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Its 2012!!!! So excited about London Olympics this summer. It feels like this will be full circle, God willing!, that I will be able to have a chance to compete in my family’s homeland! My mom is British and all of my aunties, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc. in England will be cheering from the seats (either at the stadium or in front of their TV sets!) as I go for gold again in the town where my grandfather, and his father before him called home. This is going to be so much fun and I cant wait to get started!
I’m kicking off the new year with a live interview as part of the Powerful Women Athletes Telesummit. Click on the link below to find out more about this completely free event that my friend Christina McKinstry is putting on. We hope can inspire a future generation of Olympians. What a great way to start off the 2012 Olympic season!
Here is a little background info: At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Stephanie Brown Trafton won the United States’ first gold medal in the women’s discus since Lillian Copeland won in 1932, and the first medal of any kind in that event since Leslie Jean Deniz won silver in the boycott-afflicted 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It was a significant personal victory for the 28-year-old Brown Trafton, who has never finished higher than second at a U.S. national championship. She qualified for her second Olympic team by placing third in the women’s discus at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials.Brown Trafton stood in first place after the first round of throwing in Beijing, popping off a strong throw of 64.74 meters/212 feet 5 inches, less than five feet off her personal best. The throw held up for the rest of the competition, and the gold medal was hers.
Brown Trafton had a huge personal best throw when she won the Salinas meet in 2008 with a then-world leading toss of 66.17 meters/217 feet 1 inch. A former six-time All-American in indoor and outdoor track and field at Cal Poly, and an Arroyo Grande High School standout, she threw 61.90 meters/203 feet 1 inch on her first attempt, and ended up finishing second at the 2004 Olympic Trials, thereby making her first Olympic team. Her qualifying throw exceeded her previous personal best by nine feet and also bettered the Olympic A qualifying standard of 61 meters.
Brown Trafton, who at 6 feet 4 inches tall has the leverage most discus throwers can only dream about, currently works as a volunteer Director of Operations for Sacramento State Track and Field.
