This is Olivia Miller’s feature on Valarie Allman, now the two-time Olympic champion at the discus, on August 5, 2024. This is Olivia’s third column for RunBlogRun on the Paris Olympics 2024.
Valarie Allman Wins Second Consecutive Gold in Women’s Discus, by Olivia Miller
Valarie Allman made history Monday, Aug. 5th, becoming the first American woman to win two back-to-back gold medals in discus throwing at the Olympic Games.
Allman’s first throw went out of bounds. It snapped her into reality.
“I felt like I was really in the zone and just doing great, and I felt that so much in my prelim. And then tonight, I think on my first throw, I felt the weight of, ‘Holy crap, this is the Olympics’,” Allman said.
“It took me a minute to find my groove, but once my coach got me in a better headspace, and we just took it throw by throw, it felt like things were just clicking…”
She was able to quickly recover with a second throw of 68.74 meters, which catapulted her to first place, where she would stay for the rest of the competition.
On her fourth attempt, Allman sealed her first-place victory with a 69.50-meter throw. The 29-year-old wasn’t celebrating just yet.
“I didn’t let myself believe that I was an Olympic champion until it was all done. I think it’s been such a fight to show up and to be at our best and do it when it matters.”
After Feng Bin’s sixth and final throw, Allman knew she had won gold. She stepped into the ring, taking deep breaths, a smile on her face. As she released the discus, she screamed and turned to the crowd. She had done it again. She was an Olympic champion.
The battle for silver and bronze resorted to second-best throws after China’s Feng Bin and Croatia’s Sandra (Perkovic)Elkasevic both achieved throws of 67.51 meters.
Feng, a former world champion whose next best throw was 67.25m, secured silver.
This is the fourth Olympics for (Perkovic) Elkasevic, who earned gold medals in London (2012) and Rio (2016). She placed fourth in Tokyo and now finds her way back onto the podium with bronze.
Allman is now part of an elite group of four women;Nina Ponomaryeva, Evelin Jahl and fellow competitor Sandra Perkovic, who have each earned two Olympic gold medals in discus.
