NATCHEZ — Once a very realistic dream, Janice Davis’ aspirations of competing for the U.S. Olympic track and field team in the summer Olympics is now a dream she must consider replacing.

The former Natchez High Bulldog had been training diligently for the Olympics since August of 2007 in Miami training for the 400-meters and the 100-meters.

“(Training) was going extremely well,” Davis said.

Then tragedy struck in March.

“(I had) just finished doing clings with a moderate weight. Then I did a light-weight exercise and felt a twinge.”

Davis had torn a tissue in her back.

“If it had happened in November, no big deal. I would have had time to bounce back,” Davis said of her injury, which typically takes six weeks to heal.

Although she had been injured, Davis tried to push through the injury in order to achie her goal of being a member of the U.S. summer Olympics team.

“I grinded through the season, ran sub-par performances and I knew why,” Davis said. “Once I tore the tissue in my back I overcompensated and it shutdown my stabilizers.”

Davis acknowledged, looking back, that she possibly should have stopped training to rehab her injury fully. However, as she put it, “you don’t stop. Time waits for no man.” Or woman.

“I probably should have taken time off, but I knew I’d be deconditioned,” she said.

With her dreams dashed, at least for now, Davis watched either on television or via the Internet, as her training partner Lauren Williams made the team.

“I was happy for her, but at the same time I was a bit jealous,” Davis said.

Although she fell upon bad luck, Davis said she’s not a victim, just a competitor.

At the time of the injury, Davis said she was “extremely angry. There was no self-pity involved.”

Former Natchez High coach Doc Woods partially attributes Davis’ latest injury to her college coach at Stanford.

“Her coach wanted her to be a sprinter,” Woods said. “Sprinters make a short step, while a quarter-miler is accustomed to making a wider step.

“When you take a sprinter and take them out of their race, injury (can) set in.”

Woods said Davis raced for most of her collegiate career injured — a career that allowed her to become a five-time All-American.

“Most of her years at Stanford she stayed hurt,” Woods said. “But she did enough to be an All-American.

“She’s an outstanding kid.”

Woods said if she had been healthy, there’s a good shot people would be talking about Davis preparing to travel to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

“She would have made it,” Woods said. “She would have made the Olympics easy. It all depended upon the decisions of her track coach at Stanford.”

Although she missed this year’s Olympic trials, Davis knew exactly how old she’ll be by the time the next Olympics roll around — 27.

“I’ll be 27 when the next Olympic trials come around,” Davis said. “Do I have the mental ability to go through the training again? That’s something I’m going to have to answer.”

Davis said her dream is not dead, it’s “smoldering.”

Woods believes if she heals properly, she could make the next summer Olympics team.

“You don’t lose it within a short period of time,” he said. “If she would start training — she’s got to heal first — it’s there.

“She’s got one more shot to make the next Olympics. She can bring it back — I know she can.”

In the meantime, Davis said she’s happy being a “civilian.”

Aside from pains in day-to-day life related to her injuries, Davis leads a rather ordinary life.

When she’s not keeping up with the Olympic trials, Davis is studying for the MCAT exam and has been volunteering at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine — sports medicine department.

She’s looking into Baylor, Stanford and Miami’s medical schools, among others, and hopes to one day become an orthopedic specialist.

It may seem like an odd career choice considering her body failed her when she needed it the most, but she said she’s looking forward to her career.

“I love sports,” Davis said. “To totally drop that, I’d be remise to say I wouldn’t miss it.

“Why not do something I love.”