Chari Hawkins will serve as grand marshal for the Salt Lake Marathon on Saturday, a hometown role for the Utah State alum who spent a decade chasing a U.S. Olympic berth before reaching the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
The 33-year-old’s path to that stage was anything but smooth. Hawkins said she failed to make the Olympic team in 2021, lost all seven of her sponsors and went three months without a call or text after an injury left her limping for 10 months to try to get there. Her selection for Saturday’s race gives the slc marathon route a face that many Utah runners will recognize from a career built on persistence, disappointment and, eventually, a trip to Paris.
That trip carried its own hard edge. Hawkins said her first event, the high jump, unraveled in 15 seconds after she was caught in a rush to the mat and had only seconds to prepare. She failed all three attempts and finished with zero points in her best event. Later, she said she cried for seven hours before her next event and did not want to go back out because she was embarrassed.
“You never know how truly strong you are until you are pushed past the point of wanting to quit and you choose to fight instead,” Hawkins said of the setback and what came after. She said, “It all happened so fast,” and added that she looked shocked on video because she was. “I’m shocked; I’m angry,” she said. “I’ve never done that in high jump; it’s my most consistent event. So being in that position was so jarring.”
Her appearance in Salt Lake comes as the marathon weekend is also bringing road closures across the city, making Saturday a day when the race will be hard to miss even for people who are not running it. For Hawkins, who now lives in Utah, the role turns a difficult Olympic story into a public welcome at home — and another reminder that the finish line for elite athletes is not always the most important part of the race.
