[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
INSPIRED to represent the country for her family, Lauren Hoffman is motivated to bring her best to the Paris Olympic Games.
Hoffman made the Team Philippines in the world’s biggest sporting conclave after ending up at No. 41 in the world rankings of the women’s 400m hurdles at the conclusion of the qualification phase last June.
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The 25-year-old has been competing for the Philippines since last year following a decorated college career at Duke University where she captured a bronze medal in the NCAA Outdoor Championships during the 2021-22 season while collecting gold medals in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
It was during her time in college where her desire to compete for the Philippines started because two of the strongest people that became her influences in her life were her Filipina mother and grandmother.
“I knew I wanted to inspire other Filipinas the same way my role models inspired me,” said Hoffman, referring to her mother and grandmother, in a 2023 interview with SPIN.ph. “It was a long journey but I’m so grateful that I am finally able to compete for the country I love.”
During her sophomore year at Duke, Hoffman began looking at the possibility of representing the Philippines especially after learning about the national record and her times during the 2018-19 season.
“I ran 57.9 that year and the Philippine record at the time was 57.57, so that was when I started looking into the citizenship process,” said Hoffman.
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After completing the process of switching nationalities, Hoffman became finally eligible to compete for the Philippines in October 2023, and began breaking national records months after.
Last February, Hoffman clocked 53.71 seconds in the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational in South California to notch a new Philippine record in the 400m hurdles, breaking the mark she owned by 0.2 a few weeks prior.
Hoffman also showed her supremacy in the 100m hurdles by clocking 13.34 seconds in the Philippine National Open, shattering the 15-year mark of 13.65 by Sheena Atilano that she set back in 2009.
Perhaps another new national record could be in the offing for Hoffman, maybe even more.
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