By Carter Melrose
Heaven Chandler’s back was against the wall. She started to wonder if being a D-1 athlete was in the cards for her, if it was in God’s plan.
In the summer of 2013, she had just come off a memorable high-school state track performance and looked to the future with great hope and longing.
Fate had a different plan for her.That summer, Chandler was playing a routine pickup game of basketball when her path took a turn for the worst.
“I totally tore my ACL out,” she said.
This meant surgery for the track hopeful. A surgery that would mean a nine-month rehab.
“During my surgery, there was a complication, and the doctor told me that I would never run on a D-1 level,” she said.
The surgery had torn her kneepan, a part of the knee that connects many muscles together. This complication not only put her dreams on a seemingly permanent hold but also lengthened an rehab by almost a year and a half. Like many people would, Chandler questioned if her dreams would ever come true.
“I remember the first rehab session I had, I tried to move my leg but couldn’t get it to respond,” she said. “That’s when I hit rock bottom, going from winning state to not being able to move my leg a month later.”
Chandler didn’t give up. She took the burden of her rehab squarely on her shoulders.
“I was doing it a lot by myself,” she said.
Chandler came all the way back from a two-year rehab, and in 2015 walked on to Iowa’s track and field team, a feat that a doctor once said was nearly impossible. She finally believed in herself again.
“I had been trying to prove things to other people for so long, this was really something I was doing for myself,” she said. “And that pushed me to make the team.”
Then, on Feb. 18 of this year, Chandler set a personal best that she now covets as her favorite track moment.
During the Iowa Open, Chandler ran a time of 8.44 in the indoor 60-meter hurdles (a lifetime best and fifth in Hawkeye history).
“When I heard it was fifth all time, knowing the talent that has gone through here, it made me really proud,” Chandler said.
“She is a special athlete; she is starting to put things together,” Iowa Director of Track and Field Joey Woody said.
This was said about an athlete who was once told she would never run at a D-1 level, an athlete who had to rehab her ACL injury for more than two years, and an athlete who walked on to the Hawkeye track team and stamped her name in the record books.
“I knew my hard work would show up, it was just a matter of time,” Chandler said.
Which brings us back to the present day.
The Iowa track and field team, along with Chandler, is on the verge of competing in the Indoor Track Big Ten Champions on Feb. 24-25 in Geneva, Ohio.
“My expectations are always to see them perform the best at the Big Ten meet. But for (Heaven) it’s about doing what she is doing now and putting it all together at the right time,” Woody said.
