Kelly Seegers, August 13, 2016 | National Catholic Reporter
SILVER SPRING, MD.
When Thea LaFond, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Silver Spring, found out she would be headed to the Olympics, the first thing she did was thank God and ask: “How did you do this, God? How did this happen?”
She will represent her home country, Dominica, in the triple jump, part of track and field competition. While she was just shy of the qualifying mark for the Olympics, each country is entitled to two athletes — one male and one female — and since Dominica only had a male entrant, the Olympic Committee accepted LaFond as the female competitor.