Damu Cherry’s persistence has paid off. After sitting out two years with a suspension and getting herself back to world-class form, the former Leto and USF track standout earned a berth in the Beijing Games by finishing second in the 100-meter hurdles at Sunday’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.

The 30-year-old Cherry has repeatedly denied that she knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs but her appeal was denied and she was hit with the ban. As a result, she missed the 2004 trials and had to train on her own with her coach and eventual fiance, former Olympic sprint medalist Dennis Mitchell, at the National Training Center in Clermont.

After breezing through two qualifying rounds, Cherry reached Sunday’s finals. She said she experienced some problems with the strong tailwind and nearly over-ran the final two hurdles. But after bolting out with eventual winner Lolo Jones, Cherry maintained her form in the final 30 meters and grabbed the silver medal in a time of 12.58 seconds. Jones, a two-time world indoor champion, was first in 12.29.

“I feel great. I kept seeing myself crossing that finish line and getting on the [Olympic] team,” said Cherry, a Leto High and University of South Florida graduate. “I saw myself with the [American] flag. I kept seeing it over and over again and I said ‘No matter what, I’m going to be on this team.’ “

Cherry started out her athletic career as a standout gymnast but by the time she was a sophomore at Leto, she had earned first team All County honors in the hurdles from the Tampa Tribune. That was 1994, a team I actually picked.

Damu was a good high school hurdler, but not the best. She was third in the 100 hurldes at the Class 6A state meet during her senior year. Her freshman year at USF, she was running 14.4 for the event—two seconds slower than she is now at age 30. But by her sophomore season, she had set school records for the Bulls in the 100 (11.78) and 100 hurdles (13.41) and was showing serious promise as an elite hurdler.

By her junior year at USF, Cherry had qualified for the NCAA championships. And when she was a senior, she had returned to the NCAA finals and lowered her 100 hurdles PR to 13.26. But here, too, Cherry was a good collegiate hurdler but not among the nation’s best collegiate hurdlers. She wasn’t even a Conference USA champ because 11-time NCAA All-American Jenny Adams was running for the University of Houston during Cherry’s time at USF.

What Cherry has always been, however, is determined. Once she left USF with her degree and started training under Mitchell in Gainesville, Cherry became a national-class hurdler, finishing fifth in the USA Outdoor National Championships in 2003. And she did this while still holding down a job. But that was the same year she received the ban and, despite her pleas of innocence and mounting a strong case to support her appeal, was forced out of competition for two long years. In this sport at this level, that’s often long enough to end a career.

But Cherry and Mitchell eventually relocated their training base to the NTC in Clermont and in that rather remote location, Cherry managed to remained focused on the event until she was allowed to return to competition in 2005. All during that time, Cherry had to make ends meet by working a full-time job as a gymnastics coach. The following year, she was back among the U.S. and world rankings and taking aim once more at the Olympic Games.

You may not want to give Cherry the benefit of a doubt regarding her suspension, but there’s no denying she has made a remarkable, virtually unheard of comeback. And with track athletes undergoing blood testing at these trials for the first time, you can feel more comfortable about the cleanliness of the U.S. squad going to these Olympics.