My Priority Article

<p>Fred Kerley is an international man of mystery. He&rsquo;s a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it&rsquo;s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Fred is a Swiss Army knife,&rdquo; says US teammate Michael Cherry. &ldquo;He can do a lot of different sprint events.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Naturally, inquisitive minds want to know: What will Kerley run in June at the US Championships, where the team will be selected for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22?</p>
<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to wait and see,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>The meeting is only four days, with three rounds in each of Kerley&rsquo;s events. He quickly puts to rest any notion he&rsquo;d attempt the triple: &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s a lot on the body.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And so the guessing game begins. Kerley is the only man in history who has won Wanda Diamond League races in the 100m, 200m and 400m.</p>
<p>In 2019, he contested only 400m races, culminating in the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.</p>
<p>Then Kerley stunned the athletics world by skipping the 400m at the US Olympic Trials and placing third in the 100m and fourth in the 200m. He became the surprise silver medallist in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics with a PB of 9.84. Switching back and forth between the two events, he finished his season with a spectacular 19.76 in the 200m at altitude in Nairobi.<br /><br /></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6268010b2b23f0f3232fb15d.jpg" alt="USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>On 16 April, the 26-year-old ran a sizzling 19.80 in the 200m at the USATF Golden Games in Walnut, California, bettering his own world-leading time of 20.04. Kerley chased down Michael Norman in the last 50 metres, his final burst taking him across the line at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event.</p>
<p>As Kerley&rsquo;s momentum carried him around the curve, he held his arms out wide as if to say, &ldquo;How do you like that?&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Boy, is he a gamer,&rdquo; said Sanya Richards-Ross, the Olympic gold medallist and television commentator. &ldquo;He shows up in finals every single time. This young man always kind of has this chip on his shoulder. He keeps wanting to prove to us&hellip; &lsquo;Fred, we see you. You&rsquo;re a champion.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman could feel him. Kerley was on his right, methodically gaining down the stretch. &ldquo;You just kind of get a sense of presence,&rdquo; the 24-year-old says, &ldquo;you know what I mean?&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman ran 19.83 in his season opener and tweeted after the race that he &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be too mad&rdquo; because of his fast time. He added: &ldquo;Much respect for @fkerley99 but I&rsquo;m going to need that rematch sometime this year,&rdquo; to which Kerley replied: &ldquo;Respect.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Respect <a href="https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH">https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH</a></p>
&mdash; Fred Kerley (@fkerley99) <a href="https://twitter.com/fkerley99/status/1515510175066517512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p><br />While Kerley is a prolific tweeter, favouring the hashtag #IAMHISTORY, he is a man of few words.</p>
<p>His thoughts on reeling in Norman? &ldquo;I got the W.&rdquo;</p>
<p>His goals for the rest of the season? &ldquo;Win.&rdquo;</p>
<p>What about time-wise? &ldquo;Win,&rdquo; Kerley repeats. &ldquo;Time is not my concern, it&rsquo;s all about the Ws that come.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The 6-foot-3 Kerley is undefeated so far this season across all three distances. In early March, he clocked 44.47 in the 400m in a meeting in Grenada, a time that was No.1 until Cherry went 44.28 at the Golden Games, while Olympic champion Steven Gardiner has since improved the world lead to 44.22. Kerley posted a time of 9.99 in the 100m, which ranks fifth on the world list, in a meet in Florida in late March.</p>
<p>His next race will be a 100m on 7 May at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, this season&rsquo;s next World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.</p>
<h2>Renewed rivalries</h2>
<p>Kerley says he decides which distance to run based on where his training is taking him. Of course, the 100m and the 400m place different demands on his body. One requires explosiveness, the other a tolerance to pain.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Both of them got to give and take,&rdquo; Kerley adds. &ldquo;One got your head spinning and one got your legs spinning, too.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kerley believes his versatility can help promote his sport. He has rivals at every distance, from Norman, Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman in the US to Kirani James, Marcell Jacobs and Andre De Grasse from the international ranks.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Hey, I like to compete, so rivalry&rsquo;s rivalry,&rdquo; Kerley says. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s very important to have a rivalry in the sport because that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s going to get more attention to track and field&mdash; like football and basketball. They&rsquo;ve got rivalries. But if we have rivalries between us, we&rsquo;re going to be big.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626801f365219027c99d31f3.jpg" alt="Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Kerley and Norman are two of the three members of the exclusive, sub-10, sub-20, sub-44 second club. The other is Wayde van Niekerk, the 29-year-old 2016 Olympic champion from South Africa.</p>
<p>Head-to-head, Kerley has the faster time in the 100m &mdash; 9.84 to 9.86 &mdash; while Norman is quicker at the 200m &mdash; 19.70 to 19.76. Norman also has the better 400m time of 43.45 to 43.64. Van Niekerk&rsquo;s times, meanwhile, are 9.94, 19.84 and the world record of 43.03.</p>
<p>While Kerley and Norman are cordial, they are both also supremely competitive. &ldquo;He does the same events as me &mdash; everybody is my enemy once you touch the track,&rdquo; Kerley says.</p>
<p>Norman has a similar mindset. &ldquo;Nobody wants to lose to anybody,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So every time we race each other, it&rsquo;s like who&rsquo;s going to get the best of who that race.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He adds of Kerley: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s cool. All respect to Fred, no beef or animosity, or nothing like that. He&rsquo;s a great competitor, he&rsquo;s a good guy.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman says their rivalry keeps the sport &ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When it comes having somebody who does an extremely similar thing as you,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;it just brings out the best in both of us and it elevates each other, so there&rsquo;ll be plenty more races down the road.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kerley adds that marketability and popularity &mdash; the 100m is the more glamorous event in the public eye &mdash; will have no bearing on which events he will choose for the World Championships.</p>
<p>However, he did acknowledge last year that he does have a long-term goal.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to be a legend, like Usain Bolt,&rdquo; Kerley said.</p>
<h2>No secret to success</h2>
<p>Originally a 200m runner coming out of high school, Kerley moved up to the full lap in college. At Texas A&amp;M, he won two NCAA titles.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626803120805e5d0c23187f2.jpg" alt="US sprinter Fred Kerley" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">US sprinter Fred Kerley (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>He says there&rsquo;s no secret to how he is able to compete in three distances now. &ldquo;Training,&rdquo; Kerley explains. &ldquo;Training. And training.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But there has to be something else.</p>
<p>Michael Johnson was the Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder in both the 200m (19.32) and 400m (43.18), but his best time in the 100m was 10.09.</p>
<p>Usain Bolt holds the world records in the 100m (9.58) and 200m (19.19), but went no faster than 45.28 in the 400m. Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens were triple threats combined with the long jump, not the quarter-mile.</p>
<p>Kenny Bednarek, the Olympic silver medallist in the 200m, is a member of the sub-10, sub-20 and sub-45 club.</p>
<p>&ldquo;What Fred&rsquo;s been doing is pretty incredible,&rdquo; Bednarek says.</p>
<p>He adds that the transition between events requires a lot of adjustments. &ldquo;In the 400,&rdquo; Bednarek says, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re never really explosive. It&rsquo;s more maintaining your rhythm and the lactate and see who has the most guts to finish that last 150 stretch. In the 400, you can make a mistake, but you can correct it. In the 200 and the 100, you don&rsquo;t really have time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After Kerley completed his Diamond League triple last year by winning the 100m at the Brussels meeting, a certain Twitter account posed a question.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So&hellip; which event will @fkerley99 focus on next year? Asking for a friend,&rdquo; wrote the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>&ldquo;800,&rdquo; Kerley replied, followed by three laughing emojis. &ldquo;Naw I just playing.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

Fred Kerley is a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it’s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.

Versatile sprint force Kerley keeps Oregon options open

<p>Jakub Vadlejch may not be aware, but the Czech thrower played a big part in Anderson Peters&rsquo; monumental 93.07m throw at the Wanda Diamond League opener in Doha.</p>
<p>The duo had battled through the competition with Peters taking an early lead with 88.96m, then Vadlejch responding with 89.87m. Peters briefly regained the lead with 90.19m, only for Vadlejch to snatch it back with 90.88m.</p>
<p>It was then that Peters noticed something.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was throwing my javelin a bit flat,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;But then when I saw Jakub threw it higher and got 90 metres, I thought &lsquo;let me try throwing it high&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He did. And it worked.</p>
<p>The Grenadian launched his spear high up into the Doha night sky. An expectant gasp from the crowd was soon followed by rapturous applause as the javelin punctured the ground at the far end of the infield.</p>
<p>The distance &ndash; 93.07m &ndash; flashed up on the scoreboard and Peters broke out into a celebratory dance, his victory confirmed, along with his fifth-place position on the world all-time list.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62840335535288967fae2729.jpg" alt="Javelin thrower Anderson Peters" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Javelin thrower Anderson Peters (&copy; Christel Saneh)</p>
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<p><br />Before the competition, though, the strong winds in the Qatari capital had been a cause of concern for most of the throwers.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was really worried about throwing at first because when I went to the stadium the day before the competition, we were throwing into a headwind,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;Then during the competition warm-up the javelin was going crazy and all the throwers were pretty worried about it. But when we got to the stadium they had switched it around, so the wind was in our favour. That was really good of the organisers to do that; we loved it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The conditions may have been useful for some, but not every javelin thrower produced big marks in Doha. Olympic bronze medallist Vitezslav Vesely, 2016 Olympic champion Thomas Rohler and Sweden&rsquo;s Kim Amb were all some way off 80 metres.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It depends on the kind of thrower you are,&rdquo; explains Peters. &ldquo;Most javelin throwers prefer a wind from behind. When the wind catches the javelin, it allows it to glide a bit further.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Regardless, throwing well is not all about catching a good wind. It comes down to force, angles, technique &ndash; and, in this case, responding well to a challenge.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When the competition started, I felt good and I told myself &lsquo;let&rsquo;s get it&rsquo;,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;I started with 88 metres and felt comfortable, then Jakub came along and threw 89 metres and then I was like, &lsquo;okay, now I really have to bring it&rsquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I use a lot of visualisation techniques,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m on the runway, I visualise how I want the javelin to fly. I also put a lot of linear force into my throw. I try to make sure that when it starts dying, it&rsquo;s already past the 80-metre line. Whatever distance you get, you know it&rsquo;s going to be good.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>All corners of the world</h2>
<p>For a long time, the javelin was dominated by European throwers &ndash; specifically Finns, Germans and Brits.</p>
<p>In more recent years, though, the event has opened up to other nations. In 2012, Trinidad &amp; Tobago&rsquo;s Keshorn Walcott won the Olympic title. Three years later, Kenya&rsquo;s Julius Yego earned world gold in Beijing. Peters was the winner of the world title in 2019, and last year India&rsquo;s Neeraj Chopra struck gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.</p>
<p>It is now arguably one of the most universal throwing disciplines. And it could all be thanks to YouTube.</p>
<p>Yego, Peters, Walcott and Chopra all became keen students of their sport by watching videos of javelin greats. They may not have had access to leading European coaches during their formative years, but they had an internet connection, a willingness to learn, and a desire to become a great thrower.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/5bf7ba76-ab46-4aee-a295-4c95420c2739.jpg" alt="Grenadian javelin thrower Anderson Peters" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Grenadian javelin thrower Anderson Peters (&copy; Dan Vernon)</p>
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<p><br />When asked about the global appeal of the javelin, Peters has a simple response: &ldquo;I think people just like to see stuff go far. When you become a javelin thrower, you get seriously attracted to trying to make that thing go far, and you do everything you can do to achieve that.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I used to watch YouTube videos of the all-time greats like Jan Zelezny and I wanted to be like them, so then I started really working hard,&rdquo; he added.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The 2016 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz was also a turning point for me. I won a bronze medal there, finishing behind Neeraj Chopra. I saw him throw 86 metres there and I felt like I could also do that.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Chopra, who achieved sporting superstardom and all-time great status after winning the Olympic title in Tokyo, now features in many online videos. Peters hopes that he, too, will start to enter the conversation.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I still watch videos on YouTube of the all-time best javelin throws and I&rsquo;ve always wanted to be part of it,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;So now that I&rsquo;m fifth on the world all-time list, hopefully I&rsquo;ll start to feature in some of those videos.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Preparing for world title defence</h2>
<p>Peters&rsquo; performance at the Olympic Games still weighs heavy on his mind.</p>
<p>An 80.42m throw in qualifying placed him 15th overall, not enough to advance to the final. Although he knew he wasn&rsquo;t at his best following prolonged rehab from knee surgery, Peters &ndash; as world champion &ndash; was hoping for much more.</p>
<p>And while he is very much focused on future goals, one of Peters&rsquo; first thoughts following his performance at the recent Diamond League meeting in Doha was one of &lsquo;what if&rsquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My first throw here (in Doha) would have won Olympic gold in Tokyo, but I didn&rsquo;t even make the final there; I finished 15th,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really pissed. It motivated me a lot.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/5b24cb89-1a0b-45cb-895b-e1440b3f99ca.jpg" alt="Anderson Peters, world javelin throw champion at the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Anderson Peters, world javelin throw champion at the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p><br />His first goal was to get fully fit. Just 11 days after he won the world title in 2019, Peters underwent surgery on his knee. Part of the bone near to his kneecap was aggravating his IT band, so he had it operated on. Although the cause of the problem was rectified, his knee still wasn&rsquo;t at full strength for the whole of 2021.</p>
<p>&ldquo;But when I started training again in November last year,&rdquo; Peters says, &ldquo;it actually felt pretty good. And as soon as we got to January, I could feel it was finally back to normal again.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Since then, Peters has been training well back in Grenada with his long-term coach Paul Phillip.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect things to be clicking immediately, but the hard work has already started to pay off,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;I spoke to my coach after the competition (in Doha) and he wasn&rsquo;t expecting me to throw any farther than 89 metres. He was expecting 87-88 metres.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Peters will compete in a few more Wanda Diamond League and Continental Tour Gold meetings &ndash; including the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on 31 May &ndash; in the lead-up to the World Championships. His main goal, though, is to win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to put myself under pressure,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t many javelin throwers who have successfully defended their world title, so I&rsquo;m trying to become one of the few who has actually retained it.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zjWv_R-RW14" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Still only 24 years of age, Peters knows he&rsquo;ll have many more opportunities to compete at global championships. His Czech rivals Vadlejch and Vesely &ndash; and their coach Zelezny, the world record-holder &ndash; have shown that, with smart training, javelin throwers can enjoy a long and successful career.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Jakub is way older than I am, and he&rsquo;s still throwing far,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s coached by Jan Zelezny and I respect him and Vitezslav as throwers; at championships you cannot count out these guys. At championships they go crazy, they&rsquo;re really good throwers. They&rsquo;re getting older, but it also seems like they&rsquo;re getting better.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Zelezny threw 85 metres at 40 years old. That&rsquo;s crazy. Jakub and Vitezslav (who threw 85.44m at age 38 to earn bronze in Tokyo) may even do better than that.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I know the potential is there to have a long successful career,&rdquo; adds Peters. &ldquo;The important thing is to stay healthy and stay focused.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When Peters won the world title back in 2019, some viewed it as something of a surprise &ndash; despite the fact that he had been undefeated for the whole year. He has started 2022 in much the same way, with a string of four victories so far.</p>
<p>Whether he maintains that streak up to and including the World Championships is of no real concern to Peters. He simply wants to make sure he advances to the final and then wins gold.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t care too much if people described me as a surprise winner back in 2019,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I went that whole year undefeated and threw a PB of 87.31m &ndash; that distance would have got me a gold medal at most major championships over the years.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It all comes down to what you can bring to the table on the day of the championships final. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what you did in qualification or earlier in the season; it&rsquo;s all down to what happens that day.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Everybody starts that day equal,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And the best on that day is going to win.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

Anderson Peters is delighted to move to fifth on the world all-time list, but his main goal is to win gold in Oregon

One big throw for Peters, one small step towards Oregon - test PL

<p>Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I come to a meet and there&rsquo;s people that want to take pictures and I hear on the public address system, &lsquo;Olympic champion,&rsquo; then it really hits me,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Being an introvert, it&rsquo;s definitely a bit of a shock, but I feel like I&rsquo;m slowly starting to get the hang of it and figure it out.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The 27-year-old USA thrower added: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s always going to feel like new territory.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman has been covering new ground in her sport since turning pro in 2019, a year that she said was &ldquo;kind of exploratory &mdash; faking it until you make it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After placing seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Allman set her first US record in August 2020 with a throw of 70.15m. She has since extended it twice, while also becoming the area record-holder and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist. Allman has posted 12 of the top 13 marks in US history in the past two years.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/613e5b2d201f7451b581d3cf.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
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<p>In early April, the three-time national champion unleashed a toss of 71.46m, an improvement of 30cm over her personal best from last September. Allman has now thrown 5cm farther than two-time Olympic gold medallist Sandra Perkovic of Croatia did in 2017 and is the No.15 performer on the all-time list.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think for a long time I kind of viewed myself as the workhorse, that when it came to training it was all about, &lsquo;How do I get the most out of it?&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s about being more like a racehorse. &lsquo;When I&rsquo;m in the ring, how do I execute at the best of my ability?&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>A former dancer who was lured into trying the discus by the promise of a spaghetti dinner at her Colorado high school, Allman is not shy about expressing her joy in her performances. She smiles, claps and jumps up and down after good throws.</p>
<p>Undefeated this season, Allman followed up her record throw eight days later by winning the USATF Golden Games at Mt SAC in California, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting. She had a stellar series, with her best toss of 69.46m on her fourth attempt, but didn&rsquo;t quite adjust to the wind. Allman went back to work knowing &ldquo;there&rsquo;s a lot more in the tank.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s really close to something amazing,&rdquo; said her coach, Zebulon Sion, who was encouraged by her progress in April.</p>
<p>At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Saturday (21), Allman trailed Perkovic after the first throw. She then spun a 67.85m toss on her second attempt to pull ahead, although the Croatian came close with 67.26m on her final try.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In my trajectory over the past 10 years, I&rsquo;ve really looked up to Sandra Perkovic,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;She was the one that held that accolade for a long time of really resetting boundaries that hadn&rsquo;t been seen in decades. And to be in her company, someone that I&rsquo;ve looked to as a strong, competent, dominant female, it&rsquo;s quite special.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628cbc671a33bb84ae183f31.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
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<p>They will face off again at the Prefontaine Classic this Saturday (28) in Eugene, Oregon, the site of the <strong>World Athletics Championships Oregon22</strong> in July. Allman has two Diamond League meetings scheduled for June &mdash; Oslo and Paris &mdash; plus the US Championships, the qualifying meeting for the World Championships.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My biggest goal for this season is just really making Team USA proud at the World Championships when they&rsquo;re here in the United States,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;That would be a crowning achievement if I could bring home the gold, especially in front of my family on home soil.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But she won&rsquo;t stop there. Allman said the date marking 800 days to the 2024 Paris Games &ldquo;gave me goosebumps thinking that another Olympics is that close.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Just three years ago, imagining herself in this position &mdash; a medal favourite who is slightly disappointed whenever she doesn&rsquo;t top 70m &mdash; would have been &ldquo;crazy,&rdquo; Allman said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Even seeing pictures of myself from my first year as pro in 2019, it&rsquo;s hard to recognise the same person that I see now and then,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a combination of all the adversity, the accolades, the hardships and the bond I&rsquo;ve built with Zebulon has really led to being able to step into a version of myself that I carry with a lot of pride.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sion, who trains Allman in Austin, Texas, said the Stanford graduate is now an &ldquo;absolutely strong, fierce competitive, powerful woman&rdquo; compared to one who was &ldquo;a little more unsure in her skin and where she stacked up relative to those more dominant people at the time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Their strategy was to normalise her rivals by facing them as often as possible. Allman gradually gained the same composure and poise she saw in them.</p>
<p>In 2021, Allman went into the Olympic Games with the second-best mark in the world of 70.01m behind Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands.</p>
<p>In Tokyo, Allman produced a prodigious opening throw of 68.98m, executing a strategy of dialling into her technique early that she and Sion had spent &ldquo;years in the making.&rdquo; That mark held up in the rain-marred competition for the victory.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610816980d0ccbdb8aada2cd.jpg" alt="Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)</p>
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<p>While the Olympic gold medal obviously gave her confidence, Sion said Allman truly began to trust in herself and their training on the post-Olympic circuit, where she clinched the Diamond League title.</p>
<p>Knowing she thrived on routine when it came to nutrition, sleep and training, Allman felt anxious going into the European tour. &ldquo;To be able to produce some of my best throws that late in the season when the variables weren&rsquo;t quite as controlled definitely gave me a tonne of confidence about being able to head into new opportunities,&rdquo; Allman said, &ldquo;and knowing when adversity strikes that I have the tools to be able to handle it and perform well.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And yet even with so many accomplishments, Allman said one of her greatest strengths as an athlete is continuing to view herself as a novice. &ldquo;I definitely don&rsquo;t feel like the Olympic champion when we&rsquo;re out training,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always chasing improvement.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We by no means as a team feel like we have everything figured out,&rdquo; Sion added.</p>
<p>They&rsquo;re both chasing something else, too. &ldquo;That big one,&rdquo; Allman said.</p>
<p>The world record of 76.80m was set by Gabriele Reinsch of East Germany in 1988. The top 54 throws in history are from the 1980s, a time now viewed with suspicion because of revelations about systematic doping in East Germany.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Any female that has thrown the discus over 70 metres, regardless of time period, takes intense focus and discipline and execution to be able to do it,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I would never want to discredit anyone and assume that they were not a clean athlete, but based off the data that we know and the time period and the stories that we&rsquo;ve heard, I think we are doing something that&rsquo;s really special.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to keep trying to just get better and throw as far as I can so there never is a debate about clean and dirty. It&rsquo;s just one record that people really do respect at the end of the day.&rdquo;</p>
<p>However, to move up the world list Allman knows she needs a perfect throw.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the throw that everything has to come together on the right day and in the right environment to be able to make happen,&rdquo; she said.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61080f8dbf4f52b8b5bb648e.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>To this point, Allman and Sion haven&rsquo;t tried to focus on meetings known for windy conditions to enhance their chances. They&rsquo;ve opted for competitions where Allman can be pushed instead by great athletes.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel like honestly we&rsquo;re just getting started with the things that we think can continue to rewire the modern discus throw and the distance that yields,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;We really focus on power and speed and technique. To really work on continuing to climb up those record books, it&rsquo;s having all three of those things come together. You can&rsquo;t rely on one more than the other. It&rsquo;s having all three be at peak. It&rsquo;s definitely motivating.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Allman is also keen on rewiring the stereotype of women in her event and being a good role model.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I was in high school and I joined the track team and first tried throwing, my friends couldn&rsquo;t help but make teasing remarks,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;As a female, it&rsquo;s tough to be pegged as doing something very masculine, especially when you are in a more adolescent phase. And there haven&rsquo;t been that many women who have really embraced their femininity in the sport on a big stage.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I fully support however anyone wants to come across and express their sexuality, express their confidence, express however they see themselves fit, but I think for me as a discus thrower there&rsquo;s something really elegant and graceful that I&rsquo;m hoping people can see in my technique &mdash; that you don&rsquo;t have to be that stereotype of bigger or heavyset to be able to have success. There are a lot of different body styles and technical models that can yield really great results.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />And Allman continues working on not getting thrown for a loop by fame. She&rsquo;s still incredulous about an incident from last summer. After winning the Olympic gold medal, Allman was able to chat with her family on camera through an NBC television connection. Her mother held up Allman&rsquo;s miniature Australian shepherd &mdash; named Oly, naturally &mdash; and using the dog&rsquo;s nickname said, &ldquo;Sugarbutt misses you.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When Allman arrived home from Tokyo, her family and Oly were waiting at the airport. &ldquo;Someone walked by and they go, &lsquo;Oh my gosh, is that Sugarbutt?&rsquo;&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Someone recognised my dog and that took the cake.&rdquo;</p>
<p>A world title this year in Oregon, though, would be the icing.</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.

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