Professional athletes like Waukegan native and former Olympic sprinter Shakedia Jones are often able to retire earlier than most and start planning their next career. For Jones, the answer is philanthropy, and her nonprofit, Furthering the Lives of Youth (FLY).
A member of the 2000 U.S. Track and Field Olympic team in Sydney while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Jones had the experience of her life competing in the 400-meter relay and immersing herself in everything Olympics while there.
“There was such electric energy,” she said of the opening ceremonies as she marched into the stadium with the other members of the relay team. “It was a great experience being there with the world watching.”
Foregoing the 2004 Tokyo Olympics in giving birth to her daughter, Jasmine, the day of that 100-meter race, an injury in training for the 2008 Games ended her competitive athletic career. She returned to Waukegan for good in 2013, and started FLY a year later.
“Our mission is assisting exceptional youth with limited resources,” Jones said. “We’ve helped over 600 kids. Their families must earn less than $60,000 a year. They must have a 3.2 GPA.”
Jones was honored by her hometown Monday during the Waukegan City Council meeting at City Hall for her accomplishments and her contributions to the community, receiving five standing ovations during the short ceremony.
“Everything you have done for this community and how proud this community is of you, I mean it is amazing,” Mayor Ann Taylor said after the proclamation was read. “You’re probably going home to watch track, right,” she added, referring to the ongoing Paris Olympics.
Along with starting FLY, Jones coaches the girls track team at Waukegan High School and has started a track and field club for area youth. Not only does she coach the athletes, but helps them secure their future.
Building a network of coaches and other officials in the sports world through her days as an All-American sprinter at UCLA, the Olympics and beyond — she was sponsored by Nike as a professional runner — she has the ability to help club members.
“I helped 20 young people get athletic scholarships,” Jones said. “I got in touch with other coaches I know, and said you should take a look at this person.”
Helping young people across the country, Jones said an individual must be nominated to get help from FLY. A committee reviews the applications and selects the recipients.
“I’m not on the committee,” she said. “I’d want to pick everybody.”
Though she does not sit on the committee, Jones said she vividly remembers how she personally helped Mia Hernandez, then 11 and a Waukegan public schools student. Hernandez was recommended by Kathleen Dudley, a music teacher at Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School in Waukegan.
“We helped her get her first cello,” Jones said. “I took her to the music store to try the instruments. She’s an amazing cellist.”
Also the mother of a musician, Jones said her daughter is now in college studying to be a mechanical engineer. Though Jasmine Jones did not play sports in school, she still got her mother to come to sporting events.
“I went to the stadium to cheer for the band,” she said. “When people went to the coffee line at halftime, I was there cheering for the band”
Spending a lot of time since Sept. 26 watching the Olympics, Jones said she was glad to see the mixed relays where two men and two women compose the quartet. They are additions to the team beyond those who take the first three spots in the trials. It opens the Games to more athletes.
For her, Jones said the 2000 Olympic experience was about a community of athletes, as well as being part of the 400-meter relay team. She was part of the team that won a bronze medal but Marion Jones, another runner with no relation, was disqualified for testing positive for steroid use. The entire team had to return their medals.
Living in the Olympic Village where athletes from around the world enveloped her, Jones said she saw teammates from UCLA who competed for other nations. She also watched friends from UCLA play softball and volleyball.
“If UCLA was a country, it would have had the fourth-most competitors,” Jones said. “It was so cool to see so many Bruins there. I got to watch them, and cheer for them. There was a disco there we could relax. The cafeterias had food from all over the world.”
Jones has added another quest to her bucket list. She wants to see a place where people can see pictures and other memorabilia of not just successful athletes from Waukegan, but others who have made their mark on the world as well.
“Why isn’t there a place where we can go to find out the people in Waukegan who have done amazing things,” she said at Monday’s meeting. “I ask the city and the council to find a place to put people like me, so that people can see excellence from Waukegan
If such a place is created in Waukegan, it might include Shawn Marion, who played on the 2004 Olympic basketball team earning a bronze medal, and Chris Thorp, who medaled in the luge in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games, city officials said.
