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Hey, it’s not just about track. Those words stood out to me, as I spoke with Sayon Cooper over the phone. Cooper, who is the current head coach for the Liberia track and field Olympic team, has a history with the team that goes all the way back to 1996.
That year he represented Liberia in the men’s 100m and 4×100 race at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. His most memorable moment was entering the Olympic Stadium behind the Liberian flag. As many 1996 Liberian Olympians have stated, that specific moment represented the hope Liberians felt, despite the ongoing civil war that was happening at the same time.
“We came down that aisle when nobody else thought that Liberia was even going to participate in such an event,” Cooper told Go Team Liberia. That moment was bigger than just track and field.
Four years later, Cooper returned to the Olympics in Sydney to represent Liberia in the men’s 100m, 200m, and 4×100 events. He even advanced to the men’s 100m quarterfinals where he raced against Maurice Greene, the 1999 men’s 100m world-record holder. And with all of his success on the track, Cooper kept reminding me that his experiences were bigger than just track and field.
He made lifelong friends, got access to a better education, found a meaningful career outside and inside of sports, and built a loving and supportive family. Cooper insists that his speed was a gift from God that opened bigger doors.
Listen and read Cooper’s Q&A below (lightly edited for clarity and brevity. Interview taken in Feb. 2023).
Hi my name is Sayon Cooper. I’m a former Olympian for the country of Liberia. I competed in the 1996 Olympics and the 2000 Olympic Games.
Where were you born and where
did you grow up?
At the age of two, I moved from Liberia to Queens, New York, to be with my mother. And due to lack of childcare for me, I relocated back home to Liberia to live with my great-grandmother, the late Beatrice Blamo in the Point Four New Kru Town area. Then I later moved to Sinkor Old Road to live with my paternal grandmother, Ms. Cecilia Perkins Cooper.
We moved from Liberia in 1990 because of the war. Of course, so many people migrated at the same time, but we moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, then later in ’91 we moved to Germantown, Maryland, where I finished high school.
What do you love about Liberia?
First and foremost, we are the first African Republic to obtain their independence, which I think speaks a lot about Liberia and the culture. I love their food. Everybody loves cassava leaf, but jollof rice is my favorite. And of course, I love the beaches.
When I grew up in Liberia, we weren’t far from the beaches. So the tropical area and the beaches, that, I love. And I love my people. They’re very loyal people and they’re loving. Those are the things that I really envy about Liberia and love
Photo credit: Mike Egerton/PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo — G8M1X3 Athletics – Sixth IAAF World Championship – Athens 1997 – Men’s 200m First Round. Liberia’s Sayon Cooper .
When did you start running and how did you end up on the Liberia Olympic Team?
I started running in my junior year of high school, and this was just by default because I was a soccer player. All I wanted to do was play soccer and hopefully go to the World Cup with Liberia. That was my first athletic goal. But I went on the soccer team in Maryland, at Seneca Valley High School, then I went out for track and started winning.
I didn’t lose a race until the state championships in 1991 in Maryland. After that, I ran track. I ran for Ed Waters and the Phoenix Express team. We had coach Garfield Moore, bless his soul, rest in peace — he’s passed. He discovered me and he said, “Hey, you have the talent to earn yourself a scholarship.”
I believed him. He did his coaching, and I just followed and then ended up earning a full scholarship at Central State University in Ohio. I went to Central State, and I had another outstanding coach, the late Joshua Culbreath, who was a former Olympian for the US and the bronze medalist in the 1956 Olympic Games in the 400 meter hurdle for team USA. I went under his wings and he really inspired me to take this opportunity and shape my life any way I wanted to.
As I was running track for Central State, I came across Kouty Mawenh. He was running for Butler University. Kouty, of course, told me about the opportunity for Team Liberia.
Since then, we connected and next thing you know, we were driving down to the ’96 Olympic games. He and I listened to Tupac all the way down. So that’s how it happened. If I didn’t run for Central, I don’t know how I would’ve ran into Kouty, but it was just one of those things that happened and the rest was history.
What’s your favorite sports event and what do you miss most about being on the team?
My favorite sport, apart from track, is American football. Then it’s basketball. It’s just something about American football. It’s a lot of strategy that goes into it. There’s a combination of speed, jumps, cuts, so you get the whole athletic areas that you can have in the face of the game.
When it comes to track and field, the 100 meters was one of my favorites. The rush to be at a top-end speed, that was just something I really enjoyed doing, just feeling that energy. I miss the camaraderie with team Liberia and the relationship that we had from the 1996 team. That team was the team that really shaped what we are seeing now today.
I really miss running with my teammates on that relay team and just getting to know them — Robert Dennis, Eddie Neufville, and Kouty Mawenh. We even had some other teammate over the years, but that ’96 relay team, I really missed just being around them and wanting to put Liberia on the map and make history. And we had Grace Dinkins on there, who was the only female at the time.
We all did things further on in our life that meant something. Grace being a surgeon, Kouty having a master’s in business, I mastered in public health, Robert and Eddie both became lawyers. The message was hey, it’s not just about track. It’s about making an impact in your community, doing the things that you’d love to do, but use track and field as a leverage to get to where you need to be.
That’s the goal we are trying to share with these young upcoming superstars.
Photo credit: Mike Egerton/PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo — G8M1X3 Athletics – Sixth IAAF World Championship – Athens 1997 – Men’s 200m First Round. Frank Fredericks of Namibia (centre), Liberia’s Sayon Cooper (right) and Zimbabwe’s Phillip Mukomana (left).
What’s your favorite Olympic memory?
My first Olympics was really memorable and monumental because, at the time, Liberia was going through a really nasty, brutal civil war. There was no hope, at the time, of us really becoming a nation that other people would be proud of. So we wanted to make something to give us some hope.
When we had the 1996 Opening Ceremony, that was my most memorable moment. We came down that aisle when nobody else thought that Liberia was even going to participate in such an event. That moment of us just being together and raising that flag and walking down the aisle, just sending that whole message across the world like, “Hey, Liberia is here.” We’re not going to just be a country that is described as a war torn country, but a country that would thrive from this and move forward.
In 2000, me being in the quarter finals of the 100, just representing the country and running against Maurice Green, the fastest man at the time and former world record holder, those are moments that I’ll always have with me — to be looked at as one of the best sprinters in the world in 2000. Making the world list those things mean a lot to me because it just goes to show that hard work does pay off and if you set your mind to something, you can always achieve it.
What’s your #1 advice to an
athlete who wants to become
an Olympian?
I always tell them nothing is given to you on a silver platter. You have to work hard for everything. We now live in a society where a lot of young athletes think they can get these things overnight, but I try to let ’em know things don’t happen overnight. You first have to dream it and believe it and then put things in motion and then work your way up the ladder because there will be obstacles, there will be barriers, but the name of the game is don’t quit.
Keep grinding because all those athletes that they see on that podium, I guarantee have a lot of ups and downs that people doesn’t see, but they just see the finished product and they think, oh, I want to be that. There’ll be a lot of ups and downs, but keep working hard and trusting the Lord because at the end of the day, you’re going to need His grace.
What’s an interesting fact about you that not many people know?
Many people don’t know that I own a youth track club and I have gotten scholarships for all my seniors. One hundred percent of my seniors have earned themselves a college scholarship and I started this team for two reasons.
One was because my former coach, who was my club coach in high school, coach Garfield Moore always said, I want you to do the same I did for you to someone else. Help someone get to college because education is something that people cannot take away from you. You can be track star or basketball star for just so long, but your education is number one.
So I started a track club because of that, and to also develop my own talent. I’m not going to go and try to be an opportunist, wait for a talent to come, and then say, “oh, let me come and coach you.” This helps me get my own talent and then get them into college. Once they finish college, they can come back and then we can continue that journey.
I have my track club. We’re just called Cooper Track Stars. We have several AAU champions, national champions, all-Americans, and we are well known in Georgia and now around the country.
What do you miss the most about competing and what’s life like after sports?
I miss the travel and the competition. I miss the relationships that I’ve built over the years with other athletes from other countries and just learning new cultures and stuff as I went to those countries. Most of my friends are those who I built those relationships with when I was running during those years.
You learn so much, you get to appreciate what you do and all the things that God has blessed you with. Right now, I love being a father away from the track and field world.
I’m married to my wife, Tangi Cooper and we have a blended family of five kids. Those are all my kids and right now my thing is to make sure they live the life that they want to live and just be there for ’em. I enjoy my family because without them, life would probably be a little stale, but they keep me going and I like the support that I receive from them.
And another thing, I really believe in God and try to live a life that reflects that. I do believe in that one Being who drives everything. In a nutshell, that’s me off the track.
Readers can stay in touch with Cooper by following him on Facebook at @sayoncooper. Supporters can also keep up with him on the Liberia Olympians social media page – @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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Hey, it’s not just about track. Those words stood out to me, as I spoke with Sayon Cooper over the phone. Cooper, who is the current head coach for the Liberia track and field Olympic team, has a history with the team that goes all the way back to 1996.
That year he represented Liberia in the men’s 100m and 4×100 race at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. His most memorable moment was entering the Olympic Stadium behind the Liberian flag. As many 1996 Liberian Olympians have stated, that specific moment represented the hope Liberians felt, despite the ongoing civil war that was happening at the same time.
“We came down that aisle when nobody else thought that Liberia was even going to participate in such an event,” Cooper told Go Team Liberia. That moment was bigger than just track and field.
Four years later, Cooper returned to the Olympics in Sydney to represent Liberia in the men’s 100m, 200m, and 4×100 events. He even advanced to the men’s 100m quarterfinals where he raced against Maurice Greene, the 1999 men’s 100m world-record holder. And with all of his success on the track, Cooper kept reminding me that his experiences were bigger than just track and field.
He made lifelong friends, got access to a better education, found a meaningful career outside and inside of sports, and built a loving and supportive family. Cooper insists that his speed was a gift from God that opened bigger doors.
Listen and read Cooper’s Q&A below (lightly edited for clarity and brevity. Interview taken in Feb. 2023).
Hi my name is Sayon Cooper. I’m a former Olympian for the country of Liberia. I competed in the 1996 Olympics and the 2000 Olympic Games.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
At the age of two, I moved from Liberia to Queens, New York, to be with my mother. And due to lack of childcare for me, I relocated back home to Liberia to live with my great-grandmother, the late Beatrice Blamo in the Point Four New Kru Town area. Then I later moved to Sinkor Old Road to live with my paternal grandmother, Ms. Cecilia Perkins Cooper.
We moved from Liberia in 1990 because of the war. Of course, so many people migrated at the same time, but we moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, then later in ’91 we moved to Germantown, Maryland, where I finished high school.
What do you love about Liberia?
First and foremost, we are the first African Republic to obtain their independence, which I think speaks a lot about Liberia and the culture. I love their food. Everybody loves cassava leaf, but jollof rice is my favorite. And of course, I love the beaches.
When I grew up in Liberia, we weren’t far from the beaches. So the tropical area and the beaches, that, I love. And I love my people. They’re very loyal people and they’re loving. Those are the things that I really envy about Liberia and love.
Photo credit: Mike Egerton/PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo — G8M1X3 Athletics – Sixth IAAF World Championship – Athens 1997 – Men’s 200m First Round. Frank Fredericks of Namibia (centre), Liberia’s Sayon Cooper (right) and Zimbabwe’s Phillip Mukomana (left).
When did you start running and how did you end up on the Liberia Olympic Team?
I started running in my junior year of high school, and this was just by default because I was a soccer player. All I wanted to do was play soccer and hopefully go to the World Cup with Liberia. That was my first athletic goal. But I went on the soccer team in Maryland, at Seneca Valley High School, then I went out for track and started winning.
I didn’t lose a race until the state championships in 1991 in Maryland. After that, I ran track. I ran for Ed Waters and the Phoenix Express team. We had coach Garfield Moore, bless his soul, rest in peace — he’s passed. He discovered me and he said, “Hey, you have the talent to earn yourself a scholarship.”
I believed him. He did his coaching, and I just followed and then ended up earning a full scholarship at Central State University in Ohio. I went to Central State, and I had another outstanding coach, the late Joshua Culbreath, who was a former Olympian for the US and the bronze medalist in the 1956 Olympic Games in the 400 meter hurdle for team USA. I went under his wings and he really inspired me to take this opportunity and shape my life any way I wanted to.
As I was running track for Central State, I came across Kouty Mawenh. He was running for Butler University. Kouty, of course, told me about the opportunity for Team Liberia.
Since then, we connected and next thing you know, we were driving down to the ’96 Olympic games. He and I listened to Tupac all the way down. So that’s how it happened. If I didn’t run for Central, I don’t know how I would’ve ran into Kouty, but it was just one of those things that happened and the rest was history.
What’s your favorite sports event and what do you miss most about being on the team?
My favorite sport, apart from track, is American football. Then it’s basketball. It’s just something about American football. It’s a lot of strategy that goes into it. There’s a combination of speed, jumps, cuts, so you get the whole athletic areas that you can have in the face of the game.
When it comes to track and field, the 100 meters was one of my favorites. The rush to be at a top-end speed, that was just something I really enjoyed doing, just feeling that energy. I miss the camaraderie with team Liberia and the relationship that we had from the 1996 team. That team was the team that really shaped what we are seeing now today.
I really miss running with my teammates on that relay team and just getting to know them — Robert Dennis, Eddie Neufville, and Kouty Mawenh. We even had some other teammate over the years, but that ’96 relay team, I really missed just being around them and wanting to put Liberia on the map and make history. And we had Grace Dinkins on there, who was the only female at the time.
We all did things further on in our life that meant something. Grace being a surgeon, Kouty having a master’s in business, I mastered in public health, Robert and Eddie both became lawyers. The message was hey, it’s not just about track. It’s about making an impact in your community, doing the things that you’d love to do, but use track and field as a leverage to get to where you need to be.
That’s the goal we are trying to share with these young upcoming superstars.
Photo credit: Allstar Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo — Cooper in men’s 200m at 2000 Sydney Olympics.
What’s your favorite Olympic memory?
My first Olympics was really memorable and monumental because, at the time, Liberia was going through a really nasty, brutal civil war. There was no hope, at the time, of us really becoming a nation that other people would be proud of. So we wanted to make something to give us some hope.
When we had the 1996 Opening Ceremony, that was my most memorable moment. We came down that aisle when nobody else thought that Liberia was even going to participate in such an event. That moment of us just being together and raising that flag and walking down the aisle, just sending that whole message across the world like, “Hey, Liberia is here.” We’re not going to just be a country that is described as a war torn country, but a country that would thrive from this and move forward.
In 2000, me being in the quarter finals of the 100, just representing the country and running against Maurice Green, the fastest man at the time and former world record holder, those are moments that I’ll always have with me — to be looked at as one of the best sprinters in the world in 2000. Making the world list those things mean a lot to me because it just goes to show that hard work does pay off and if you set your mind to something, you can always achieve it.
What’s your #1 advice to an athlete who wants to become an Olympian?
I always tell them nothing is given to you on a silver platter. You have to work hard for everything. We now live in a society where a lot of young athletes think they can get these things overnight, but I try to let ’em know things don’t happen overnight. You first have to dream it and believe it and then put things in motion and then work your way up the ladder because there will be obstacles, there will be barriers, but the name of the game is don’t quit.
Keep grinding because all those athletes that they see on that podium, I guarantee have a lot of ups and downs that people doesn’t see, but they just see the finished product and they think, oh, I want to be that. There’ll be a lot of ups and downs, but keep working hard and trusting the Lord because at the end of the day, you’re going to need His grace.
What’s an interesting fact about you that not many people know?
Many people don’t know that I own a youth track club and I have gotten scholarships for all my seniors. One hundred percent of my seniors have earned themselves a college scholarship and I started this team for two reasons.
One was because my former coach, who was my club coach in high school, coach Garfield Moore always said, I want you to do the same I did for you to someone else. Help someone get to college because education is something that people cannot take away from you. You can be track star or basketball star for just so long, but your education is number one.
So I started a track club because of that, and to also develop my own talent. I’m not going to go and try to be an opportunist, wait for a talent to come, and then say, “oh, let me come and coach you.” This helps me get my own talent and then get them into college. Once they finish college, they can come back and then we can continue that journey.
I have my track club. We’re just called Cooper Track Stars. We have several AAU champions, national champions, all-Americans, and we are well known in Georgia and now around the country.
What do you miss the most about competing and what’s life like after sports?
I miss the travel and the competition. I miss the relationships that I’ve built over the years with other athletes from other countries and just learning new cultures and stuff as I went to those countries. Most of my friends are those who I built those relationships with when I was running during those years.
You learn so much, you get to appreciate what you do and all the things that God has blessed you with. Right now, I love being a father away from the track and field world.
I’m married to my wife, Tangi Cooper and we have a blended family of five kids. Those are all my kids and right now my thing is to make sure they live the life that they want to live and just be there for ’em. I enjoy my family because without them, life would probably be a little stale, but they keep me going and I like the support that I receive from them.
And another thing, I really believe in God and try to live a life that reflects that. I do believe in that one Being who drives everything. In a nutshell, that’s me off the track.
Readers can stay in touch with Cooper by following him on Facebook at @sayoncooper. Supporters can also keep up with him on the Liberia Olympians social media page – @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.
Congratulations Sayon!
This is your former Indoor Track and Field Coach from Seneca Valley in Maryland.
You have dedicated your unselfish life to inspiring athletes, but you have made many significant life achievements yourself!
I am so proud to have had shared a small part of your life.
I am very happy to see what you have and will help others to accomplish. Yes when Liberia civil War the world thought Liberia was no more but look where we are now. Education is the best thing to keep improvement. Your family give you another chance to train encourage and uplift young people create their dreams .Thank you for all you have done to keep our country smiling, with you family ; “LONE STAR FOREVER”. The Cooper Liberian family is large with its beginning’s in Maryland and Virginia USA. We keep you and the old and new team members in prayer to help themselves and others. “Forward ever backward never”