![]() To think, it all started with a plate of spaghetti. “It’s aesthetically pleasing - the lines, the balance, it’s stacked just right and no weird angles.” “It’s not how she finishes, but what we try to do is, in the middle, collect her energy and release that energy,” Sion explained. She and her coach, Zebulon Sion, have steadily built her into a gold medal-winning discus thrower with picture-perfect technique. It’s figuring how to do it as efficiently as you can.” “It’s a second-and-a-half dance that you do hundreds of times, and really repetitive, but gosh darn, I do think it’s a dance,” she said. That’s from her dancing days, which she’s carried over to the discus. Light on her feet, Allman has a certain rhythm in the ring. “I’m still waiting for my feet to touch the ground,” Allman said. Kristin Pudenz of Germany was second and Yaime Perez of Cuba captured bronze. She tried to think about her technique.Īnd while her first throw would be her top attempt, no one could catch her. All she thought about during the delay was staying calm. She was in a groove before the stoppage, too. She and her fellow competitors could be seen sitting under cover, with rain gear draped across their heads, after the downpour hit. The fact she had to wait out a rain delay only added to the drama. Not so much because of the event - American Stephanie Brown Trafton won it at the 2008 Beijing Games - but because of where it fell on the schedule: Day 4.īut what seemed like good bets for wins - 4x400 mixed relay, men’s 100, women’s 100 hurdles - didn’t materialize. Hardly anyone figured the country’s first medal at Olympic Stadium would come from women’s discus. Worked out well for the United States, too. “Looking back, gosh darn, that was the best spaghetti dinner of my entire life,” said the 26-year-old Allman, a multi-time All-American while at Stanford who now and trains in Austin, Texas. The throwers on her high school team in Longmont, Colo., said she could partake in a pasta meal with them on one condition: She had to give throwing a try. But she hadn’t found her true track calling. “To be here, to be in this moment, feels so surreal,” Allman said.Ībout that life-altering meal: As a teenager, she was a dancer who dabbled in different track disciplines. That promise of pasta from her high school team was enough to lure her into the discus and to the point she reached on a rainy Monday night at the Tokyo Games: A breakthrough - and a much-needed gold medal for the United States.Īllman, was born in Newark, Del., and grew up in Hershey, opened the final with a throw of 68.98 meters (226 feet, 3 inches) and then waited through an hour-long delay and around 50 throws by her competition. ![]() track and field team at Olympic Stadium - started with, of all things, a plate of spaghetti. TOKYO - The path to Valarie Allman’s gold medal - the first for the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |