Valarie Allman Becomes First U.S. Woman to Win Back-to-Back Olympic Discus Golds

SAINT-DENIS, France – Valarie Allman was twirling long before spinning around a discus ring ever crossed her mind.

The now back-to-back Olympic gold medalist grew up dancing on a competitive dance team, and even participated in ballet, jazz, and tap dancing. She didn’t touch a disc until high school, and even then she only did so to secure an invite to the throwers’ annual spaghetti dinner.

Allman’s gold medal is the 1,200th Olympic Games gold medal in U.S. history, including both the summer and winter Games.

She entered the ring this evening as the defending Olympic champion, but sought revenge after falling short in 2022 and 2023’s World Athletics Championships. She left Eugene and Budapest with bronze and silver, respectively.

Now she’ll leave Paris with gold.

Allman’s journey to become the first U.S. woman to win consecutive golds in the event wasn’t straightforward, however. Her first throw landed foul, and she sat at the bottom of the leaderboard, the only athlete without a mark after her first attempt.

“I think for most people at this level, the psychology part is most [of] the battle,” Allman said. “...So much of what you do is routine and discipline and structure…But being able to walk into your area of play and know that your body is going to do exactly what you want to do at the best of its ability, that's the challenge.”

Allman rebounded from her challenging first attempt with her second throw, launching the disc 68.74 meters. It catapulted her into first place. Once in the lead, Allman never surrendered it. China’s Feng Bin and Croatia’s Sandra Elkasevic battled to match her distance, but all four of Allman’s measured throws bested the 67.51m mark of Feng and Elkasevic’s strongest attempts.

Allman fouled on attempt five, but still sat comfortably in first place. When her sixth turn in the ring came about, she was already the Olympic champion. Her victory lap toss landed 69.21m into the field, but she won the contest with her fourth throw. That throw was measured 69.50m long – nearly two meters further than Feng and Elkasevic.

Elkasevic wrapped Allman in a congratulatory hug. “If somebody needs to beat me, I am happy that those two can beat me,” Elkasevic said of Feng and Allman. “...If I lose to them, it’s because we are all on the same level. Maybe Valarie is even a step further than all of us…I think she’s the best discus thrower in the world.”

“It really takes so much attention and practice and focus to convince yourself that you can be accomplishing your dreams,” Allman said. “You can be better than you've ever been. And I think that so many athletes, especially when they talk about the Olympics, you get big emotions, you get heartbreak, you get glory.

"I think it's really important for athletes to share their experience, to share how they've dealt with the pressure to embrace it and celebrate that vulnerability.”

Allman’s redemptive gold medal is the 20th won by a U.S. athlete in these Olympic Games, shrinking the gap between the United States and China to just a one-gold difference. China’s 21 gold medals lead the gold medal count, but the USA leads in total medals with 78. China is in second place by total medals with 52. 

Madie Chandler is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.