By NAN ET Editor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 3, 2020: A Caribbean-born Olympian has made it onto the stage of America’s Got Talent, Season 15 and is moving on to the next round of the competition.
Two-time Jamaican Olympian and singer, Shevon Stoddart got a standing ovation and thumbs up from judges Simon Cowell, Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, actor Howie Mandell and guest judge Eric Stonestreet, after delivering an emotional original song, ‘Through The Good And Bad.’ Her audition video has received over 2 million views on YouTube.
“It was very emotional, I had tears in my eyes,” Nieto, 37, told Newsday moments after the show ended. “Making it here was like me making the Olympics all over again.”
The song was written about her relationship with her husband Jamie Neito, himself a two-time Olympian who represented the United States in the high jump but suffered a near-fatal jumping accident in 2016 which left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The two still got married in 2017 after the accident, and she then wrote and recorded the song. That and accompanying music video were released in November last year and caught the eyes of the producers of the popular talent show.
After performing her song and returning backstage, Nieto, 37, announced that she and her husband, two-time Olympic high jumper Jamie Nieto, are expecting a child.
Nieto, who now lives in California, watched the East Coast airing of the show online.
“It was really exciting,” she told Newsday. “Just to know that you’re about to be live on television in front of millions of people, that’s pretty awesome.”
Nieto, born Shevon Stoddart, immigrated with family to the United States, settling in Uniondale, from her native Jamaica at age 4. She graduated Uniondale High School, then competed for the country of her birth in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
See her winning audition below.
