Heavy medals: Norwood returns to La. with bronze, gold and a light heart

Morgan City High alum Vernon Norwood wore his Olympic gold and bronze medals during his trip home from Tokyo before the weight ultimately forced him to remove them. But he still is beaming with pride over his accomplishments.
Although he said he would have liked gold medals in the mixed 4x400-meter relay and the men’s 4x400-meter relay, he certainly is not sad about the outcome.
“To walk away with two Olympic medals in general is still a good feeling for me,” said Norwood, who won a bronze medal in the mixed 4x400-meter relay and a gold medal in the men’s 4x400-meter relay.
Norwood returned home to Louisiana Monday night.
“That’s just awesome,” Morgan City High School Assistant Track and Field Coach Denver Chapman, who coached Norwood in high school, said of the medals.
Norwood is only the third LSU athlete ever to medal twice at an Olympic games and the first since 2008.
He and the group of former LSU track and field athletes in Tokyo combined to break the school record for most gold medals won at an Olympic games with six.
To Norwood’s high school track and field coach, Gary Johnson, those medals represent more than just years of work on the track.
He said they represent sacrifice and hard work dating back to Norwood and his mother, Charlette Ray, coming to Morgan City from Norwood’s native New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“Something that he’ll never forget,” Johnson said of Norwood’s feelings towards bringing back medals from the Olympics.
While Chapman said he was “a proud old coach” to see Norwood’s achievements, he also is a father-figure who Norwood refers to as “Pops.” Therefore, he also said he was “a proud poppa” to see Norwood’s accomplishments.
At the Olympics, Norwood almost didn’t get to run in his first event, the mixed 4x400-meter relay, as Team USA was disqualified in the preliminary round after running a time of 3:11.39 in its heat. The disqualification was for passing the baton outside the permitted exchange zone, according to USA Today.
“It was a long night for our coaching staff to go to protest it, and they did it,” Norwood said. “Obviously it was an official technical issue where the official lined her there.”
He said when they awoke Saturday and learned they had been re-entered into the finals, it was a weight off the team’s shoulders, allowing them to showcase their abilities on the track.
“We were very grateful for our coaching staff to appeal the protest … and put us in position to go out there and have a good time,” Norwood said.
After not running in the preliminary round, Norwood ran the anchor leg in the finals. Team USA was in fourth place when he took the baton.
“Obviously, I had the utmost confidence that I was going to be able to catch those guys,” Norwood said. “Just me just being a better quarter miler than those guys, I just had the confidence that I would be able to catch them and bring us home the gold, but obviously that didn’t go as planned.”
Johnson said he saw the fight in Norwood during that mixed 4x400-meter relay final that he saw in him as a high school senior.
“Because if it weren’t for Vernon, for the leg that he ran for the mixed 4x4, we wouldn’t have even been on the medal stand,” Johnson said.
Norwood said he thought the team would get at least a silver medal, but he said he lost some momentum at the end of the race and was edged by the Dominican Republic for silver. Team USA finished third with a time of 3:10.22, while the Dominican Republic took silver with a time of 3:10.21. Poland took gold with a time of 3:09.87.
“Obviously, we wanted to get the gold,” Norwood said. “That was the expectation to get a gold, but to walk away with a medal, I’m extremely grateful for.”
He said in a situation like this, a bronze medal feels like a gold one because of all the hard work put into making it to that moment.
Norwood credited his teammates, Trevor Stewart, Kendall Ellis and Kaylin Whitney, saying the team did “a wonderful job.”
In the men’s 4x400-meter relay, Norwood anchored Team USA to the fastest preliminary time in the Olympics this year with a time of 2:57.77. According to USA Track and Field, the time is also the fastest run in a 4x400-meter preliminary in Olympic history.
“That race went pretty well,” he said. “I got to credit the three guys that ran in front of me, Trevor Stewart, Randolph Ross and Bryce Deadmon. Those guys did a hell of a job putting me in a position where I didn’t have to do much. All I had to do was just bring it home and secure the spot for the final.”
Although Norwood wasn’t selected to run in the finals, he was in the stadium watching the event. He won a gold by helping Team USA qualify for the finals.
“We could’ve ran the exact same team from the semis and still won,” he said. “We just have so much depth in that 400-meter field that where we could have any guy to represent and bring home the gold.”
While his Olympic competitions may be complete, Norwood’s outdoor track and field season is not.
He said he will be running in the Prefontaine Classic Saturday, and he will compete in the finals of a European circuit he competes in on Sept. 9, in Zurich, Switzerland.
After this year, the focus is on the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, next year.
“That’s the question that people don’t really understand about track,” Norwood said. “They just think it’s Olympics, Olympics, but year in and year out, we have world championships.”
Those world championship events feature the same competitors who gather every four years for the Olympics.
While those events are still to come, Norwood thanked those who supported him during his most recent competition at the Olympics.
“I didn’t even know I had this many people supporting me,” he said.
He said the support made him run harder. While he is a native of New Orleans, Norwood said Morgan City always holds a special place for him.
“I’ll do whatever I can to give back to the city and show people I’m a Morgan City native as well,” he said.