Anna Cockrell didn’t go to an HBCU, but the Charlotte, NC native and Olympic Silver Medalist has strong ties to Johnson C Smith University (JCSU), her hometown HBCU. Cockrell was spotted on campus talking with the JCSU track team less than 60 days after winning silver in the 400m at the Paris Olympics.
Anna Cockrell is the daughter of Kieth Cockrell, the vice chair of the board of trustees for Johnson C. Smith University, and had a hall of fame high school track career in Charlotte at Providence Day under current Johnson C Smith University track coach Carol Lawrence.
Johnson C. Smith University’s social media accounts were ablaze with images and video of the Olympian’s visit taken by JCSU biology major Jay Smarr. Cockrell met with the team at the school’s track and football field, the Irwin Belk Complex. Wearing an official Team USA jacket and sporting her Olympic silver medal, the 2021 NCAA champion in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles spoke to the team about the sacrifices she made during her collegiate career that ultimately led to her Olympic success.
“Nothing was going to stop me from what I had to do like that’s really how I felt,” Cockrell says in the video. “I mean Coach Lawerence knows this, I’ve sacrificed a lot,” she tells the HBCU track squad. ” I was in LA for college, then I left LA to move to Texas when I went pro, my coach took a job at Arkansas, and the last thing I wanted to do was move to Arkansas.”
Those sacrifices helped her go from NCAA National Champion to the women’s 400m hurdle final at the Tokyo Olympics and eventually become an Olympic Silver Medalist in Paris in the summer of 2024.
The Irwin Belk Complex at Johnson C Smith University features an Olympic-sized track and has been the site of several major track and field events including the US Paralympic Track and Field trials and the AAU Summer Games. Positioned just beneath the skyline of the city of Charlotte it had to imagine Cockrell didn’t run a race or two on the HBCU track during her 6-time All-American high school career.
Cockrell ranks No. 1 all-time in North Carolina history in three events: 100m hurdles (13.17), 300m hurdles (40.42), and the 400m hurdles (55.20). She was a 16-time NCISAA state champion in the 100m (2013-16), 200m (2016), 100m hurdles (2013-16), 300m hurdles (2013-16), 4x100m (2013) and 4x400m (2014-15) and was a 2-time World Junior Champion in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay as a high school senior and the Pan Am Champion in the 400m hurdles as a junior.
