LAWRENCE — As Yoveinny Mota spoke Saturday, her mind remained focused on her upcoming meet.

Mota, a Kansas track and field athlete, is one of 10 KU athletes who will be competing in this year’s NCAA outdoor championships — set to begin Wednesday in Eugene, Oregon. She’ll be representing the Jayhawks in the 100-meter hurdles. Optimism for how she’ll perform isn’t hard to come by, especially because she set Kansas’ program record in the event to help earn herself that opportunity.

But Mota, whose college career has seen her compete for Barton Community College and Arkansas, won’t be done competing when the NCAA outdoor championships are over. Her success this season has also seen her record an Olympic standard time. When the 2024 Paris Olympics are held later this year, she’ll be there competing for her home country of Venezuela.

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Here’s what Mota had to say about her career and that opportunity:

Question: Growing up in Venezuela, what drew you to running hurdles? Was track and field the only sport that you connected with? Were there others that you were interested in?

Answer: “I started doing hurdles when I was like 12 years old. That was the first event that I tried, and then that’s the only one. I was good, and then I was just — I didn’t like it in the beginning because I was literally hurdling every day. But after I became, like, national champion, that was, ‘OK, I know I’m good for right now.’ I’ve just — I’ve been doing the best that I can.”

Q: Making the move to go from Venezuela to the United States, why did you think competing in college in the United States was the right move for you? Were there any reservations you had? Or, were you pretty confident that was the right move for you?

A: “So, yes, I was confident because I always wanted to compete and also finish school. And then, I knew I had that opportunity here. So, that’s why I made — that was a big decision for me in my life. But, I was like, ‘You want to be good at school? You have to be good, also, at track.’ So, having those things in this country is just a lot easier for me.”

Q: You chose Arkansas after starting out at Barton, but eventually you found your way back to KU. What changed the second time around? Why did you think that was the best decision for you when you decided to leave Arkansas?

A: Mota chose Arkansas when she made the jump to the Division I ranks because of the level of competition in hurdles she felt she’d have there. From her perspective, the Razorbacks had one of the best hurdlers in the country on their team and she wanted to be as good as that athlete was. The reason for picking Kansas after leaving Arkansas was different.

“I didn’t even know until I came here. I talked to coach (Stanley) Redwine and my coach, because I took a break after I finished school last May. And then, I didn’t want to plan on going to Kansas, I just like had to think and see if I can practice, just practice with them. And then they offer me my last year. So, that was a big decision, but of course the best decision.”

Q: You’ve said in the past … that you sort of lost the joy of competing while you were at Arkansas, and that you maybe weren’t mentally in it. … Do you feel like you’ve been able to find that again at Kansas?

A: “I mean, yes, of course. Definitely, that was a big yes because just the people that I have around — my coach, just everyone. Like, in Kansas they care about not just me — everyone as a person and also as an athlete.”

Q: What does it mean to you to compete for your country in those Olympics?

A: “That means everything. I’ve been dreaming all my life just to make that Olympics team for my country. 2021, I couldn’t. Then, 2024, finally I did it. It’s just a lot. To have the Venezuelan team on my t-shirt, it’s just — you have to be in my shoes to feel how I feel. It’s just something amazing.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: KU track and field's Yoveinny Mota, to compete in 2024 Paris Olympics