Lacarthea Cooper & Carlie Makarawu to Represent NMJC at 2024 Paris Olympics
New Mexico Junior College is sending two student-athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Sprinters Tapiwanashe (Carlie) Makarawu and Lacarthea Cooper will represent their respective countries on the track when the Olympic Opening Ceremonies kickoff Friday, July 26.
Cooper will represent her home country of the Bahamas on the 4x400m relay team. The Bahamian is coming off a 400m NJCAA individual title and team national title during the 2024 NJCAA Outdoor T&F Championships. Cooper's competition begins with the first round of the 4x400m relay on Friday, Aug. 9 at the Stade de France in Paris, France.
Makarawu will represent his home country of Zimbabwe in the 200m Monday, Aug. 5. Currently Makarawu is the 10th fastest 200m runner in the world. Makarawu finished up his athletic career with the Thunderbirds as an 11-time All-American, seven-time individual national champion, seven-time school record holder, and two-time team national champion.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony will be a flotilla along the river Seine. The athletes will travel on boats approximately 3.7 miles on the river going past familiar landmarks like the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, and the Eiffel Tower. The parade of boats will begin at 7:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. MDT) and end as the sun goes down in the "City of Light". Americans can watch the opening ceremony on NBC in primetime at 7:30 p.m. EDT, 6:30 p.m. CDT, 6:30 p.m. MDT, or 7:30 p.m. PDT.
Tapiwanashe (Carlie) Makarawu or Carlie as he affably goes by is a contender to make the 200m finals for team Zimbabwe.
Makarawu will have some familiarity when he begins competition as the Zimbabwe team manager for the Olympics is former T-Bird track & field assistant and now University of Alabama track & field assistant Tabarie Henry. Henry has experience in the Olympics where he competed in the 400m in 2008 and 2012.
Makarawu recently competed at the 23rd Africa Senior Athletic Championships in Doula, Cameroon June 25-26. The Bindura, Zimbabwe native finished second in the 200m at the African Championships coming across the line in 20.51.
Makarawu's next stop this summer was in Lucerne, Switzerland where he competed in the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern track meet. There Makarawu ran in the 200m and finished first in his section with a time of 20.48 (-1.3 wind). He ended up coming in third overall at the July 16 meet.
The former T-Bird will focus solely on his race and training when he first arrives in Paris, but he hopes to see the sights of the famous city following the completion of the races.
"When I get there, I will be focused on my races," Makarawu said. "I'll be around my coaches and teammates mostly and then go to the stadium each day. "I do not want to distract myself with going out. Right now, I am focusing on my rest and then I'll look into seeing the city after I am done with my races."
The 200m race will feature the fastest runners in the world all at peak form. However, in races of this caliber it comes down to the mental aspect more than the physical according to Makarawu.
"For this big of a competition it's more mental than physical. You can be physically fit but if you are not mentally fit you're not going to go anywhere. So, I'm just going to try to be mentally fit and stay healthy as usual and talk to my coach after practice to see where I am at and what I need to improve. When I run against those guys, I just want to be in the finals. That's been my target since last year, and it's still my target this year."
There will be six heats for the 200m with the fastest two runners in each heat automatically advancing to the semifinals. The plan for Makarawu is to run every race like it's a final so he can continue to advance.
"I have to dust it in the prelims so I can get a good lane in the semifinals and then I will have to do the same in the semifinals if I want to make the finals and have a decent lane," Makarawu said.
Carlie's proud to represent NMJC and junior college on the national stage.
"I feel a tremendous honor to represent my country at the Olympics coming from a junior college. Not a lot of athletes can make it to the Olympics coming from junior college. It's different to be in a junior college than to be at a DI school," Makarawu said. "So, I'm excited to compete with the top guys showing them that it's not all about the big school where you go, it's all about what you have inside, how challenging you are and how fast you are. And looking at NMJC it is more like a DI school. They have everything. We get everything here. Most people say we are spoiled here, and I agree with them. We are really spoiled, and they really take care of us. And those are some of the things that fueled me to qualify for the Olympics and I'm really excited to be able to represent my country and NMJC when I'm there.
To compete for Zimbabwe is something that Makarawu dreamed of, and through constant effort it became a reality he said.
"It's sort of like a déjà vu, like it's something that I thought of maybe in my dreams, or I thought of growing up back home. So, it'll be something like déjà vu because it is actually happening," Makarawu said. "My coach back home said 'Okay, you didn't qualify for the Olympics this year, but you're going to qualify for the 2020'. I was like, 'I'm not really sure about that' and he said 'continue like every day you're going for the Olympics. Train like you're an Olympic Champion'. So it's something that I'm grateful that I had that coach make an impact on me in Zimbabwe and plant that dream in me to be great."
When it comes to racing against the best in the world Makarawu said he will not be intimidated when on the track.
"I am going to chase after no one. I want to chase myself. I want to beat my own records, so that's my goal in Paris."
The former T-Bird will start racing in the 200m prelims on Monday, Aug. 5 at the Stade de France with the hope of making the 200m finals on Thursday, Aug. 8.