Marlena Wesh
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Marlena Hilari Wesh |
| Born |
February 16, 1991 Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Weight | 140 lb (63.50 kg) |
| Sport | |
| Country |
 Haiti and  United States of America
|
| Sport | Running |
| Event(s) | 200 m, 400 m |
| Updated on 29 December 2014. | |
Marlena Hilari Wesh (born February 16, 1991) is a Haitian-American sprinter competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics for Haiti in the women's 200-meter and 400-meter sprints.
She was born and raised in Virginia, but is eligible to compete for Haiti because both her parents were born and raised there. She has never been to Haiti though she is a citizen there also. Four of the five athletes representing Haiti at the 2012 Olympics are not from Haiti. Wesh says, "I still feel Haitian even if I wasn't born there".
After graduating from Landstown High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2009, She enrolled at Oklahoma, where she was given a full scholarship, but later she transferred and she enrolled at Clemson University in South Carolina and should graduate in 2013. She is majoring in psychology. She won the 400-meter sprint for Clemson in April 2012 at the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Outdoor championships with a time of 51.43 seconds, which was a meet record and her 4th consecutive 400-meter ACC championship. It is a current American college record and 17th best in the world. This time made her eligible to compete in the Olympics for both Haiti and America. She is the only one of her parents' five children that considers themselves Haitian-American. Haitian Olympic hurdler Nadine Faustin-Parker encouraged her to run for Haiti. She earned All-American designation in March 2012 in a Division I championship at Boise State University in Idaho. In early July 2012, just prior to the London Olympics, Wesh ran her personal best in the 400-meters with a time of 51.23, just 0.03 seconds behind the first-place finisher. On Friday, August 3, she achieved her goal of making it to the 400-meter semi-finals in the 2012 London Olympics, having come in third in her heat. On Saturday, August 4, she failed to make it to the finals, placing 8th in her heat and 19th overall, with a time of 52:49.
Wesh's brother Darrell could also have run for Haiti in the 2012 Olympics but chose to try to make the American team. He graduated from Virginia Tech. Eventually, he also started competing for Haiti. He competed in the 2016 Olympics for Haiti.
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