Rio Dream 1024x531 1 1024x531 1Shaunae Miller had long seen herself crossing the finish line ahead of her rivals, at the end of the Rio 2016 Olympics women’s 400m race on Monday night (Aug 15).

Her personal prophetess spoke to her about the vision, before she arrived in Rio, Her mom, Maybelene Miller, disclosed it all to Trackalerts.com in an interview on Tuesday (Aug 17).

“We prayed so hard for this, fasted and prayed for it and she has a personal prophetess that is assigned to her, and she (prophetess) fasted and prayed for this and she told her (Shaunae) before she came here…She said the Lord spoke to me and told me that you will win this race, this 400m, so she went into the race really comfortable that she was going to be victorious,” said Miller.

“I was not that nervous last night (Monday night, August 15), but was a little more relaxed actually,” said Miller
“I was not that nervous last night (Monday night, August 15), but was a little more relaxed actually,” said Miller

After the win, what was your reaction, being in an Olympic Stadium, watching your daughter crossing the line in first place?

“It feels good. It’s my second time watching her at the Olympics, the first time, she had to stop because of an injury, but this time it feels really good. After the race was over, I was like, oh gee; I don’t know what was the outcome. I had to wait and watch the screen, and when the screen flash up with her name, I guess she properly heard when I made the loud scream, and maybe that when she realize I did win this race,” recalled Miller, who is also the assistant secretary of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations.

She said, in her interview, that she heard you screaming ‘get up, get up’ was that a way of celebrating?

“At that time I was trying to ‘tell her get up, get up, go get the flag, come get this flag, because you did win this race, get the flag…She looked over, I was like, get up, you won, you won,” the mother said with excitement still in your voice.

Take us back to the moment they went to their marks, and then you heard the starter’s gun, how nervous were you?

“I was a little nervous, actually I did not watch it (the start)… I kept my face turned until I heard the gun shoot off and they started to run and then I turned back to the race, and watched it from then, I just wanted to see the race in action against watching them in the blocks. It had me a little nervous,” explained Miller, who is at almost every international meet in which her daughter competes.

“The very, very first time she competed on an international scene in 2011, I was there and at World Youth Championships, and I literally was hot, cold, nervous, sweating, you name it.”

But now Miller said she is getting more comfortable watching her daughter’s races.

“I was not that nervous last night (Monday night, August 15), but was a little more relaxed actually,” added the mother of three (two daughters and a son).

The mother said she tries to play a supporting role for her daughter, and that is why “most of the places she competes internationally I try to go.”

She also explained the reason. “Some people may not accept, but she likes when I am around, especially when she is competing. I am here not only as her mom, but as a motivator as well too, so she likes when I am around and so try to be there every international meets she competes at.”

What kind of person was she as a child, growing up, how was her talent discovered?

“As a child she was very quick through the house, you try to catch her, but she would bang the curve so swift, you couldn’t keep up with her.”

“I told my husband that this girl is too fast, in the house running around these corridors, we need to get her in an open yard.”

“We took her in an open yard and we had her running around in the fields, and we realized, not only is she quick, she is fast, and so we decide, let’s try her in a track meet,” explained Miller whose younger daughter Shaunice is an upcoming quarter-miler,.

“We took her to this track meet, a Saturday, of course she was a late entry into the Star Trackers Track meet, and coach Charlton was able to let us get into the meet, and she was the overall winner of Under-9 age category, the 100m, 200m and long jump, without any training or nothing,” said the Nassau resident while adding Shaunae was only entered “because her fast movements outside running around.”

Then from there, the parents thought to themselves “we said, okay, we might have a little something right here…and from there on, we kept running her in those events.”

Shaunae’s dad Shaun started to coach her before putting her in a club system. “We decided we going to try put her in a track club with a bunch of kids, and she started out with Striders track club with coach Stephen Murphy and from there she went to Club Monica under Dian Johnson (formerly Woodside), and then from there, she came back to her dad and train with him until she went off to College.”

From that time, a 7-year-old running around, then won in her first meet without training, you knew you had a star in the making?

“Yes from that time, we knew we had a star in the making,” she said because of how fast Shaunae was running around as a seven-year-old.

Shaunae first represented Bahamas as an Under-9 athlete at the CAC Age Group Championships, for multi-event athletes.

During those early years she won gold and silver medals over two years.

According to her mother, the new Olympic 400m champion still loves the high jump and long jump, especially the latter, which she hopes to do at an international meet one day.

The mother said at times, Shaunae still “joke around” with doing the high and long jump events. “She still wants to do it,” the elder Miller said of the long jump event.

According to her mother, “she jokingly told her coach … she said ‘coach if I win the Olympics 400m, can I do a long jump’.”

She said the coach told her yes, though she doesn’t know if it was jokingly, but Shaunae told her “mommy, I am holding my coach to that.”

“She won the Olympics, so I guess she is looking for a meet now to go and do the long jump,” added the smiling mother.

Outside of track and field, what kind of person is she in the home?

“Quiet, she is a person who stays to herself more. I know she probably got that pattern after me. I just like to be by myself, and I see that in her too. Sometimes she is home and you don’t even know she is home,” added Mrs Miller, who had asked for her interview to be done away from well wishers, who visited the village to congratulate Shaunae.

Now that you have an Olympic champion, your daughter, the second in your country’s history behind Tonique Williams-Darling what it is like since it happened?

“I continue to praise and thank God all night, because only through the grace of God, she was able to win that last night and the fact that the prophetess told her she was going to win, and we believed, and once we believe the prophetess, we believe the word and once we did that, and you believe, so shall it be established and it was established last night.“

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Anthony Foster is a renowned Jamaican sports journalist, honored twice as the Jamaica sports journalist of the year (in 2004 and 2005). His journalistic achievements are globally recognized. Notably, he authored an award-winning article on Usain Bolt, the iconic 6-time Olympic champion, 11-time World champion, and record holder for the sprint double. This significant piece was published in the Jamaica Gleaner in 2004. Anthony's extensive coverage includes prestigious events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016. He has also provided coverage for seven (7) World Athletics Championships held between 2007 and 2022, alongside various other international sporting events. Noteworthy mentions comprise his coverage of the 2007 World Cup of cricket and his cherished experience reporting on the 2004 clash between his favorite football team, Argentina, and the USA.

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