to Northern California also allowed Dinkins to meet coach Sylvester Johnson.

“I used to pass by this junior college near my home and it had a track and field coach,” Dinkins said. “Sometimes they would have all-comer meets and I ran in a couple of them.”

According to Dinkins, Johnson was impressed with her performance, so he invited her to join a local women’s relay team that he was putting together.  Shortly after that, Johnson became her trainer. From August 1995 to July 1996, he trained Dinkins with an all-male group, which she said made her run harder.

“Running was where I felt I could be most myself. The only person I had to worry about on the track was myself and my coach, and that was a very comfortable spot for me.”

By the time the 1996 Olympic trials came along, Dinkins was confident and back in the swing of things. She reached out to rejoin Liberia’s team, but said she didn’t get any response.

Unwilling to let her handwork go to waste, Dinkins joined the US Olympic Team trials. By the time she advanced to the second round of the US trials, she said Liberia finally contacted her and invited her onto the 1996 team.

She’s a mentor

This time around, Dinkins was a 29-year-old resident surgeon who had one Olympic under her belt. She was the oldest member of the 1996 Liberia Olympic Team, which had a men’s 4×100 relay group and three other women. Unfortunately, the other women ended up unable to compete because of last-minute technical issues.

“I felt like a lot more weighed upon me, but I also achieved the most at that Olympics,” Dinkins said.

At the 1996 Atlanta Games the Olympic veteran was registered to run the women’s 100m and 200m. However, she discovered both times had been thrown out because they were assisted by too much wind. She had to decide whether she’d run the 400m, which was the only event she officially qualified for, or nothing at all.

This might seem like a simple choice, but Dinkins shared that she had an extreme fear of the 400m race. She had only ran it a couple times during the track season because her coach requested her to. During those rare instances she said she raced against successful 400m Olympians, which pushed her to perform at an Olympic qualifying time — even though she didn’t win those meets.

“The 400 meters, to me, was like a death race,” Dinkins said. “I used to have this horrible little fantasy that if I ran the 400 meter like I was supposed to, I’d drop dead at the 300 meter mark. My heart would just go into arrhythmia and just drop.”

That day, Dinkins said she walked through the Olympic village crying real tears. When she passed an older male Olympic volunteer, Dinkins remembers him stopping her and asking if he could pray with her. She excitedly accepted the prayer and went to her room to prepare for what she thought would be her last day on earth.

Of course, she survived the race. In fact, she placed third in her heat finishing in a record-setting 51.83. Soon after she crossed the finish line Dinkins recalls walking through the stadium tunnel and passing out. When she woke up, someone was giving her oxygen in the medic room. She’d had a brief panic attack, but was okay.

1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, Women’s 400m round 1 heat 2. Dinkins in lane 1 placed third and advanced to next round.

After leaving the medic room, Dinkins did everything a runner is not supposed to do. She went to her room, took a nap, woke up, and then soaked her aching muscles in hot water at the treatment center.

“After you run the 400 meters, you’re actually supposed to stick your legs in an ice bath for five minutes to remove the lactic acid from your body,” Dinkins said. “The next morning I woke up and had spaghetti legs.”

During the Games, Dinkins’ personal coach wasn’t allowed access to the Olympic Village and the Liberian team coach wasn’t much help. This amateur mistake possibly cost Dinkins the next race, but she still made it to the finish line ending her 1996 appearance at the quarter finals.

“I would have done better had I had some guidance,” Dinkins said.

Luckily the guidance Dinkins received from coach Johnson throughout her training, inspired her to gradually transition into the mentorship-phase of her athletic career.

Final Game and legacy

After Atlanta, Dinkins continued both track and medicine. The 2000 Sydney Olympics was her final Game. She ran some years after that then transitioned into mentorship.

Before ever speaking with Dinkins, I’d heard her name several times among young Liberian athletes. Runners like Phobay Lolik and Jangy Addy had cited her support as part of their success. During our interview, I learned Dinkins had even taken an under-20 team from Liberia to Morocco in 2005. She raved about the only two young women on that team.

“I was so happy to share with the young women that went, my joy, satisfaction, and all of the things I got out of running,” Dinkins said.

She also took a team to Mauritius in 2006 and to Ethiopia in 2007. Additionally, Dinkins acted as the team physician at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and team manager at the  2012 London Games.

But her legacy extends far beyond the track. As a surgeon, she fights death, and as a clinical assistant professor she’s enriched minds. Her philanthropic work is shown in the numerous volunteer trips she’s taken to perform special surgeries abroad. She even sits on her alma mater’s philanthropic board , while directing her own nonprofit, Kutoa Afrika Foundation (KAF).

Dinkins shared her organization’s 2022 activity report with GTL, and I was impressed with all the work KAF has done in Liberia. The organization installed two hand pumps in Kakata. It helped facilitate a computer program. It’s created a safe space at Hilltop Academy, while also donating 150 desks to an elementary school. Also the organization transformed a large storage container into an air-conditioned classroom that holds 15 students. This is just  a few of the accomplishments listed in the report.

Dinkins is truly a legend, but her service to others is her greatest legacy. She graciously shared her Olympic journey with me, but made sure to remind me that winning a medal or making it to the Olympics is not the most valuable part of the process.

“The value starts in our school yards, classrooms, clubs, and in the little communities that develop around athletes,” she said. “That’s where the value actually starts.”

Listen and read Dinkins’ Q&A below (lightly edited for clarity and brevity).

Hello my name is Gracie-Ann Dinkins. I am a Liberian Olympic athlete and I have competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born in Oakland, California. My parents were both Liberians, who were foreign students in Northern California — my father attending UC-Berkeley and my mother attending San Francisco State. At the age of five, they temporarily suspended their education and decided to return to Liberia, bringing me and my baby brother with them.

I remained in Liberia from age five to 18. I completed my elementary and senior high school there. I’m a Friskies graduate,   that is I graduated from St. Teresa’s Convent, and I spent two years at the University of Liberia, and that is where I became active in track and field — running for the University of Liberia.

What do you love about Liberia?

I believe our country is a unique experience. To be a Liberian is truly something you have to just live in order to appreciate.

I’ve never, for one minute regretted being a Liberian or competing for Liberia. I love our openness. I love our expressiveness. I love our sense of community. I love the way that I’ve been welcomed into families, clans and tribes. I love going home, especially to Cape Mount and to Robertsport, and wandering that sleepy little town with buildings that are left over from the late 1800s, the early 1900s, and watching some of the best surf in the world.

I loved the rain, the rainy season, although it makes the roads kind of hard. I love a lot of things about Liberia, but most of all, I loved representing my country when I had the chance.

When did you start running and how did you end up on the Liberia Olympic Team?

it was 1984, and I think the first thing I remember about that year is reading a Time magazine that somehow wandered into my grandmother’s home. It was a review of all of the US athletes  competing for the US that year. It included, Evelyn Ashworth, Carl Lewis and so many notables.

I remember reading that article and feeling so excited about the chance of even competing at the same level with those athletes. So when the call went out for any athlete who was interested to come to the Antoinette Tubman Stadium and compete, I was there.

I remember my chief competitor was my cousin, who was a basketball star athlete for Cuttington University so we had met on the track before. I remember being both scared and determined to win. I did win that day and I remember I just kept trotting right out of the stadium cause I really didn’t wanna get beat up.

What’s your favorite sports event and what do you miss most about being on the team?

My favorite event is the 200 meters. Why? It’s simple. The 100 meters is over too soon for you to really enjoy it, and the 400 meters is rather painful, especially the last 50 meters. So running a curve and the straight meant the joy and the thrill of burning up the curve and then just lasting down the straight. As soon as it really started to hurt, the race was over.

So, I’d say the race that I had the most fun running was the 200 meters. The 400 meters, although painful, I believe is the race that combines speed with endurance. I do believe that it’s the classic race and the one that I enjoy watching the most, simply because I also can relate to all of the grimaces and the strain that I see on the sprinters’ faces as they come home.

What’s your favorite Olympic memory?

The three teams that I competed in were very different teams, and that was because in one team I was 17 years old, the next team I was 29 years old, and in my last team I was 34 years old.

1984

All three experiences are very different. For the first one in Los Angeles, I was a raw rookie, and it was more of Gracie on this amazing vacation trip. I ran once and found the experience to be overwhelming — really it was a blur. I was dissatisfied with my result. I believe I was seventh out of eight athletes.

I just turned off  the competitive part of myself, after the race, and just enjoyed Los Angeles hanging out with my teammates who were all male and much older than me. They were protective of me and looked after me. I had a great time.

1996

The second Olympics that I competed in was in Atlanta. I was definitely an older athlete — older than most of the others. I’d had time to begin to understand some of the challenges of being an African athlete on the African team and it was a lot more stressful. I felt like a lot more weighed upon me, but I also achieved the most at that Olympics.

That was certainly the most significant Olympic experience for me. In that one, I ran a race that I really wasn’t looking forward to running, which was the 400 meters. I set our National Olympic record at that time, and I also had a close up glimpse of what it is to be a leader on a team.

2000

The Sydney Olympics was sort of a sunset Olympics for me. I was 34 years old dealing with a lot of injuries. That was more of a farewell type of tour. Liberia needed representation and I managed to meet the qualifying time. I also went with another female athlete — we remain dear friends to this day. It was my first time actually having another woman on an Olympic team that ran with me, so that was good.

I spent most of the time realizing that this was it. I’d have to transition into another role for track and field, if I continued to be active in the sport.

What’s your #1 advice to an athlete who wants to become an Olympian?

I believe, and I think this is probably something that many athletes already know, you generally cannot get to the Olympics by yourself.

You need to have a personal team. It will consist of obvious people like your coach and trainer, and it may include people like your advisor and people used as a sounding board. It may be your nearest and dearest or a financial sponsor, but you definitely need a team.

An athlete is basically a package consisting of the athlete with their raw talent, along with people who are willing to mentor and develop that talent, have the athlete’s best interests at heart, and stay committed to ensuring that the athlete gets what they need for success.

Some of the most bitter tales in track and field consists of athletes who have world shattering talent, but inadequate coaching or people giving them wrong advice.

What’s an interesting fact about you that not many people know?

I carry a javelin in my car — an adult size women’s javelin.

Very rarely, maybe once or twice a month, I will take that javelin and drive to my favorite spot, which is in some parks that overlook the sea, and not many people go there, and I love to just throw that javelin.

I have never received javelin coaching, but I look on YouTube and I’ll look at some professional javelin throwers and I will throw the javelin and make it as far as 30 meters. I just love throwing it and picking it up and taking it back. Sometimes that’s how I get rid of a lot of pent up stress.

What do you miss the most about competing and what’s life like after sports?

What I miss the most about competing as an athlete is the ability to go out on a track and survey it — jog around the field. I immediately enjoy this sense of calmness and serenity. I often think of the track as a place of prayer sometimes.

I miss having that time and the opportunity to go out there and jog around the grassy field, stretch listening to my music and just enjoy the outdoors — the peace and few people who are out there doing similar things in their world. That whole atmosphere is what I really miss. I also miss the competition, the anticipation, the excitement. I love warming up even more than cooling down.

I simply apply that competitive spirit to other fields. It was not hard to transition from track and field to medicine. All of the disciplines that I was exposed to seemed to be a natural fit. It still is. My field of competition is different, I now, of course, fight against deaths, disabilities, sicknesses and diseases. I still enjoy the victories and try my best not to be defeated too often.

After I stopped competing, I became a track team manager for a long time and a physician on the Olympic team a couple times. There are other places to direct my energy now. I also go on surgical volunteer missions. I’ve been going to Cambodia for the last five years, and my legacy, I hope, will be my nonprofit foundation Kutoa Afrika, where we try to bring change to communities in crisis.

Readers can stay in touch with Dinkins by following her foundation on Instagram at @kutoaafrika. Supporters can also keep up with her on the Liberia Olympians social media pages – @liberiaolympians.

The Olympian Spotlight Series is a monthly project that features the journeys and lives of Liberia’s Olympians. Not only does the project highlight their lives as athletes, it expresses their views as Liberians and showcases life after professional sports. Its goal is to honor these athletes and encourage readers who may want to support or become an Olympian themselves.

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