8/26/2023 0 Comments Valarie gold lanternThe only thing missing was a competition. So now it’s literally just focusing it down, scoping it down to training, thinking about things the right way.” And then 2020 was literally the opposite. “She become more comfortable, more familiar, got good at traveling, all those types of things. In 2019, with Allman having turned pro, she used the season to “normalize” competing against top competition in Diamond League events across Europe, her coach Zebulon Sion said. Her real breakthrough came, of all times, during the pandemic. By 2017 she had graduated and made her first world championships in discus, and two years later she made the final there. She went from setting the Colorado high school state record to Stanford, where she won All-America honors doing the discus, hammer throw and weight throw. I can’t believe it.”Īllman quickly rose through the sport. Now looking back, gosh darn that was the best spaghetti dinner of my entire life. “They said if you come try any of the throwing events you can come to the dinner,” Allman said. Then she found out the throwers were hosting a spaghetti dinner. Her time as a sprinter and jumper didn’t quite tug at her passions, though. Looking for an activity to do outside of dance, Allman went out for the team. When Allman arrived at Silver Creek High School in Longmont, Colorado, the track coach there couldn’t help but notice her physical gifts. “There’s something so beautiful about the movement and the coordination and the balance.”Ī spaghetti dinner set her on a new path. Eventually she was selected to join “The Pulse on Tour,” a traveling dance program organized by the choreographers of hit TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “American Idol.” Since she was a girl, she’d always loved to dance - ballet, hip-hop, tap, you name it. Only a decade ago, Allman’s future looked more likely to be as a dancer. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in discus, joining Lillian Copeland in 1932 and Stephanie Brown Trafton in 2008. “And to come out with a solid mark like that felt good.”Īllman, 26, becomes just the third U.S. “My coach and I always talk about being able to set the tone right at the start of the competition,” she said. A strong start was part of the plan, though, for just this reason. That proved to be key when a rain delay suspended the competition after the second throw and disrupted the throwers’ momentum. “I’ve watched the Olympics for as long as I can remember and athletics has always had such a special part in my heart, and to now be here, be in his moment, it feels so surreal.”Ĭoming into the Olympics with the second best mark so far in 2021, Allman set the standard with her first throw. Kristin Pudenz of Germany won the silver medal, while Cuba’s Yaime Perez won the bronze. That throw not only secured a win in her first Olympics, but also Team USA’s first gold medal in track and field at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Allman took a few well-place steps, spun and then threw the discus 68.98 meters (226-3) on her first attempt during the evening session at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. On Monday, she needed just one of those dances to become an Olympic gold medalist. Now, she says, her dance routines are a second and a half, and repeated over and over again. TOKYO - Valarie Allman used to tour the country as a dancer. Valarie Allman celebrates at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on Aug.
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