TOKYO (AP) — American sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden has a gold medal from the world championships. Two of them, in fact.
Her biggest win of all might be that her father, Melvin, was on hand in Tokyo to watch her.
The country's brightest new sprint star donated stem cells from her bone marrow seven years ago when she was 17. It was to help her dad overcome a potentially deadly sickness in which the marrow doesn't produce enough white blood cells to enrich the immune system.
After winning the 200 meters Friday to become the first American woman to complete the sprint double at the worlds, she reflected on a decision that changed her life, and saved her dad's.
“I didn't do it just because he was my dad, but I wanted to be able to say, ‘If I had an opportunity to help someone, do it,'”