In late June, Harrison competed in the 400-meter hurdles competition at the Olympic Trials held in Eugene, Ore. After making it through two rounds and into the finals, she was around the top five and entering the second-to-last hurdle with the final stretch in sight.
Harrison was on the outside in lane eight. But so was the falling body of another competitor, who stumbled on the hurdle and fell in Harrison's path. After Harrison leaped over the hurdle she then leaped over the potential carnage.
"My body just naturally reacted," Harrison said. "When I was in the moment, it didn't affect me too much. It just made me go to the outside a little bit."
Watching in the crowd was Tech Director of track and field and cross-country Dave Cianelli, along with Harrison's sprint and hurdles coach, Lawrence Johnson, now the head coach at Clemson University.
"It was pretty amazing to watch that," Cianelli said. "For a split second, you're thinking 'Is she going to go down?'"
Instead of becoming a part of the accident, she maintained her rhythm, composure and speed, making a late race charge. Harrison moved up to second as she crossed the finish line in 54.60 seconds -- her personal best. And with that time, she became a first-time member of the Olympic team.
This was a remarkable and, to some, an unexpected achievement because of the setback she suffered a few weeks earlier.
At the NCAA National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, Harrison suffered a left hamstring injury while running on Tech's 4x100-meter relay. Later, she was told by trainers that she would miss the remainder of the meet.
"That's when I was screaming," Harrison said. "It was just a flood of emotions. I was really upset because I had such high expectations for myself going into the track meet."
Her coaches, as well as Harrison, had doubts about her competing in the 400-meter hurdles -- the only event that she would run at the Olympic trials.
After rehabbing her leg, the opening round proved to be a "test run."
"The first race was pretty rough, but she qualified through," Cianelli said. "Once she did that, you could see that her confidence in the leg then started to rise up."
Harrison's confidence increased even more after she made it into the finals. Regardless, she was out there to give it her all, even if it meant injuring her leg further.
She knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and didn't want to look back on it with regret.
"I've made it this far," Harrison said. "I might as well put it all out there. If something were to happen, it would probably have been my last track meet of the year. You don't want to get hurt, but you might as well lay it on the line."
After her successful run in the finals, it didn't end up being her last track meet of the year.
Harrison, the youngest member of the United States Track & Field squad and the first individual from the Tech track team to represent any country at any Olympics, headed to Beijing nearly a week prior to the Opening Ceremonies.
At the "Bird's Nest," she participated in the third preliminary heat of the 400-meter hurdles on Aug. 17 with her mother, Alicia Wingate, and two older sisters in the stands. Harrison clocked in with a time of 55.96, finishing fourth in her heat and 13th overall -- enough to advance to the semifinals.
"I was really excited for her," said Shell Green, a former Tech runner who competed at the Olympic trials in the 400- and 100-meter hurdles.
Green spoke with Harrison after she made the next round.
"I told her she looked good," Green said. "I didn't expect anything less of her. But I told her to just focus on the next one. That one's done. Now get ready for what's ahead."
The next round would be her last, however. One day later, Harrison fell .71 seconds short of making the finals.
Her road to the Olympics has not only seen its share of injuries and near misses, but also a turbulent family history.
Queen's father, William, was sent to prison in 1998 for possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute. He received a 14-year sentence, but that was stiffened when the court determined that he faked insanity during legal proceedings.
A Supreme Court case in 2005 changed federal sentencing procedures, and he had his sentence reduced by three years.
During his time incarcerated, William would exchange letters and talk over the phone with his daughter.
"He was very encouraging," she said.
Soon after their father went to jail, Queen, along with her eight siblings, moved from Fallsburg, N.Y., to Richmond in the summer of 1999.
Harrison carries the experience on her conscience without embarrassment. As a youth, she wasn't very open to talk about it. But now, at age 20, Harrison thinks she's matured in such a way that it no longer puts her ill at ease.
"That's the past," she said. "I didn't do anything wrong. So it's something I shouldn't be ashamed of. We all learn from it."
Instead of submitting to mortification, she uses it as motivation.
"There's no easy way," she said. "There are no shortcuts. I think you have to go through the bad to get to the good. I've learned that a lot with the situations that have gone on in my life."
Harrison has deftly avoided all obstacles in her path.
In short time, she has run at a breathless beat during her tenure at Tech. As a freshman in 2007, she was ranked No. 1 in the World Junior rankings in the 400-meter hurdles, as she won the event at the Pan American Junior Championships.
"It didn't take her long to make the transition from high school to (college) track," Green said. "She really took off."
Harrison earned two All-American honors and the Tech women's track & field team won both the indoor and outdoor Atlantic Coast Conference Championship as well as the NCAA East Regional Championship.
The squad duplicated that achievement the very next year, because in part of Harrison and a thriving group of teammates. The Hokies have 10 athletes who have combined for a total of 15 All-American honors in 2008.
This powerful lineup proves to be a major help in practice.
"It's huge to be able to have other teammates that can push you in training," Cianelli said. "That's a tremendous benefit, versus having just one very high level athlete, but not having anyone to really push that athlete in training. That makes a huge difference."
Thanks to the competition in practice and meets, Harrison didn't break stride in her sophomore season.
She continuously set the school record in the 400-meter hurdles and showed her ability in the important events.
"She has a lot of natural gifts, but she has that ability to rise to the occasion," Cianelli said. "It's rare to get the total package, when you get someone that has a tremendous amount of physical talent but also has that mental capacity at the same time. That's what makes her rare."
Cianelli, in his eighth year in Blacksburg, first noticed these traits when he saw Harrison compete at Hermitage High School near Richmond.
At Hermitage, under head coach Walter Spain, Harrison was primarily involved in the long jump and the triple jump. She was a two-time Virginia AAA state champion, winning the outdoor long jump in 2004 and the indoor long jump one year later.
She claimed All-America honors during her junior year in the 4x200-meter relays, and helped her team win multiple district and regional championships during her four years.
She also showed her potential in the hurdles. Harrison had the 12th-best 300-meter hurdle time in the nation in 2006.
"Anyone that knows anything about our sport could see that she was very talented. There's a lot of talent out there in every sport, but few actually follow though to realize the talent they have. That's what sets Queen apart," Cianelli said.
He was also extremely impressed with her maturity and her outlook. This was something he discovered in his first-ever meeting with Harrison at her Richmond home.
"That really sold me from the sense that I knew that this was an individual that was very much goal-oriented," Cianelli said. "That she would work extremely hard, and would be a good fit for our program."
Harrison has her goals set in place. In the short term, she is focused on the indoor track season this winter as well as the outdoor season next spring.
In the long term, Harrison has an eye on the next Summer Olympics in London in 2012.
"It hit me when I was at the closing ceremonies and when they did the passing of the flag from Bejing to London," Harrison said, who's striving to compete in both the 400- and 100-meter hurdles. "When I saw that, I told myself, 'I want to be there. I want to see this again.'"
Harrison wants to make a return trip to the Olympics four years from now, but nothing may be able to match her return from Beijing on Aug. 27.
Harrison was greeted, for the first time in a decade, by her father -- released from prison on Aug. 6.
"I don't think I could put it into words," she said. "It was just the perfect ending to a great summer."
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