Stephanie Brown Trafton (born December 1, 1979) is an American
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
athlete who won the
discus throw
The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...
ing gold medal at the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
in Beijing. She is thus one of only three American women to have ever won the event.
She was a somewhat unusual athlete in that she had become a two-time Olympian before she had competed at a
World Championships in Athletics
The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
.
Her first
World Championships in 2009 ended with a sub-par performance in the
discus final, but
in 2011, she placed sixth. In 2012, she secured her third trip to the Olympics, after a definitive performance at that year's American Olympic trials. Still, the best-performing American of 2012 finished off the medals podium
in London in seventh place.
Pre-Olympic career
Brown Trafton has said she was inspired to become an Olympian as a 4-year-old watching
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals. Her performanc ...
perform in the
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...
.
After a youth of attempting several different sports, she eventually divided her time between athletics and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. She competed in the discus and
shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...
at
Arroyo Grande High School
Arroyo Grande High School (AGHS) is an American public high school located in Arroyo Grande, California. It serves grades 9–12 as part of the Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD).
Campus
The majority of classrooms are arranged in rows, ...
, and was the
CIF California State Meet high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
champion in shot put in 1996. After placing second in 1997, she recaptured the California shot put title in 1998. At the same meet, she added the California discus title to her resume. As of 2008, her throw to secure victory remains one of the 10 best ''American'' high school discus throws in history.
[
Nevertheless, she seemed to be headed towards a career in ]basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
, after being awarded a scholarship for both basketball and track and field to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...
. Her career was ended in that sport prematurely by a torn anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...
.[ Thereafter, she concentrated on ]track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
.[ She competed at the collegiate level in ]shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...
and discus from 1999 to 2003, but missed 2000, while recovering from the knee injury. Brown Trafton was named as an NCAA All-American 6 times in her college career, two times during the indoor season as a shot putter and four times in the outdoor season for discus and shot put. Her highest finishes at the NCAA Division I national championships were second in discus in 2003 and fourth in shot put in 2003.
2004 Olympics
Brown Trafton competed in the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento, California in both the shot put and the discus throw. Her best throw coming into the discus competition was 192 feet. In the first throw of the discus final, she threw a 9-foot personal best of 201 feet 3 inches, surpassing the international A-standard mark, and qualified for her first Olympic team.
In August 2004, Brown Trafton competed at the Athens Games, and her best mark in the qualifying round failed to advance her to the finals. She placed 22nd with a throw of 192 feet even (58.54 m),[ under her personal best at the time.][ She has expressed contentment with her performance there, saying, "2004 gave me an awesome experience. I came to the Olympics just out of college."][
]
The 2008 season
In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Brown Trafton made what observers called "stunning improvement".
She began 2008 with a personal best that was unchanged from 2004. However, she improved that mark in March, April and May 2008. Coming into the Beijing Olympics, her personal best was , achieved at the Hartnell Hartnell is an English surname. Notable people with this surname include the following:
* Andy Hartnell, American comic book writer
* Bryan Calvin Hartnell, victim of the Zodiac Killer in California, 1969
* John Hartnell, English seaman and explo ...
Throwers Meet in Salinas, California
Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...
.
Until a June 21, 2008 mark of by Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
Nicoleta Grasu
Lenuţa Nicoleta Grasu is a retired Romanian discus thrower. She was born on 11 September 1971 in Secuieni as Nicoleta Grădinaru, but took a new surname when she married fellow discus thrower Costel Grasu.
Grasu is best known for winning meda ...
,[
this throw stood as the longest on record anywhere in the world in 2008.][ Moreover, it was the third-best American throw of all time, behind efforts by Suzy Powell and Becky Breisch.][
Prior to Beijing, she had placed third at the U.S. trials][ with a throw of .][
Asked to explain her dramatic improvement, Brown Trafton pointed to a key difference in her training regimen. Unusually for her, she did not take time off between the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Instead, she spent what would have normally been the season hiatus working on the "supplemental training" of "balance, agility and flexibility" with Tony Mikia, a physical therapist/sports performance trainer at Sacramento-based Kime Human Performance Institute.][
]
2008 Olympics
Performance
Although called by the mainstream American sports press "an unlikely savior of U.S. pride" and a "field filler more than a medal contender", a radically improved Brown Trafton actually came to Beijing with a reasonable possibility of winning. She had executed the second-best throw posted in the sport in 2008.[In reality, Brown Trafton had posted th]
third best throw of 2008
and Grasu, the second. But Darya Pischalnikova'
was clouded by a doping allegation. As of 19 August 2008, it is unclear whether that throw will stand uncontested. And she had progressively upped her personal best by over 4 m across several meets during the 2008 season.[
The first of her six throws displayed her progress to her competitors in Beijing. At , it bettered the field by almost two meters.] She threw into the net on her second and third throws, then posted a 191 feet 7 inches (58.39) and a 201 feet 1 inch (61.30).[ By the sixth round, it was unnecessary for her to throw to win the gold medal, as the two remaining competitors had not bettered her initial mark.][ In the end, no one got within a meter of her first throw.][
]
An American breakthrough
On a personal level, her victory in Beijing was the culmination of a number of months of steady improvement for the athlete, after years of steady progress but nonetheless inconsistent throws above the 60 m mark. It was also the United States' first track and field gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, after a few initial days of failure.[ Brown Trafton's gold medal in Beijing was more broadly notable for being the first ]American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
gold in the event for 76 years.
It was only the second American medal in women's discus at a fully attended Olympiad, along with Lillian Copeland
Lillian Copeland (born Lillian Drossin; November 24, 1904 – July 7, 1964) was an American track and field Olympic champion athlete, who excelled in discus, javelin throwing, and shot put, setting multiple world records. She has been called ...
's silver medal at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.
It was the second American gold in the event, after Copeland's gold at the Depression-handicapped 1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...
. It was the fourth medal in American history, behind Leslie Deniz' silver won at the politically boycotted 1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...
. Additionally, it was the first American medal in the sport won outside the city of Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
since Copeland's silver medal in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.
Global perspective
Despite the significance of the victory to the US Track and Field program, Brown Trafton's winning distance of caused one track and field reporter to label Beijing a "low-standard competition".[ It wasn't a personal best for the athlete.] Nor was it an Olympic record
Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including:
* Archery (list)
* Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS)
* Athletics (list)
...
, as Copeland's gold had been in 1932. It failed to approach Gabriele Reinsch
Gabriele "Gabi" Reinsch (born 23 September 1963 in Cottbus) is a German track and field athlete. She represented East Germany in the 1988 Olympic Games in discus throw.
On 9 July 1988 at the East Germany – Italy tournament in Neubrandenb ...
's 1988 world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
of . In fact, not only was Leslie Deniz' 24-year-old silver medal-winning throw longer than any throw of the 2008 Olympics, but no gold medalist since Lia Manoliu
Lia Manoliu (; 25 April 1932 – 9 January 1998) was a Romanian discus thrower who won one gold and two bronze Olympic medals. She was the first track and field athlete to compete at six Olympics (1952–1972).
Early life; sports and educat ...
in the 1968 games had posted a shorter winning distance. Only 2 of the 12 finalists at the Beijing Olympics had a personal best ''under'' Brown Trafton's winning throw, and the average personal best of the field was 219 feet even (66.75 m). However, she was peaking when most of the field was in personal decline. When viewed against the prism of 2008-only performances, the only members of the field ''other'' than Brown Trafton to better the winning mark were Aretha Thurmond, Nicoleta Grasu
Lenuţa Nicoleta Grasu is a retired Romanian discus thrower. She was born on 11 September 1971 in Secuieni as Nicoleta Grădinaru, but took a new surname when she married fellow discus thrower Costel Grasu.
Grasu is best known for winning meda ...
and Yarelis Barrios
Yarelys Barrios Castañeda (also ''Yarelis Barrios Castañeda''; born July 12, 1983, in Pinar del Río) is a discus thrower from Cuba.
Career
She won the ''Diamond Race'' in the women's discus throw of the IAAF Diamond League both in 2010 and ...
.[ In fact, only six women other than Brown Trafton had thrown better in 2008,][ and they were not all present in Beijing.
Matters were not helped, as one commentator noted, by the Beijing weather. The windless, humid conditions on the evening of the competition were hardly ideal for discus throwing.][ Perhaps, as Brown Trafton herself remarked, the competition was "a little more open" thanks to the banning of the prohibitive favorite, ]Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
Darya Pishchalnikova
Darya Vitalyevna Pishchalnikova (russian: Дарья Витальевна Пищальникова, born 19 July 1985 in Astrakhan) is a female discus thrower from Russia. Pishchalnikova is the sister of Bogdan Pishchalnikov and Kirill Pishchal ...
, for suspicion of doping.
Personal life
Unlike many 21st-century American Olympians, Brown Trafton had a day job
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other ...
as she prepared for the Beijing Games. Using skills rooted in her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...
, she is the Director of Operations for Track & Field and Cross Country sports at California State University, Sacramento
California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...
, and she worked as a computer-assisted designer for an environmental consulting firm in Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
called Sycamore Environmental Consultants, Inc.
Upon returning to her residence in Galt, California after her gold medal performance, Brown Trafton was presented with the key to the City of Galt by Mayor Andrew Meredith.
She and her husband are both recreational hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
s. She quipped to reporters that the downside of the Beijing Olympics was that they occurred just as hunting season
A hunting season is the designated time in which certain game animals can be killed in certain designated areas. In the United States, each state determines and sets its own specific dates to hunt the certain game animal, such as California, in ...
opened in California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
In 2008 she won the Jesse Owens Award
The Jesse Owens Award (also the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award for the female version of the award) is an annual track and field award that is the highest accolade given out by USA Track & Field (USATF). As the country's highest award for the sport, ...
, USATF
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...
's highest award to the Athlete of the Year.
2012 Olympics
Brown Trafton confirmed her intention to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
immediately after winning in Beijing.[ Noting the difficulties her sport has had with doping, she set a personal goal for the future of being "the first world-record holder that's a clean world record".][
The following season, she won her first national title in the discus, and as a result she qualified for the ]2009 World Championships in Athletics
The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...
where she qualified for the finals but finished in last place in the finals with her lone legal throw.
In 2011, she repeated her national championship which again qualified her for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics
The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011.
The United States topped the medal standings in th ...
. Again making the final, she finished 5th overall.
Her 2012 season showed continued improvement in an Olympic year. On May 4, she beat Suzy Powell-Roos's American record by 3 inches, throwing at the Altius TC Throwdown in Maui, Hawaii
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th largest island in the United S ...
(the same place where Powell-Roos had set the previous record). That week she was named the USATF
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...
Athlete of the Week for the first time.
At the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, the preliminary round was held in rainy conditions that were difficult for all competitors. Brown Trafton fell twice in the ring, her final attempt finally assuring her a spot in the finals, though her off-balance second attempt was measured and proved to be sufficient. Under better conditions in the final, she easily outdistanced the field, leading from the first attempt and ultimately throwing almost 3 meters past second place Aretha Thurmond's best throw.USATF 2012 Olympic Trials results, part 2
/ref>
At the 2012 Olympics themselves, she originally finished in eighth place, but she officially moved into seventh when the original silver medalist, Darya Pishchalnikova
Darya Vitalyevna Pishchalnikova (russian: Дарья Витальевна Пищальникова, born 19 July 1985 in Astrakhan) is a female discus thrower from Russia. Pishchalnikova is the sister of Bogdan Pishchalnikov and Kirill Pishchal ...
, was disqualified for doping. Her longest throw in London was 63.01, well back from Sandra Perković
Sandra Perković (born 21 June 1990) is a Croatian discus thrower. She is a two-time Olympic (2012, 2016) and World (2013, 2017) champion and record six-time European champion ( 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022) which no other female athlete ...
's winning 69.11.[
]
See also
Sycamore Environmental Consultants, Inc.
Results Physical Therapy and Sports Performance
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown Trafton, Stephanie
Living people
1979 births
People from San Luis Obispo, California
Track and field athletes from California
American female discus throwers
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States
California Polytechnic State University alumni
People from Galt, California
USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
21st-century American women