My Signature: Wadeline Jonathas - From Humble Beginnings to World Champion

Growing up in Gonaives, Haiti, South Carolina track and field senior Wadeline Jonathas may have come from humble beginnings, but the two-time NCAA Division I national champion is quickly becoming a rock star in her sport. Since coming to the U.S. at age 11, Jonathas was a nine-time national champion at NCAA Division III UMass-Boston before transferring to South Carolina where she was part of the Indoor 4x400m relay national championship team as well as the national champion in the Outdoor 400m last spring. She recently made more history by breaking both the South Carolina and the collegiate record in the 400m at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, finishing fourth behind some of the world’s greatest professionals and later captured a gold medal as the anchor leg of the 4x400m relay for Team USA.

I’m exhausted. I’m kind of worn out. I’m here just trying to get my energy back and try to get better.

Being the fastest collegiate runner, I haven’t wrapped my head around that yet.

When I crossed the finish line, I did not know the record was broken. I was just looking up at the board, hoping I got into third. When I saw the time, I was kind of sad that I didn’t make it on the podium, but I think the time I ran made up for that, so I was super happy to run that time.

I never dreamed I would have this much success so early, considering it just started not too long ago. I really think this is a blessing. I am proud of me for doing that. I don’t think I’ve been proud of myself much at all during this journey, so after this performance, it was a performance I deserved to be proud of.

I moved to the U.S. in 2009. I was 11 and a half. My mom was already living here. She had two kids here with one on the way, but there were four of us left in Haiti. I was living with my grandmother and grandfather. In 2009, we all came to the U.S. together.

I was only a child when I lived in Haiti. I did not really get to know life as it is there. I know there is struggle in Haiti, but I never knew what struggle was. My mom and my grandparents did everything that they could to make life as beautiful for me as possible.

The hardest part was learning the language. I went from being somewhere where everybody spoke the same language (Haitian Creole) to being somewhere that I couldn’t communicate with anyone without a translator. It was hard making friends.

“Winning never gets old because it’s a different experience every time.”

I still don’t think I’m fluent in English, but every day I learn more and get better. After the first year or two, I could communicate.

I didn’t join track until I was 16. I didn’t know what track was before that. I played basketball and volleyball and a lot of other sports. It started to hit me that I was good at this when I went to (UMass-Boston), and I started winning. I dropped three seconds in just one year, so that was a hint that I could run. Still, I didn’t know how good I could be until the next year when I broke all the records there in all the events I did.

When I came here this past year, I knew I was fast, but I didn’t really know how good I could be. That’s a good thing because sometimes you can surprise yourself!

My coaches at South Carolina have helped me a lot. I can’t even wrap my head around it, to go from the times I went from in one season. I love them. I appreciate them. I am very thankful that I ended up here. They are just amazing.

The pressure is much different competing on the international stage. It’s tougher. When I dreamt about it, I don’t think I thought it would come with all this pressure. Going through it, I think I did a fine job managing how I was able to react to the pressure. It felt really good being on that stage.

In the 400 relay, more was going through my head when I started the race. I didn’t know how far behind the other runners were. In the last home stretch, I figured out I was far ahead, and I didn’t need to kill myself, so I took it kind of easy. It happens a lot where another runner can run up on you, and I was thinking, someone might run up on me. I didn’t want to lose like that. It was a fun relay to be on. I had a pretty good lead, and there were a lot of amazing 400 runners on the team, and I’m just blessed that I’m one of the ones they chose to put on the team to run.

I was so happy that we won and to have been the one to take it home. Winning never gets old because it’s a different experience every time. It’s different competition each time.

I had a handful of people checking up on me (at the World Championships). Some of my teammates and even my role model, Allyson Felix, she was making sure that I was fine.

I don’t know what’s ahead this year. All I know is that it’s exciting, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to surprising myself again.