Jenny Simpson spent much of her life discovering how far her body could carry her. The Colorado Buffaloes legend became an NCAA champion, a world champion and an Olympic medalist through a running career that took her around the world.
Now, after surviving a near-fatal cardiac arrest, Simpson has been told she can never run again.
Simpson revealed that she went into sudden cardiac arrest shortly after running at the Sir Walter Running Pop-Up Mile on June 16. Bystanders immediately performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator, keeping her alive until emergency medical personnel arrived.
After reaching the hospital, Simpson went into cardiac arrest a second time. Her heart continued to fail, and she was placed on life support before being transferred to Duke Hospital for advanced treatment.
“My body was dying, but my spirit wouldn’t give up,” Simpson wrote. “I fought for my life.”
Doctors eventually diagnosed Simpson with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, commonly known as ARVC. The rare inherited condition caused scar tissue in her heart to disrupt its electrical system, triggering the dangerous rhythms that caused her heart to stop.
Simpson’s heart and lungs eventually recovered enough to function independently, but the diagnosis delivered a life-changing reality.
“My future is an incredible gift,” Simpson wrote. “It’s hopeful, and it will continue to have great purpose. But my diagnosis also means it would be dangerous for me to return to running. That chapter has ended. Thankfully, my story hasn’t.”
Simpson built a historic legacy at Colorado.
Long before Simpson reached an Olympic podium, she established herself as one of the greatest athletes in Colorado history.
Competing as Jenny Barringer, she won four NCAA individual championships for the Buffaloes, capturing three titles in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and another in the indoor 3,000 meters. During her remarkable 2009 season, Simpson broke six NCAA records and seven Colorado school records.
She also became the inaugural female recipient of The Bowerman, college track and field’s most prestigious individual award. Simpson was later inducted into the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame and the USTFCCCA Collegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
Her 3:59.90 performance in the 1,500 meters in 2009 made her the first woman to break four minutes during an NCAA season. Seventeen years later, she remains the only woman to accomplish it.
Simpson qualified for her first Olympics while still competing for Colorado, representing the United States in the steeplechase at the 2008 Beijing Games.
From Colorado greatness to Olympic history
After leaving Colorado, Simpson moved to the 1,500 meters and became one of the most accomplished American runners of her generation.
She won the 1,500-meter world championship in 2011 before adding world silver medals in 2013 and 2017. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Simpson earned bronze and became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the 1,500 meters. She competed in three Olympic Games overall.
“I’m profoundly grateful that I got to have the career I did,” Simpson wrote. “I experienced everything from the trenches of training to standing on the top of the podium while our national anthem filled the stadium.”
Her final run came while pacing young girls around a track, a conclusion Simpson said she could not have written any better.
“To think that the way I showed up as a person and as a woman with my last mile was in community, taking young girls around the track, I’m really proud of that,” Simpson told CBS News. “That’s what I’m grateful for. That’s what I want to remember.”
Although she will no longer run beside the community that supported her, Simpson plans to remain connected through her role as Fleet Feet’s chief running officer.
“My relationship with running must change,” Simpson wrote. “My love for it is stronger than ever.”
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