EXCLUSIVE: Olympic Sprinter Wallace Spearmon Was 'Heartbroken' Over 2008 Disqualification

When sprint athlete Wallace Spearmon competed in the 200-meter race at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, he crossed the finish line in third place — only to find out later that he had been disqualified for stepping out of his lane. For Spearmon, who is headed back to the Olympics for the 2012 Summer Games in London, that is not something he plans on going through again.

Spearmon said his ambitions for this year’s Games are as bright as gold. “I have no idea what it would feel like to put that gold medal around my neck, but I’ll tell you what, I’m hoping to find out,” he said in our exclusive video interview.

Spearmon said that what happened in 2008 was “very unfortunate,” especially since he had “great chances of actually coming home with a medal.” When, after about 400 meters of his victory lap, he learned that he had been DQ’d, he was “heartbroken.”

“From that day I knew what I had to do,” he continued. “I had to come back redeem myself.”