3 SC athletes ready for Olympics track & field events. Here’s who they are and when they compete

Three South Carolina athletes will compete in the Olympics when track and field events begin Thursday.

Quanera Hayes of Dillon will compete in the 400 meter, Melissa Jefferson of Hemingway 100 meter and Raven Saunders of Charleston shot put.

Saunders won a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and placed 5th in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The 100 meters preliminary race will be held Friday, 400 meter Monday and shot put on Aug. 8.

Hayes, 32, who went to Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., started running in middle school at the invitation of a coach, according to her Olympics biography.

She won a bronze medal at the 2016 World Indoor Championships. This is her second Olympics. She placed 7th in Tokyo in 2020.

Melissa Jefferson, 23, attended Carvers Bay Early College and Career High School in Georgetown County and Coastal Carolina University. She won a national championship in the 60 meter dash in 2022 at the NCAA women’s indoor track and field championships in 2022.

To qualify for the Paris Olympics she placed second in the Olympic Trials women’s 100-meter final with a time of 10.80.

The list of her achievements on the track is long. She started running when she was 5 years old.

The Associated Press reported she donated bone marrow at 17 to her father, who had myelodysplastic syndrome.

She trains with Star Athletics Club coach Dennis Mitchell, a three-time Olympic medalist, in Clermont, Florida, along with Sha’Carri Richardson and Twanisha “TeeTee” Terry, also competing at the Olympics.

Saunders, 28, attended the University of Mississippi and started throwing shot put and discus in ninth grade.

Saunders was named the 2014 Gatorade National Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year and set the all-time national high school girls record holder in the shot put.

Saunders received attention during the Tokyo games when they formed an “X” with their arms.

“It wasn’t like I went up there protesting anything, I was raising awareness more so. I feel like that level of courage is something not a lot of people have, so I was really proud and happy to be able to be that person,” Saunders told WCBD, a Charleston television station.

The station asked about legacy.

“I feel like mine is the ultimate story of the underdog, the comeback kid, the fighter, the survivor, the champion. I feel like that’s what I want my legacy to be. Somebody that wasn’t afraid to challenge the norms and compete at a high level and do it in a fashionable way,” Saunders said.

The Olympics website says Saunders also enjoys playing the piano.