Allison Halverson: A Hopeful Tokyo 2020 Olympian for Armenia
- bluke75
- Apr 2, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 2, 2020
On March 31, 2020 I was able to have a phone interview with Allison Halverson about her perspective given the recent news of COVID-19 and the Olympics moving forward to 2021. Previously discussed on the site is the reaction to Olympics changing to Tokyo 2021: https://madnessofmarch2020.wixsite.com/website/post/tokyo-2020-postponed
Allison is a heptathlete from San Diego, California. She has been competing in the seven events that make up a heptathlon since she was in high school, however her Olympic dream started when she was just age 12. She became more invested in heptathlons her sophomore year after joining the high school track team her freshman year. As a freshman she was able to fully realize her speed after winning many meets back to back. This is when her father really saw potential and pushed her to be her best. He eventually went on to hire Chuck Debus, an Olympic coach from the 1980s, to privately teach Allison. Chuck Debus specialized in heptathlons and he eventually is who would encourage Allison to take up the club sport during her summers. Heptathlons are not high school events, therefore Allison would compete in meets and the Junior Olympics while traveling with her father during the summer months.
“My key to success was my parents’ support, without my dad researching track meets and driving me to practices I would not be where I am today.”
- Allison Halverson
Given her high school experience beyond athletics, Allison did not anticipate going to college, but the summer of her senior year when she won the Junior Olympics she became a top recruit. 60 Universities ended up recruiting her by the time it was all said and done, and she went to San Diego State. Her reason for choosing San Diego State was that her coach would be none other than Shelia Burrell who is a two time Olympian, competing in the Heptathlon in 2000 and 2004. As this was where Allison wanted to go, she chose San Diego State and thus Shelia Burrell as her coach. In her time at San Diego state she was a five-time All-American which led to her eventually being on 6 different USA teams. Her goal while being on these teams was to see her possibilities and to better herself.
Allison’s collegiate stats:
Upon graduating college with a degree in Kinesiology, she and her husband, opened a track and field club to train the next generation with their specialization. Check out their website here: https://www.areteelitetc.com
Arete’, the club name, means excellence which is exactly what the couple wants to promote for the younger generation. They also want to teach that the young athletes can use their athletic abilities to take them to college and much farther in life. Currently their training program has been put on hold due to health and safety concerns of the Coronavirus, but Allison said that the rest is exactly what they needed to refocus and spend time with family.
This video recaps many of the San Diego athletes’ reaction and how they are responding to COVID-19 in the midst of training with the closures of gyms and pools. Thanks to the San Diego 10 news.com https://www.10news.com/news/coronavirus/what-san-diego-athletes-are-saying- about-the-olympics-being-postponed for the coverage and interviews. Allison states that at first public tracks were used to continue training with her husband as her “coach.” This was after her training site, San Diego State University, was closed to the public. But now all public businesses have been closed with the Stay at Home Act making training much more difficult. Her biggest concern is the disorganization that COVID-19 has caused and being unable to train with her coach who has been with her since college. The past two weeks have lacked the structure that she is used to and re-structuring life is difficult for everyone right now. “Everyone has lost a year of their life basically, everything is being put on pause, and people are losing their motivation because all are affected the same way.” With this in mind she states, “I will be using this time to rest and recover physically just as Lebron James did in his three months off. And he came back stronger.” Lebron James took more time off last season than he normally would to recover from injuries, after returning from this additional rest he has come back much stronger this season and had the potential of being MVP before Coronavirus pressed pause on the NBA. That is her hope through all of this, to recover, run as she is able to, and come back stronger than ever for Tokyo 2021.
Allison has a heritage from Armenia as her grandfather came from Armenia when he was a boy. He had to escape during World War One from the Ottoman Turks when they attacked. Thankfully, he was able to make it to Ellis Island dressed as a young girl. With her heritage in mind as well as the new rules put into place by The Olympics she has better statistics whilst heading into qualifiers by representing Armenia. Also, Allison was unable to remain on the US Pan American Games Team after some vagueness. Thus, she went with the country who has been supporting her throughout training as she heads into The Olympics. The rules in order to compete in the Olympics come from a combined ranking of the Olympic Standard (50%) and the World rank (50%). The World rank is comprised of the average of the athlete’s two best scores from various events that have bonus points based on what meet the scores came from. Thus, it is quite difficult to become one of the top Track and Field athletes based on specific meets. Now with the effects of the Coronavirus taking place, the rules and guidelines of The Olympics could potentially change. The possible new guidelines would allow each country to set their own standard for qualifying, giving Allison high hopes with Armenia as she heads into the 2021 season. She states that having an extra season to prepare is an advantage as is the extra time to become qualified as a representative of Armenia even after receiving her dual-citizenship.
“Armenia has been nothing but proud and supportive of me. I was surprised by their rooting for me so quickly, but they are looking forward to having someone represent them at the games despite the language and appearance differences.”
_-Allison
The timing with everything has given Allison the opportunity to work with Shelia Burrell, her former college coach and better prepare for the Olympics, while she was disappointed with her dreams being pushed back she is seeing the positives that another year could bring. She also trusts in her faith and sees God’s plan working through her life, especially now. She believes that He will take you where you are meant to be if you trust in Him. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for prosperity and not for evil, to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. Even in the midst of a scary season full of uncertainties she puts her faith in Him and trusts that He will carry her through this; as He has already worked through the past to help her get where she is now.
The Olympic standards for track and field scoring 2021 can be found here:
A snapchat of Armenia history at the Olympics.
Sources:
“Allison Halverson.” Athletic.net, www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=2765529.
“Armenia at the Olympics.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia_at_the_Olympics.
Boone, Matt. “What San Diego Athletes Are Saying about the Olympics Being Postponed.” KGTV, 25 Mar. 2020, www.10news.com/news/coronavirus/what-san-diego-athletes-are-saying-about-the-olympics-being-postponed.
Stone, Ken. “Allison Halverson's Armenian Dream - from Mission Valley to Tokyo Olympics.” Times of San Diego, 7 Oct. 2019,
“Track & Field.” Nbcolympics.com, 27 Mar. 2020, www.nbcolympics.com/track-and-field/.
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