Once a sickly child, Olympic medalist Brittany

Brittany Brown seems to be strong.

She seems to be assured.

She seems to be succesful of attaining her goals.

That’s how Brown seems to be in the mural painted in her honor at Vista del Valle Elementary — and it’s how the 31-year-old U.S. sprinter feels in real life almost two years after profitable a bronze medal in the ladies’s 200 meters at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

But that’s not always how she felt many years in the past during her time as a pupil at the Claremont college.

“I grew up very sickly,” Brown told The Times last month while visiting Vista del Valle for a mural unveiling ceremony. “I had asthma. I had pneumonia, bronchitis. … I never thought I’d be running because I just was not the person that would be running. I was told to stay inside, not go outside.”

Former Vista del Valle Elementary pupil Brittany Brown wears her 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal at the college’s district monitor and discipline competitors April 24.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Brown’s household also confronted housing uncertainty and financial struggles during that time. They moved around a lot, and sometimes Brown and her household — mom, Yo-Landa, father Wayne, older sister, Brandi, twin brother, Brandon, and youthful brother, Bryan — discovered themselves residing in a resort room close to the elementary college.

Her mom told The Times that the college and the neighborhood supplied invaluable assist during those attempting instances.

“I think emotionally, it took a toll on her,” Yo-Landa Brown said. “But, of course, she was always joyful. She was very observant. She was kind. I could tell she used to cry a lot, but we all just tried to keep things calm and collected around her.”

U.S. sprinter Brittany Brown, a bronze medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is all smiles after profitable a ribbon in the Vista del Valle monitor meet as a fourth grader in 2007.

(Brandi Brown)

The mural ceremony was held April 24 immediately after the college’s fiftieth annual district monitor meet, where Brown interacted with the contributors and handed out ribbons. Vista del Valle Elementary hosts all seven elementary colleges in the district each yr for the meet. It was as a fourth-grade participant at the same event almost 20 years in the past that Brown found she cherished to run — and also that she was excellent at it.

“I remember running just felt very freeing. Like it just felt like, ‘OK, I’m not the sick kid. I can just try and do something,’” said Brown, who holds the Claremont High document in the ladies 100-meter and 200-meter races. “And I was also winning, so that helped as well. … Running has brought me opportunities I never thought I would ever experience.”

The mural was painted by local artist Xiucoatl Mejia, who attended Claremont Unified School District colleges from kindergarten (Sumner Elementary) through high college (Claremont High). He has painted a number of murals at district colleges in latest years and was already working with first-year Vista del Valle principal Charles Boulden to start an afterschool artwork membership for the scholars.

The two males thought it might be great to have a mural on campus to tie in with the half-century anniversary of the district monitor meet. The realization that one of the nation’s top sprinters was a Vista graduate who bought her start at the same meet served as additional inspiration.

The mural depicts an grownup Brown working while sporting a Vista monitor uniform and carrying a torch. A large group of kids runs behind her, with some of those youngsters resembling college students from the artwork membership.

People collect in entrance of a mural that includes U.S. sprinter Brittany Brown prior to its unveiling ceremony April 24 at Vista del Valle Elementary in Claremont.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

“It just made sense to include some of the kids who were in the class and make it a little bit more custom to the school and personal to these kids,” Mejia said.

Third-grader Levi Adams said being depicted in a mural on a college wall is “special because when you’re older you can go back and look at it.”

Second-grader Holland Ly agreed that “it’s pretty special” to be featured in a portray that “many people” will see through the years.

Art membership college students also helped paint the mural.

“I had the kids lay out the whole track,” Mejia said. “I wanted them to do that very specifically, because I wanted them to understand that that’s the foundation for the race in our scene. … I wanted them to have that part in it, and be able to look back on it and see it.”

The theme of the piece initially was victory, Mejia said, but it advanced.

“As it progressed, the theme kind of changed into carrying the torch and paving the way for a better future for our youth and for our communities,” Mejia said. “It became a lot bigger than what initially it was. It became something that is a little bit more powerful than any singular victory. It was a collective victory with everyone.”

Boulden thinks the mural ended up being a great success.

U.S. sprinter Brittany Brown holds up her bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics surrounded by, from left: mom Yo-Landa Brown; twin brother, Brandon Brown; brother, Bryan Brown; grandmother, Jeanette Royston and sister, Brandi Brown.

(Brandi Brown)

“I couldn’t be happier with how it is — the colors, how vibrant it is and what it represents to me,” the principal said. “I see perseverance in there, and I see chasing dreams, and I see kids chasing after somebody who’s chasing their dreams as well.”

Brown is also thrilled with how the first mural in her honor turned out.

“I think it’s really good! I’m really, really happy with it,” said Brown, who is presently training in Los Angeles with the long-term aim of competing for the U.S. again in the 2028 Summer Olympics. “I love the colors. It even has my choker — I wear a choker when I run a lot. It has the little, fine details, so I think that was really cool.”

Her mom said she thought it was “really touching” that Mejia included pictures of current Vista college students in the portray.

“Yes, Brittany is the Olympian, but now you have the next generation involved,” Yo-Landa Brown said. “Their stories will continue to live on and they will remember that. And that will give them the inspiration to be better and to do better in their lives. I thought that was phenomenal. I felt so thankful that he was able to capture that.”

Wearing her Olympic medal around her neck, Brown addressed the coed physique at the mural ceremony and grew to become emotional while speaking about the hardships she overcame while attending the college.

Olympian Brittany Brown fingers out ribbons and high-fives to contributors in Vista del Valle’s annual district monitor and discipline meet April 24 in Claremont.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

“I really just want them to know you can create beautiful stuff, even in the struggle,” Brown told The Times afterward. “It’s going to be a lot harder, but you can still create beautiful stuff in the struggle. And I definitely have created a different life for me. …

“I never thought the little girl in the hotel would freaking have a mural. I never thought, like a little asthma girl, you know, someone who wasn’t allowed outside, that this would be my story. So it’s definitely crazy. That’s what I want them to know.”

Brown’s message appears to have resonated with the scholars. Fifth-grader Kaylee Mency said Brown’s story of her childhood struggles “really meant a lot to me because she still kept going even though her life wasn’t as good.”

Fifth-grader Eliana Ocegueda added: “She went to this school and now she’s an Olympian. It’s really inspiring and it kind of makes you think about you can be anything you want to be.”