THE USA Track & Field Foundation (USATF) announced Wednesday that it will pay grants to 100 elite American athletes. Gwen Berry, an Olympic hammer thrower, isn’t one of them. And she has decided, after keeping quiet for almost a year, that she no longer can.

The USATF Foundation, Berry says, has essentially punished her for protesting “extreme injustice” after winning gold at the Pan-American Games last summer.

“I know for sure that I wasn’t chosen [for a grant] because of my stance on the podium,” Berry told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “Because I was told that.”

Last August, Berry raised her fist during a Pan-Ams medal ceremony. A USATF Foundation official, she says, called her a couple days later, “and told me I better not do it again, or else I’ll lose funding.”

Around that same time, the Foundation released lists of 2019 grant recipients. The previous year, Berry had received US$35,000, as one of 25 U.S. track and field stars in the top tier. In 2019, days after winning gold, she no longer was in that top tier. Berry closed 2019 at No. 3 in Track & Field News’ world rankings. (SD-Agencies)