At first glance, the scenes are much the same: There is Anna Hall, American heptathlete, lying on the track floor of the historic Hayward Field, in Eugene, Oregon.
But when you zoom in on Hall’s face in these two particular and distinct moments, her expression tells the difference: One is filled with heartbreak and anguish; and the other? The other is bubbling over with elation, joy and accomplishment.
The first was at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, when Hall – still just 20 years old and a star on the rise – took a startling crash in the 100m hurdles, the opening event of the women’s heptathlon.
Not only did that knock Hall out of the running – and out of contention for her debut Olympics at Tokyo 2020 – she broke her navicular bone in her foot, requiring a pin to be inserted and some three months of not putting any weight on her foot.
But that second moment came at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, where Hall – in the final event of the heptathlon – scored a win in the women’s 800m to capture the bronze medal, collapsing to the track in exhaustion and glee, just 13 months removed from her disaster.
“The injury was a really big inflection point in my career,” Hall told Olympics.com recently in an exclusive interview. “I honestly don't think I would have done what I did last year had I not gotten injured. As much as it hurt and I was so upset and I cried for months and I felt so bad for myself, I really think, honestly, that was God's way of showing me, ‘Okay, you need to change the way you're looking at track.’”
(Getty Images - both)
Anna Hall: As Jackie Joyner-Kersee watches on
How Hall looks at athletics now is as a professional.
In the weeks after her bronze at Worlds in July of 2022, she announced she was signing with adidas and turning pro. Injury included, it had been a whirlwind 12 months for Hall, who had transferred from University of Georgia to Florida, winning NCAA titles both indoors and outdoors, and earning the accolades from a GOAT, two-time Olympic heptathlete champion and world record holder, Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“Anna, that fierce competitor, she kept pushing and didn’t give up,” Joyner-Kersee said on the NBC broadcast after Hall won her bronze. “She’s young and I just can’t wait to see what her future is going to be like in this event.”
"She's amazing," Joyner-Kersee concluded.
For Hall – who said she wants “to be the best ever” – the words stuck.
“It’s really humbling that somebody that I put on such a high pedestal would say those things about me,” she said of Joyner-Kersee. “And it gave me a lot of confidence going back into training because I'm like, ‘Wow, if somebody as amazing as her believes in me, then why can't I believe in myself?’”
It’s a sort of belief that she’s held since being a kid, when Hall – among four sisters who had a top-tier football quarterback father – played soccer, volleyball, lacrosse and field hockey before settling on track, experiences that she said “shaped her work ethic” and “taught me a lot mentally... making me a better athlete moving forward.”
She continued: “I think I've always had this weird internal belief in myself. I don't know where it came from because even when I was really little, I remember being like seven or eight and being like, ‘Yep, I'm going to the Olympics!’ Like, that's just what I'm going to do. People asked about a Plan B, this and that. And I was like, ‘Nope! This is what I'm going to do.’”
Making the leap from college to pro
Having turned pro last summer, Hall has remained in Gainesville, Florida, where she still attends classes (part-time) and trains under coach Mike Holloway and his team, and in the coming months will look for a second consecutive U.S. title in heptathlon at the U.S. Championships in (surprise!) Eugene (6-9 July).
A top-three finish will guarantee her a ticket to Budapest for Worlds, set for August.
She’s had a strong start to 2023, leap-frogging the North American pentathlon record with a total of 5004 points at the U.S. Indoor Championships in February. Hall became just the third female in history to achieve 5000 points or more, putting her just behind 2008 Olympic champion Nataliia Dobrynska’s 5013 from 2012.
“[That score] was something I maybe a few years ago thought I might never score,” she said. “So that was really good to feel like I'm in a great place heading into the outdoor season.”
Ankle injury from Olympic Trials included, that has been the shift for Hall as she has catapulted from the collegiate scene to the international one: The process is more long-term; the goals are more global.
“My coaches talk to me almost every day about, ‘How does this help us finish higher on the podium in Budapest?’ Everything we do is with that in mind," she said of the coming World Championships.
"Normally the peak is around 26 or 27 [years old in heptathlon], and so having just turned 22, we know I am not in a rush by any means. But I’m trying to get the most out of myself for this year to see if I can be higher than bronze.”
Anna Hall: I'm learning more about myself
It’s painful to replay that June 2021 scene: There is Hall, helped up by U.S. Track & Field medical staff, limping off the Hayward track at the U.S. Trials with her Olympic dreams shattered.
Little did the Anna on that day know how much her life was about to change – for the better.
“The injury kind of forced me to remember just why I love competing and why I loved working hard,” said Hall. “Because it's just about doing the best that I can do and reaching my fullest potential no matter what that is.”
It’s an easy statement for an athlete to make, especially an elite one, but Hall has invested in that process. She rested, rehabbed, reloaded and delivered a historic season that was capped by a World bronze medal.
But, moreover she said, she learned. About herself.
“Last year I learned, I think, more about myself than I have in the rest of the 22 years of my life,” she said, smiling.
“I would say that I'm actually thankful for [the injury]. I think it just made last year just a really great story that a lot of other people have told me they were able to relate to... or that it helped them get through an injury. And so that's been really, really special to me.”
A story for others to learn from, but also one that has made them take notice of Hall – and what comes next for her.
(2022 Getty Images)
