CHS’ Megan Moss getting to live her Olympic dream

By Ryan Clark

CHS Communications Director

 

With any luck, she’s already arrived in Tokyo, even though she doesn’t compete until the end of the week.

Then again, it doesn’t really matter. According to Megan Moss, her Olympic dream has already begun. You could say it started earlier this summer when the Human Health Sciences junior finished third in the 400-meter dash at The Bahamas National Championships.

That qualified the Nassau native to run the 4-x-400 meter relay for the Bahamas in the Olympics. The track events will be held from July 29 to Aug. 8.

“It is definitely a dream come true and I am so excited to compete,” she said. “It’s just such an honor — and so, so, so exciting!”

Megan made her first national team at age 11 — the Caribbean Union of Teachers Track (CUT) team, which was held in 2012 in Jamaica. A few years later she made the CAC Age Group Nationals held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2015, where she placed fourth.

In 2015, she represented both her school and country at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, and the 4 x 100-meter relay team made it to the Championships of America Final (placing 6th out of 600 schools.)

In 2016, Megan attended the Atlanta Georgia Relays for the first time. While attending this meet Megan broke two records in the 100 and 200-meter dash — both of which still stand.

We were able to catch up with Megan just before she left for her Olympic trip. While she didn’t arrive in Tokyo in time to see the opening ceremonies, she said she was looking forward to getting settled in the Olympic Village.

At UK, Megan was first-team All-America this season in the 4-x-400 at the 2021 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships, where Kentucky finished fifth and eighth, respectively. In February, she ran the lead leg on the relay team that set the UK indoor record, and she also finished second-team All-America in the 400 meters with a 13th-place finish.

She also was a silver medalist at the SECs in the 4-x-400 relay.

She says it was on her recruiting visit to UK that she made the choice to come to school in the Bluegrass State. 

“I was actually recruited through track and field,” she said, “and when I came on a visit to the school I fell in love with Kentucky, the school, the team, the atmosphere.”

And when it came time to choose a major?

“I chose CHS because it was the closest and most intriguing thing to what I would love to do after school,” she said. “I definitely would like to go into the medical field — and become either a pediatric cardiologist or a neonatologist.”

Moss has also matched her athletic prowess with academic accomplishments off the track. She’s been named to the Academic All-District Team in 2021 and she earned an SEC First-Year Academic Honor in 2020.

Of course, few things would compare to the pageantry of winning an Olympic medal, she said, before giving fans one final send-off.

“That’s so sweet!” she said.  “I would just like to say thank-you to everyone, so much, for your continuous support and I am so excited!"