Paris Olympics: American Valarie Allman dominates field to win gold in discus

PARIS — Don’t be surprised if America’s top throws coaches start showing up to ballet studios or hip-hop classes to hunt for overlooked prospects.

Valarie Allman’s unprecedented path to double Olympic gold might spark a dance-to-discus pipeline.

Allman dominated the women’s discus competition on Monday night, winning gold despite not surpassing the 70-meter mark on any of her six throws. Her winning throw of 69.50 meters surpassed the best mark of second-place Bin Feng of China by nearly two full meters. All four of Allman’s non-foul throws eclipsed Feng’s best one.

Three years ago, Allman won her first Olympic gold in Tokyo, again in dominant fashion. In between, she settled for bronze at World Championships in 2022 and silver last year, providing ample motivation for her to reestablish her supremacy in an Olympic year.

Before Allman blossomed into the world’s best discus thrower, she once dreamed of being a dancer. She shined in anything from ballet, to tap, to jazz, to hip-hop. As a freshman at Silver Creek High School in Longmont, Colorado, she spent her weekends traveling with the popular TV show, “So you think you can dance?”

When her older brother encouraged her to also find an extracurricular activity at their school, Allman joined him on Silver Creek’s track team. She showed up to practices and meets in between her jam-packed dance schedule, dabbling in the sprints, long jump and high jump but not finding an event that truly excited her.

The best-known element of Allman’s origin story is the now legendary spaghetti dinner that changed the course of her life. The throwers on her high school team said she could partake in their annual spaghetti dinner on one condition: She first had to give throwing a try.

As the legend goes, Allman fell in love with the discus right away and her career took off from there. In reality, it wasn’t quite so simple. It took time before the dancer in the discus circle realized that throwing was her calling and embraced her new passion.