Sprinter from Hamden ready to take on Paris

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — News 8 is highlighting Connecticut athletes going to the Olympics in Paris.

Alexis Holmes of Hamden started running track in New Haven when she was 5 years old. She went on to become an amazing high school athlete, playing multiple sports at Chesire Academy.

Alexis was so good at basketball that her mom, Dawn Stanton, says that she received multiple Division 1 offers before she even graduated.

“It was basketball that first illuminated us for her to go to college,” Stanton said. “I think she may have had 30 or 40 scholarship offers by the time she was in the 9 ^th grade.”

Alexis decided to step away from basketball and focus just on running, which has obviously paid off for her.

Alexis will run the individual 400 and women’s 4X4 race in Paris starting on Aug. 5. She has been a professional runner for two years now.

Both of her parents will be at the Olympics to cheer her on. Her dad had this advice for her:

“When you lace them up and get into those blocks, and that gun goes off, leave no doubt in your own mind that you’ve laid it all out on the line on the track,” Craig Holmes said.

Watch News 8 investigative reporter Jeff Derderian’s report in the video above.

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