Chaunte Lowe is cancer-free and getting ready for Tokyo Olympics

Four-time Olympic High Jumper Chaunte Lowe is cancer-free and using the extra time to get even more ready for Tokyo 2021.

Chaunte Lowe has been a warrior recovering from breast cancer. Lowe continued to train through chemotherapy while recovering from a double mastectomy doing everything she could to be ready for the 2020 Olympics. The timeline was a challenge for Lowe who admits the Olympic postponement to 2021 was to her benefit.

“I’m very happy the Olympics was pushed back a little bit,” Lowe said. “You want to see the Olympics go on as scheduled, you definitely do not want to see a cancellation. But I finished chemotherapy from breast cancer this fall and I needed every single day of that time to be able to train. I know I could have done it, but it would have been a lot harder.”

Lowe is the American record holder in the high jump,  2.05 meters (6 feet, 8 ¾). She owns a bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she originally finished 6th, three athletes tested positive for doping with Russia stripped of its bronze medal. The doping remains a problem.

“That was one of the concerns about pushing back and postponing the Olympics,” Lowe said. “A lot of athletes felt that it was going to be unfair cause with social distancing there is not a way to safely continue testing. It was an idea that potentially if the Olympics would go on and there were people who wanted to take advantage of the system the would. Pushing it back next year gives us more of that time to make sure there is an even playing field.”

Let’s hope that is the case. It has been proven athletes, at times, will try to get an edge wherever they can. Lowe is hopeful there are enough barriers in place.

“The tests are continually getting better,” Lowe said. “My hope is that people will continue to do the right thing. There are so many ripple effects when people make these decisions. My hope is that the people that have done it, have regret for it. And the people that consider doing it look at is a tale that hey I don’t want this to happen to me.”

Despite her various challenges coming back from chemotherapy, you won’t find Lowe bending the rules to perform better.

“I know that when I do my best, I cry,” Lowe said. “I cry happy tears because I know I put everything that I can into it and just taking the responsibility of my training every single day, the sacrifice that goes into it, it would be cheapened if I didn’t do that.”

Lowe is working with Olay and Walgreens taking care of her skin and total body health. She wants both women and men to get tested for breast cancer.

“The statistic is the one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and I think that I didn’t think it could happen to me,” Lowe said. “I was healthy, doing all the right things, exercising.”