The Emory Wheel

Graduate distance runner Brigid Hanley’s journey as an athlete has been an unrelenting test of resilience. 

Hanley began her athletic journey in her freshman year of high school at La Salle Catholic College Preparatory (Ore.), where she joined the cross country team as a freshman. She was not planning to run during the track and field season until her coach told her that school rules stated she had to compete in both sports. Hanley said she enjoyed the additional season anyway because of her love for running.

“It’s really social honestly,” Hanley said. “You get to be outside every day … and you get a lot of time to talk with your friends and hang out with them.”

Early in her college career, Hanley was focused on learning in the classroom and getting faster on the track. However, her path to the finish line took an unexpected turn when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Hanley had to take multiple seasons off from competing to battle the illness, causing her to miss all her outdoor track seasons at Arizona, but she still ran when she could during her time in treatment. She said running helped her get through hard days of doctor’s appointments and treatment sessions.

“When you have any type of chronic illness, but especially cancer, you become a patient and not a person,” Hanley said. “Your life is full of doctor’s appointments. It revolves around your illness, people treat you like you’re your illness, they don’t treat you like a person. So I think for me too, running was a way to kind of keep my identity.”

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Story by Misha Gupta. Photo courtesy of Brigid Hanley.

Emory University’s 2023 was marked by moments of unity and division. The University debuted new identity spaces and strengthened its partnership with the College of the Muscogee Nation, while campus protests and demonstrations related to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center created friction within the Emory community. Administrative changes also shaped life on campus, with the introduction of a campus life dean and new leaders for the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and Oxford College. 

The Emory Wheel has compiled 23 of the many stories that defined this year at Emory.

Click the link in our bio to view the full compilation.

Story compiled by Matthew Chupack, Sarah Davis, Madi Olivier and Spencer Friedland. Photo by Tiffany Namkung.

Danielle LeSure (02C) had never heard of the hammer throw event before college. Today, she holds a 21-year-old program record for the hammer throw at 52.5 meters in addition to eight of the top 10 farthest throws in program history.

Hundreds of athletes across 19 varsity sports have written their names in Emory University’s record books. However, few records have remained unbroken for decades. The Emory Wheel spoke with two long-standing record holders about their journey to Emory and the legacy they have left on the University.

LeSure initially tried out for track and field in high school because everyone was guaranteed a spot on the team. On the first day of practice, she began training for the track events, but almost immediately, her workout morphed from running into jogging and then power walking. Looking for an alternative, LeSure’s high school coaches introduced her to throwing. There, she discovered her love for discus and shotput. The hammer throw was not allowed at LeSure’s high school because it was deemed too dangerous, but her coaches at Emory told her that since she was explosive with a discus, she could replicate that with a hammer.

Derrick Beare (82Ox, 84B), another Emory Hall of Fame inductee, also has a lasting legacy in Emory athletics. His men’s soccer record of 25 goals in a single season has remained standing for nearly 40 years. The South-African-born striker was finishing his secondary school in London when he received a call from former Oxford College Men’s Soccer Head Coach Richard Chappell to join the team for two years. During his time at Oxford, the team was nationally ranked and featured players from “all over the world,” he said.

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Story by Sasha Melamud and Madeline Shapiro. Photo by Natalie Sandlow.