Four-time Olympian and bronze medalist Chaunté Lowe is telling her story after being diagnosed in June 2019 with triple-negative invasive ductal carcinoma, which is an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer.
Lowe says she was diagnosed with breast cancer early on at the age of 34. She started doing self-breast examinations because of a fellow Olympian who was also young, fit, and healthy, but was diagnosed with breast cancer between the ages of 34 and 35.
While doing her self-evaluation at the age of 34, she felt a tiny, painless lump. When she went for a doctor’s visit, she was misdiagnosed, and it took her an entire year to be fully diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, invasive ductal carcinoma.
“The doctors thought that it was a lymph node and told me to come back in six years because that’s when I would have been 40, and I would have been able to have my first mammogram,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t, and that’s what attracted me to the V Foundation in the first place, because there’s something about the research that could identify these types of cancer and find ways to treat them.”
Lowe also says she does not blame her original doctors for their lack of knowledge on the medical side.
“The information the original doctors gave me was what they had, and I believed he was giving me the best course of care, but unfortunately, the information was wrong,” she said. “So, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was shocked, but it was 11 months later, so the cancer obviously grew and progressed slightly.”
Lowe says she is thankful for being vigilant and listening to her body.
“When you’re an athlete, you know how to listen to your body and you don’t ignore warning signals,” she said. “A lot of times, we’re busy, we’re working, taking care of children, and trying to figure out our path and our way so much we don’t take the time to listen to our bodies.”
The Olympian
Lowe is a former track and field athlete who stood for the United States in four Olympics (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016). She won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships in the same event.
In 2012, she won a gold medal in the high jump at the World Indoor Championships. She is also the American record-holder in the women’s high jump.
Lowe says there were two reasons she became an Olympian: First watching American track and field athlete Flo Jo at four years old when she fell in love with the Olympics, and watching Jackie Joyner Kersee in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta as well.
“I learned how powerful the Olympics are. I saw Jackie get injured in the hurdle race and during the heptathlon, and you’re thinking ‘that’s it, she’s carried off the track and she’s crying,’ but she’s back on stage a couple days later doing the long jump and wins the bronze medal,” she said. “That’s when I realized that’s what I want to do.”
That dream turned reality saved Lowe from a home life with domestic violence, drug abuse, homelessness, and food insecurity. She said she saw the Olympics as a way for her to not only forge her own path, but to get her education as well.
Becoming a four-time Olympian and a bronze medalist herself, she said she feels great reflecting over the last decade of her Olympian career.
“I always think it was so serendipitous that it was the 1996 Olympics that taught me resilience because that was the time when I was at the height of all my turmoil at home,” she said. “I wasn’t aware my journey would lead me to Atlanta, going to Georgia Tech. Growing up in California, and when I moved to Atlanta, I knew I was home.”
In 2016, Lowe reflected on her journey with the Olympics and accolades and considered retiring from competing. However, once diagnosed, she decided to fully devote her time to compete in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
“I started becoming aware of how many people are diagnosed with breast cancer and any type of cancer within the United States, and I felt as I didn’t understand the risk, but once I did, I felt like going to the Olympics was my best way to spread that information far and wide about early detection, and I wanted to bring attention to funding research,” she said.
Lowe said being diagnosed was the first time in her entire life where she didn’t have a tangible, objectifiable goal in front of her, so she needed to have something that would get her up in the morning and get her through treatment.
“My doctor told me to keep going, and those words resonated so deeply with me,” she said. “I no longer was training for the medals. My biggest goals were thinking about the moms, the children, the daughters, or anyone who would ever hear those words, ‘you have cancer,’ and fighting my fight in honor of them.”
V Foundation
When Lowe was going through her cancer journey and training for the Olympics, she said she saw a profound impact that media stories played and being able to distribute not only information, but galvanize a community that may have somebody they love that’s went through cancer and have everyone come together regardless of race, social economic status, background, or gender.
“I saw people coming together and I noticed the media was carrying these stories. So, when the V Foundation reached out to me to be a part of their campaign, it was a no brainer. I love what the V Foundation does and stands for,” she said.
When she began learning more about the V Foundation and how they take 100% of their donations and put it towards research, it made her realize what she was missing in her own journey was being addressed through the foundation.
“I wanted to lend my voice to be able to amplify this message and be a part of it,” she said. “It was an honor.”
With the PSA, Lowe says she wants people to have emotions when thinking about the times where they may have experienced walking through cancer with a loved one or a period of frustration.
“I think the biggest message that comes through is we don’t give up, even with setbacks,” she said. “We can refrain and refine and try again, and giving 100% doesn’t necessarily mean getting exactly right the first time. When you don’t get it right the first time, you learn from that experience and allow it to catapult you forward into the future.”
Resilience & aftermath
With six years in remission, while speaking with Lowe, reflecting on her journey through breast cancer, you could catch something special: a bright smile and resilience pouring out of her.
She says resilience is like a muscle, something you exercise day in and day out.
“The more you exercise the muscle, the stronger it becomes, like finding the brightness in a dark world. When I think about my community and the people who supported me, part of being strong and resilient is not thinking you must have the full strength all on your own,” she said.
Lowe says her husband was her solid rock, who was by her side every day, neighbors, and other patients who kept her fighting. She also said what kept her fighting was seeing another cancer patient who told her a cancer diagnosis is much different than it was 10 years ago.
“The research has made it so much better, so that’s where the cheery and hopeful deposition comes from because I understand there are people and organizations like the V Foundation that are finding those researchers and getting solutions to the problem,” she said.
Speaking of resilience, Lowe will be releasing her book, “The Boundless Resilience Playbook”, which serves as a practical guide born from her journey as an Olympian, breast cancer survivor, and mother.
The book will be out at the beginning of 2026, Lowe says. During the COVID-19 pandemic and her cancer journey, she began learning a lot of people were struggling mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
“They were just having a hard time, and it didn’t matter if it was young kids all the way up to professionals and CEOs that were struggling,” she said. “So, I started sharing messages of inspiration online, and when I did that, organizations began inviting me in to come speak to their people and share my story.”
Additionally, Lowe says she is done with the Olympics officially but this past summer she was a part of the presidential delegation where she was able to go to Paris to help support the next generation of athletes.
“I’ll always be connected to sports and will always see how powerful athletics are because I have to stay in shape for the rest of my life, I can’t let myself completely go,” she said.
As far as advice to people battling cancer, Lowe says taking time to listen and hear Jimmy V’s 1993 ESPY awards speech where he was giving words of encouragement to his own battle with cancer, will bring encouragement.
“Taking the time to listen and hear that speech, it gave me hope and it gave me what I needed in the middle of a fight for my life,” she said. “In a time like that, it’s really hard to see the goodness in life when you’re scared, so focusing so much on fear and not living in that moment, you have to give yourself permission to live every day as well.”
Lowe says just because you’re going through something like battling cancer in that moment, you don’t have to be downcast.
“I could choose to live every day,” she said. “Find a medical group that you trust, let them do the hard stuff, give them the information they need, and they know what to do with it, but then the other side of that, care for your mind, care for your body, and for your environment.”
Also, in the black community, especially black women, many often don’t trust their own doctors. Lowe says doing her research, she learned a lot of black women are more distrustful of going to the doctor.
“If we see and feel something, we’re less likely to go and get it checked out because we don’t trust our doctor,” she said. “I realized you need to feel comfortable with whoever is on the other side of my booklet. So, if you don’t feel comfortable, then go to another one, then go to another one, and so on, be persistent and keep going until you do feel comfortable.”
Lowe also says not to allow your discomfort to be a deterrent to caring for and loving your body. Instead, she says, find the practitioner who will help you, and you will find your community, whether it’s online on Instagram or by finding a Black Breast Cancer Care Organization online.
“Your life is worth it, so no matter what, go find somebody you trust that can treat and help you,” she said.
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