A Jacksonville girl is heading to the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics. News 12 spent the day with her and her mom to learn more about their journey to get to this point.
8-year-old Rylee Belcher has been racing for only a year, but now, she’ll be racing for gold, representing both the city of Jacksonville and the military.
Rylee Belcher spends most of her time on Camp Lejeune Marine Base with her mom, who’s stationed there. But for the last year, she has been competing for the goal of getting to the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics.
I love like running events too, like the 100 and the 200.
Rylee’s mom, Shatia Belcher, has been with her every step of the way. Shatia tells us she’s incredibly proud of her daughter.
To come out here with all the motivation she put into it, her inspiration, her background, she’s so humble and having some type of stability as a military kid because they move around so much. But she found something she’s passionate about.
Now, Rylee and her mom are preparing to go to the Junior Olympics, but Shatia says they could never have gotten this far without support from their community on base.
My command, any time I have to go to track practice they’re like, ‘let’s go.’ They love seeing the videos, they like supporting her; anything we need to get everything done, they’re there for us.
Even now, Rylee is looking at what’s next for her racing career.
When I get older, I’m going to race again but a little faster…I want to go to the Olympics.
In under two weeks, Rylee and her mom will be traveling to Savannah, Georgia, to compete during the week of July 21.