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Power of Perseverance

mariolowesr@gmail.com (mario lowe) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:48:38 GMT

Four-time Olympic high jumper Chaunte Lowe is a master at overcoming obstacles — both literally and figuratively. "I believe that resilience is a muscle," says Lowe. "It's something that you have to work out each and every day."

In addition to her physical accomplishments as an American high jump record holder and four-time Olympian, Lowe is also a professional speaker, mother of three, and cancer "thriver," which she defines as someone who, no matter the circumstances, finds the optimism and positivity they need to accomplish their goals. "Throughout my whole entire life, I feel like I've cultivated a life of optimism," explains Lowe. "As I face small obstacles, I take that as a challenge to be able to find a solution."

In the summer of 2019 at the age of 34, Lowe was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma triple-negative breast cancer — an extremely aggressive, fast-growing form of cancer. "When I heard those words, I was extremely devastated," she shares. "I couldn't imagine that a world-class athlete — [and] the healthiest that I had ever been — would face something like cancer."

In case you don't know, around one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Though her diagnosis was hard to grapple with, Lowe had known something was not right and continued to advocate for herself when doctors initially insisted the lump she had felt during her self-breast exam was just a lymph node. "Had I not listened to my body, [not gone] back for that second opinion, I may not be sitting here today," says Lowe.

Unfortunately, being misdiagnosed is an all too common occurrence, especially for people of color. "African-American women are 40 percent more likely than our white-women counterparts to die of this disease," says Lowe. "I know that the statistics suggest that there are other women just like me that are being misdiagnosed and not listened to." And according to the American Cancer Society , when detected early in the localized phase, the breast cancer survival rate is about 90 percent — which makes early (and accurate) diagnoses even more critical.

Like a true athlete, Lowe approached her breast cancer diagnosis as though it was her next Olympic medal journey. "Once I figured out the process that it took to get to the Olympics one time, I just put that on rinse, wash, and repeat," says Lowe. She applied that same perseverance toward her breast cancer journey. Lowe started with building her support system — aka coaches and teammates, in athlete terms. She assembled a team of doctors who were able to take her from diagnosis to eventually being cancer free. She also called on her own support system, an essential step to Lowe's path forward. "I relied on my allies," she shares. "I realized I needed to find a community, people who understood what I was going through and would be able to help me through it."

Her search for support led her to the V Foundation , an organization that has contributed over $310 million toward cancer research over the past 30 years. Once Lowe reached the other side of her breast cancer journey, she wanted to find a way to share the lessons she'd learned about building resilience — both as an athlete and cancer thriver — with others. "The V Foundation has been amazing in allowing me to be able to share my story and use my voice to advance the research that they're already working toward," says Lowe.

Since her cancer diagnosis, Lowe has dedicated her time and efforts toward speaking out and spreading awareness for cancer, from big stages such as TEDx to smaller, more intimate engagements. "I don't care if you have a group of four girls you want me to talk to, you call me up and I will talk to them because my story has value — I understand that is what I have at my disposal," says Lowe.

Lowe continues to spread awareness in hopes that her story will help others get the diagnosis and care they need to become cancer thrivers. "My greatest and next goal is to continue to use the gifts that I've been given to be able to spread this message about early detection and research, but also to give inspiration and hope and arm any group with the toolset to be able to persevere because it's the story of my life," says Lowe. "What's the point of living life if you don't use it to serve others?"

Olympian Chaunte Lowe Beat Cancer, Covid And Now She's Fighting To Make A Difference At The Summer Games

mariolowesr@gmail.com (mario lowe) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:47:17 GMT

"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN ONE THAT'S FACED CHALLENGES HEAD ON.”

Olympian Chaunte Lowe has been through a lot, but you wouldn’t know that from the megawatt smile on her face over Zoom. The 37-year-old recently beat breast cancer. Despite a compromised immune system during that time, she was also able to recover, though with a few lingering symptoms to deal with, from being diagnosed with Covid-19 . The Olympic bronze medalist has certainly seen her body do amazing things in high jump competitions, but she is grateful for its strength in a new way after the last couple of years she’s had.

“I feel so blessed,” she tells ESSENCE. “That’s why I could sit here and smile because I know it’s been hard for everyone and to catch [Covid-19] and be so afraid of getting it and then getting it and being okay, I feel really blessed to be here. And so that’s why I smile.”

Before the threat of that virus, Lowe was diagnosed with triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma in 2019. She had to advocate for herself throughout the process of getting a diagnosis because her family had no history of breast cancer. From persistently requesting to have her lump checked out with a mammogram and ultrasound to seeking a second opinion for peace of mind, a choice that saved her life, she’s been fighting from the very beginning.

“They found a lump, but they told me it was just a lymph node. So I went home. I was told not to come back for six years, however, I didn’t really listen to that advice,” she says. “I know lymph nodes are usually a result of something else and it was not getting smaller, it was getting bigger.”

Within just a year, she went to another doctor and received the same two diagnostic tests. They found that the lump was a tumor that tripled in size. A biopsy was taken afterward and when Lowe went back for her results, she got the life-changing news.

“It was very hard. I actually brought my kids in, brought them to the appointment because I was so confident that it wasn’t going to be cancer,” she says. “It turned out it was, but through that process I found empowerment.”

She was intent on fighting, not only to return to optimal health but also to be an exception to the statistics about Black women having less than favorable outcomes when diagnosed with breast cancer . That determination, common for the track and field star, allowed her to successfully fight to be cancer free and somehow at the same time, train for the Olympics.

“I’ve always been one that’s faced challenges head on,” she says. “Battling breast cancer, through that process, I decided to get a double mastectomy. I went in and got chemotherapy for several months, and from that, I decided to go ahead and train for the Olympics. And this was before Covid and all that. Through the chemotherapy treatments, I was training the whole entire time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”

A part of Lowe’s hopefulness to return to the Olympics, then and now, is to be able to use her press access and platform in front of the world to warn and empower other women. She wants to put the importance of early detection front and center, let women know their options, and inspire them. She trained, even while going through a number of draining chemotherapy treatments, so she could get to Tokyo to make that happen.

“It was hard. It was definitely hard. I had the days where I wanted to lay in the bed every single day. I had the days where I was exhausted and I couldn’t move. I was in pain. I had those days,” she says. “I wasn’t immune to those things, but it’s like, if you’ve ever watched the Olympics, you see the relay races and they pass that baton, no matter how tired you are, you run with everything that you have in order to get to the end of the finish line. And that’s how I felt in this process where even though I was tired, I was riding off of the strength of the women that could hear this story.”

She’s no longer working alone to tell her story. Lowe has partnered with beauty brand Olay to empower and impact other women. A third generation Olay products lover, she’s also praising their offerings, specifically the Regenerist Whip with SPF 25 and the Collagen Peptide moisturizer. She says the hydrating products have helped her deal with the skin changes that came with chemotherapy.

“I consider myself dark skin, lot of melanin, very, very blessed with melanin. And I had never burned before,” she says. “I lived in California, I’ve been in Arizona, my skin never burned. And when I was going through chemotherapy, I went outside and within 15 minutes, my skin burned and I didn’t know what to do. So in my quest to find products, I knew that I had to have some type of skin protection.”

She adds, “I was able to use those products together to kind of get me through that chemotherapy process. I fell in love with them. So I keep using them and I’m trying to look like my mom and my grandma [laughs].”

Walgreens also has been a major support, partnering with her. The pharmacy store chain, where you can find those Olay products, made sure she had a way to train for the Games in her backyard because they care as much as she does about getting her back to the Olympics and getting her message out there.

“I just really want to emphasize how much that they supported me,” she says. “Like even in the midst of being questionable because I’m coming out of chemotherapy, they were one of first to get behind me.”

She has had more time to build back up her strength since the Olympics were postponed from last year to this July because of the pandemic. She has also been honest about the fact that training has been difficult due to those lingering Covid symptoms on her recovering system . Nevertheless, Lowe is pushing through with confidence in the same body that beat disease and a deadly virus, that has been to hell and back, believing it will get her through Olympic trials this month and on to the Games next month. It’s a body she has more appreciation for than ever before and that she’s using to be a vessel to save others.

“I have scars, and these scars represent a threat to my life and that I got a second chance,” Lowe says. “I understand now that I’m one small part of a larger hole and I have a part to play. I’m sharing the story and sharing what I’ve learned about coping, about prioritizing my own health and wellness, about putting the oxygen mask on myself first. I’m doing that so that other people can be okay.”

Olympian Chaunté Lowe: ‘The End Result Was More Important Than the Temporary Pain’

mariolowesr@gmail.com (mario lowe) — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:42:45 GMT

There's more power in your self than you imagined. Be ready to explore.

Chaunté Lowe is a four-time Olympian in the high jump who finished a personal-best fourth at the Rio Games in 2016. A few months later, however, she received a bronze medal—from the 2008 Games, when the third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishers all tested positive for doping in a re-examination of their samples.

At the time, Lowe said the rampant doping had created a running joke among her teammates that “you don’t have to get on the medal stand—just get close enough so that when the drug tests come back positive, you can get a medal.” She is the American record holder for the high jump both outdoors (2.05 meters, or 6’8 3/4”) and indoors (2.02 meters, or 6’7.5”). As a mother of three who would turn 36 prior to the originally scheduled Tokyo 2020 Games, she had expected to retire. But then, a year ago this week, Lowe received a grim diagnosis : triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive and difficult-to-treat variant of the disease.

She underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy—and now, motivated to use the platform to encourage breast cancer awareness, she is training for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Beyond her training, Lowe is a motivational speaker and a licensed broker and investment adviser who lives in Orlando; she graduated with an economics degree from Georgia Tech in 2008 and is now a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual.

On the protests in the U.S. . . .

I'm happy that there's open dialogue. I think that for a long time people have been silent about what they were feeling—the hurts and the disparities that have happened. Now it seems like there's a widespread outrage about what's been going on for a long time, and I'm glad that people are finally speaking up and that it seems like the mass majority of people are listening. And I'm very hopeful that this will be the beginning of a lot of true change and healing and reconciliation for our country. So I'm hopeful that this is the beginning of something very positive for everyone.

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I've had that same conversation with my friends where you’ve heard the story before: horrible things happen, people become outraged, and then it's life as normal. With this time, it doesn't feel like that. It feels like people are actually stopping and listening and looking. It seems like maybe this was the right atmosphere to see real true change at this time.

Sports can be a great catalyst for healing. In sports, especially in Olympic sports, we see people from all types of backgrounds, with different body types, different makeup, different cultural beliefs and preferences all come together to compete and bring the world together. I think that, as athletes, we have a certain level of responsibility of what we can do with our platform. And if we have the power to make a difference for the better of the world, I think that it's great that we do that and we're allowed to do so.

On her cancer diagnosis . . .

I got the first mammogram in August of 2018. I was told that it was just a lymph node and not to worry about it and to not come back for six years. Because you learn a little bit about your body, especially being an athlete, I understood that lymph nodes swell up when there's an infection and, once the infection has subsided, the lymph node should go back to normal size. But after 11 months, that didn't happen. That and just an uneasiness that I was feeling inside of myself caused me to go back to the doctor, and that's when they found out that the lump was still there. They did another mammogram. It had tripled in size. This was June 10 of 2019. And I had chemotherapy for roughly five months.

On trying to reach a fifth Olympics . . .

I remained in shape just because I wanted to have the option to compete at the next Olympics, if I wanted to, but I highly doubted it that I was going to. But then actually getting the breast cancer diagnosis is what pushed me over the edge to want to do it. It really boils down to my plastic surgeon—his name is Dr. Newman—and he was like, ‘Look, this is a story that needs to be told. A lot more younger women are getting breast cancer at rates that are alarming and that haven't been seen before in history.’ Just being able to get on that platform of the Olympics and tell women to be vigilant, understanding their bodies and give them the advice that could potentially save their lives or the lives of a loved one. And he was like, ‘It's too important not to do another.’

I was like, ‘Well, can I do it? Is it even possible?’ I talked with my oncologist, and he agreed that having something to look forward to would be a great way to get through chemotherapy. And so with that in mind, I got the green light from my surgeon, the green light from my oncologist, and I just went full steam ahead. I was like, ‘OK, well, training starts today.’

On training through chemo . . .

Before every chemo treatment, I would train really hard. After chemo, I would train as much as I could. Every single day felt like training with the most horrific lactic acid that you have ever experienced. Anyone who's run a 400 meters, at the end of it, your legs feel like fire. They feel tight. Blood is pumping in every direction, and you just want to lay on the ground straight and not move. And that's how every step felt for a prolonged period of time.

So, mentally, I got really strong during that time period. I just had to get to the point where I understood that the end result was more important than the temporary pain that I was feeling, and that the goal of being able to save other people's lives drove me to keep pushing even when I wanted to stop.

I feel like one skill is developing at a time. First, I really had to focus on my endurance. Then I had to focus on my strength. And as time goes on, I'm developing and conquering these milestones. And I'm really very pleased with the progress right now. I'm actually shocked. At my worst, the fastest mile I could run was 15 minutes, and that was really all out crying, really pushing it. And then I got to the point now where I ran some of the fastest times I've ever run, probably in the six-minute range.

On staying fit during the COVID-19 pandemic . . .

When everything started happening, I started becoming a little bit more cautious. I was watching because they said that certain groups were more susceptible to have adverse effects from it. And so I was contacting my doctors to see if I fell in that group. And just out of an over-abundance of caution, I stopped going to the gym. And I started working out at home with the weights that I had, and running on the concrete and just doing drills around the house versus the normal training that I would do, but I felt like that would be temporary and sustainable.

By the time that everybody started getting locked down and gyms started closing, I realized that this would be a little bit longer and, because I had waited just a little bit, it was nearly impossible to get weights online. So we waited. When there were weights, they were just entirely too expensive, and it was just rough. A couple of people banded together. I have a great friend named Scott MacGregor. He’s CEO of an organization called Something New. He got all of his contacts together, and they did a fundraiser for me to be able to get some weights.

Then some of the new sponsors that I had, as well as the old ones like Procter and Gamble, Walgreens, Nike, Olay, they all chipped in together to help me get rubber and a platform for a high jump apron in my backyard. My kids play on it, and sometimes have to kick them off. My daughter likes to use it for bird watching. It’s like having a great big mattress in the backyard—every kid's dream.

I have to do a lot of videoing, so I can get that immediate feedback. I definitely have considered, if it would make sense, to use some type of streaming technology, but it's really glitchy when you start getting in the backyard and you're far away from routers and stuff like that. I do pretty much the same thing I've been doing for years. I've been in the same training program for a very, very, very, very long time, and if it's not broke, you don't fix it. So I've been doing that training program. Hopefully when things open up, I’ll be able to get the chance to get in front of my coach and get eyes on me.

On receiving her bronze medal . . .

That's probably the shining light of it, getting the opportunity to take it to children and allow them to see it and touch it and wear it. I know that I was inspired to become an Olympian when I was 4. So I know the impact of having somebody that's done something that you may have never heard of before. The profound impact that it could have on your life. For me, that person was FloJo, and so it's an honor to be able to be that with other people and have that tangible medal that represents my years of hard work, dedication, perseverance and doing things the right way—and kind of hoping to plant those seeds into the next generation.

On learning to high jump . . .

I was actually at home and jumping to the song, ‘Kriss Kross’ll make you jump, jump.’ And I realized I was jumping higher than everyone else, even those who were older than me. And so I was like, Huh, there's something to this. When we got to have field day at school and we tried the high jump, I put it to the test: ‘OK, let me try the high jump.’ And once again, I was better than everybody else. The same thing was true with middle school track meets, and high school was when I really fought towards doing it and making it a specialty.

On preparing for what’s next . . .

I'm really excited about a partnership that I have with Northwestern Mutual. And the reason why is, because a lot of athletes, once they finish track or their sport or whatever it is, they find themselves with a degree that's really old. They don't have any type of tangible job experience. And they actually stepped in, and they're giving me on-the-job training as I prepare for the next Olympics and supporting me going towards the Olympics. When I'm done, I will be a full-fledged financial advisor. It’s just really exciting that I have something else to look forward to when I close this chapter of my life.

I'm doing financial planning, financial literacy, and just helping people reach their goals, which is something I've been doing my whole life: goal setting. But it's in the field of finance now. It's not far from my degree—I got a degree in economics—and I am a licensed stockbroker and have been for maybe four years. So it's definitely the path that I've always wanted to go down.