Lauren Hoffman grateful for Olympic experience after Paris exit

Philippines’ Lauren Hoffman, competes in the women’s 400m hurdles repechage round of the athletics event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 5, 2024. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American hurdler Lauren Hoffman admitted that her Achilles injury greatly affected her campaign at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Hoffman suffered an early exit after placing last at seventh in the women’s 400m hurdles repechage Heat 3 with a time of 58.28 seconds on Monday at Stade de France.

“I haven’t really trained the way that I wanted to these past few months so I feel like these back-to-back races kind of took a toll on my body. Obviously, the goal was to qualify for the semifinals outright and I wasn’t able to,” said an emotional Hoffman in an interview with One Sports.

READ: PH hurdler Lauren Hoffman ends Paris Olympics campaign

“I still try to come out here and give my best despite everything. I feel like that’s the Filipino spirit in me, that resilience and willingness to fight no matter what. It was tough but I’m still grateful to be here and become an Olympian. It’s amazing.”

The 25-year-old Hoffman said she felt pain during the heat, following an eighth-place finish in the preliminary round on Sunday after clocking 57.84 seconds in Heat 4. 

“Yesterday, my Achilles both of them felt really good. Today definitely felt them a little bit. It’s an intense race, it’s very painful so that pain was gonna come out at some point. It came out today,” Hoffman said. “I was still able to push through to finish but obviously not the times I wanted to put up today.”

READ: Lauren Hoffman also stays in medal hunt at Paris Olympics

Hoffman was “pretty frustrated” having to train in the past months while injured but she keeps her head high, just to be able to fly the Philippine flag and become an Olympian.

For now, Hoffman will focus on her recovery first as she also considers undergoing surgery before going back to training.

“Just to finish the season, I think it was a win in my eyes,” said a grateful Hoffman, who also thanked all the people behind her Olympic stint. “Keep believing in me and hopefully, next year will be great, too.”