Chaunte Howard has dreamed of standing on the winner's podium at the Olympics since she was 4 years old.

But the moment her daughter ate her first birthday cake on July 30 just might be better.

David J. Phillip/AP (ENLARGE)

Chaunte Howard, formerly of Georgia Tech, clears the high jump bar during the Olympic trials.

"She dug into it and she looked at her dad and we thought she was trying to ask, 'Can I have some?' And instead she turned and smacked it in his face," Howard said, laughing. "We all had cake on our face for her birthday."

One year removed from giving birth to Jasmine, Howard will head to Beijing on Saturday as the U.S. Olympic trials high jump champion. Howard, a former Georgia Tech national champion who resides in Decatur, has wanted to be an Olympian since she watched her first Olympics in 1988 and saw Florence Griffith-Joyner.

"It's been a tradition in my family to watch the Summer Olympics together. My mother ran track in high school, and so that was the main thing she would always make sure we didn't miss," Howard said. "Flo-Jo was there and she was so beautiful. She had the long hair and the nails and she was a star 'cause she was on TV, so I was like, 'Man, I want to do that, Mom. Mom, I want to be an Olympian. I want to do what she's doing.' "

Howard's mother told her it would take hard work. One of her sisters told her that if she ate dirt, she could run faster.

"Of course, we were outside eating dirt and running around the parking lot," she said. "Maybe she was right. Who knows?"

A native of California, Howard was a three-time NCAA high jump national champion for the Yellow Jackets before turning pro in 2005.

As a junior at Georgia Tech, she married former Florida State triple jumper Mario Lowe on Aug. 21, 2005.

After ranking as the top American in 2005 and 2006, Howard found out she was pregnant.

"I was real excited. My husband was actually the one who told me. He said, 'Um, Chaunte, I think you need to take a test because you're a little moody lately.' "

She and her husband experienced a couple of miscarriages. Not wanting to take any chances during this pregnancy, she stopped training.

"We took the safe road. We just wanted our child to be healthy," she said.

Without track, Howard was able to focus on school. She loaded up on 16 to 21 credit hours a semester to finish her degree in economics and finance. She walked between classes for exercise.

Because she was day sick for the first four months of her pregnancy, she gained a mere 15 pounds.

Jasmine was born three weeks early on July 30, 2007.

Eight weeks after she delivered, Howard was back on the track with her Tech coach, Nat Page.

"That eight weeks seemed so long because all I wanted to do was just start training again," she said. "At the point where we got to where we could jog, we just started running miles and trying to get the time faster."

Because she didn't compete in 2007, Howard had even less time to match the qualifying standard of 6-43/4 inches, as well as place in one of the top three spots at the trials.

She hit 6-43/4 at the Walt Disney World Invitational in March and became the Olympic trials champion on July 4 with a jump of 6-5 1/2 .

She competed in the 2004 Olympics and finished in what she called a disappointing tie for 28th place after clearing the bar at a mediocre 6-3/4. The gold medalist that year soared over 6-9 1/10.

She leaves for these Games feeling more prepared this time.

"She's the best she's ever been mentally and physically, but she still has room to grow," Page said.

"And we hope that growth comes in 12 to 15 days."