Maddy Price has blazed a path to the Olympics again.

The 2014 Menlo School grad and six-time all-American at Duke was selected to represent Team Canada in the 4x400-meter relay and the provisional 400m in this summer’s games. The track and field events begin Aug.1 at the iconic Stade de France in Paris, France.

The women’s 4x400 starts at 1:40 am on Thursday, Aug. 9. Update: Price served as an alternate in the 4x400.

While Price has already competed on the world’s biggest stage, one element of the Olympics she has never experienced is the crowds. No spectators were allowed at the Tokyo Games a group of families and friends were allowed outside the stadium. “It still felt extremely special, ceremonial and very much the Olympics.”

This time, even being more than 600 miles away from the Village to train, the atmosphere is electric.

“It’s been exciting to already see the hype around the Games, the media, the celebrity and the athletes just being able to share the stories - seeing how many families and friends are here to support, and seeing how big the crowds are,” said Price, who also cannot wait to hang out with other Team Canada Olympians and support them in their sports, something that could not happen in the wake of the pandemic.

For the past week, Price and the Team Canada track and field athletes have been training in Sant Cugat des Vallès, about 30 minutes north of Barcelona. Years ago, the team found an extraordinary training center where Price trained in 2019 before the Doha World Championships and last year before the Budapest Worlds. Training in Spain allows the athletes to acclimate to time and weather, and work out in a world-class facility. Today, a wave of Canadian athletes left for France, another leaves Aug. 1 and Price will go with third wave on Aug. 3 to the Olympic Village. She will find out a day or two before the event if she will run the 4x400. “I can’t wait to compete in that stadium, fingers crossed.”

Just three years ago, Price, a Palo Alto native with dual citizenship, was in Tokyo, competing in the 2020 Olympics which were delayed to the summer of 2021 due to the pandemic. Price ran the second leg of the women’s 4x400m relay that finished fourth in the final, missing the podium by just six-tenths of a second.

“We wanted to bring home a medal for Canada and ourselves,” Price said then after she and her team came within inches of the country’s first medal in the event since 1984. “We’ll be back.”

Price has dreamed of competing in the Olympics since she was a child. While her goal and drive remained steadfast, her journey to the world’s biggest stage was not without hurdles. As a student at Duke, she missed the 2016 Rio Games. Shortly thereafter, her father Shawn passed away after a long fight with cancer. After a record-breaking career at Duke, Price graduated and became a professional athlete. A year before the Tokyo Games, she was recovering from foot surgery, and during that time, the world went into lockdown. She made the most of that time in Olympics limbo, taking care of an injury, rehabilitating, training and coaching before joining Team Canada in Tokyo.

Perhaps more important to Price than being a two-time Olympian is the grit and perseverance she had to get there. Price gives motivational talks for corporations and schools, during the year as she trains full-time because she says, “After all, the journey is the true reward.”

Price played multiple sports growing up, but her racing made a rapid ascent when she was a freshman at Menlo. There she ran cross country, played basketball, and is a record-holder in several track and field events. Before she left for France, she joined a video call with fellow Menlo alumni and current track and field, cross country athletes, head coach Jorge Chen and more Menlo coaches to talk about her experiences, and to focus on wellness, professional racing and keeping the joy in running.

At these Paris Games, Price herself is joined by her mom Sarah, sister Nicky ’16, fiance TJ Pura, her aunt, uncle and friends. Melissa Cairo ’14 and her family, her coach Mark Mueller, as well as a contingent from Durham, N.C. where Price trains and makes her home. “It’s so cool to have the people who got me to this point, be able to be there and experience it,” Price said. “For them, it’s an Olympic experience, too, and they get to feel the energy - it’s so special they get to experience it as well.”

Price, who has always shown gratitude to those who have supported her, has reflected on what the support from those around her has meant.

“It exceeded my wildest dreams to go to one but to qualify for another has been mind-blowing,” Price said. “I think seventh-grade Maddy at Menlo Middle School would be freaking out right now. When I was 10, I wrote on a paper, ‘I want to be great, I want to be elite. I want to be at this Olympic level.’ I think of Menlo track and all the sports - soccer, basketball, cross county - and all the coaches that supported this dream and nurtured this vision I had. I’m just really grateful.”