Sheena Tosta takes silver in the 400-meter hurdles

The first time Sheena Tosta ran the hurdles at Gar-Field High School, she stood on the carpet-covered floor inside the school.
She had never run the hurdles before. She was trying it as a secondary event.
But in her attempt to clear her first hurdle, she tripped over it and smacked her head on the floor.
“We went over to see how she was and she got up and jumped the rest of the hurdles,” Gar-Field track coach Jeff Custer said. “I was like, ‘Oh wow, she’s going to be tough.’”
And special. On Wednesday, Tosta, formerly Sheena Johnson, confirmed Custer’s faith in her abilities by winning the silver medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the Beijing Olympics.
It is Tosta’s first Olympic medal and the first time an American has medaled in the event since the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Tosta, 25, gave Custer a shout-out during a post-race interview with NBC.
Custer was one of the first people she called following her race.
“She was hyper,” Custer said. “She was pumped up. She was excited. I felt great. She wasn’t disappointed. She was like, ‘I ran my race as hard as I could.’”
Some who followed Tosta during her prep career say she never bragged about her accomplishments.
But Custer noticed her ambition. As a freshman, Tosta talked about making the Olympic team. One day, she noticed a stack of newspaper articles Custer had organized. He was using those articles to send to a committee and nominate former Gar-Field track stars Paula Girven and Benita Fitzgerald into the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame.
Girven competed in the high jump at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and Fitzgerald won a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
“I remember Sheena reading every one of those articles and I asked her ‘Are you going to do that someday?’ She said, ‘I hope so.’ So she was figuring if those two made it, how come I can’t make it? She set some pretty lofty goals.”
She succeeded by showing her aggressive nature, yet remained pleasant to be around and set her priorities straight.
“She did the little things,” Custer said. “She was humble. She was very competitive. She hated losing. She would come to practice every single day.
“She was never a problem to coach. I never had to track her down and ask, ‘Why weren’t you at practice?’ She had a 3.5, 3.6 GPA. She had her time management skills down. She knew what she wanted to do.”
Former Gar-Field principal Roger Dallek supported Tosta in her high school career. He became a fixture at meets and encouraged her to excel in her events. He keeps an autographed picture of Tosta in his basement that says ‘Mr. Dallek, thanks for your support. Love Sheena.’
“I fed the entire team pizza when the team won district or regional championships,” Dallek said. “I tried not to talk to Sheena at meets, but at those pizza parties, she was happy and glad to be among her teammates. She was not grandstanding or egotistical. She was a member of the team.”
Gigi Johnson, formerly Gigi Miller, was teammates with Tosta at Gar-Field. Johnson, who graduated in 1997, remains in contact with Tosta. Johnson knew Tosta would win a medal after running the top time in the semifinals.
“Every time she’s run, she’s gotten a little bit more experienced than the other girls,” Johnson said. “She deserved to get a medal.”
Tosta won a medal with the confidence gained from being experienced.
“The more experience they get, the more confidence they have in their abilities,” Fitzgerald Mosley said.
Custer and Gar-Field activities director Rudy Zimmermann are discussing a plan to honor Tosta at some point.
“Here was someone as a ninth grader doing an area of track she’d never done before,” Zimmermann said. “It shows that you don’t close out any options.
“Here was someone who had done something and it’s about picking yourself up and working at something because you’ve decided you’ve liked it. The dedication to that pays off for you and having a focus is the key to that.
“It shows that if you stay with something and you work hard at it, your success is determined by what you put into it.”
Tosta hopes her Olympic experience continues. She is already making plans to train for the London Games in 2012.
“She said she’s going at it again next time,” Custer said.