transformation
Q
olympic PROPORTIONS by Deb Hale Kirchner
L
ance brooks ’06 of Denver missed qualifying for the 2008 Olympics discus throw by only 26 inches. Four years later, in June of this year, he erased that memory and sealed his spot on the 2012 U.S. Summer Olympic team by heaving a personal-best throw that
was nearly six feet farther than his closest competitor at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
The suspense of “would he or wouldn’t he” make the Olympics came down to
Brooks’ sixth and final throw of the day. After fouling on the previous two throws and needing to match or exceed the Olympic “A” standard distance of 65 meters (213 feet, 3 inches) in order to clinch his spot on the U.S. team, Brooks threw his discus 65.15 meters (213 feet, 9 inches), notched his right to be an Olympian and further confirmed his ranking as the No. 1 discus thrower in the U.S. With that same throw, he also beat his previous career-best throw of 64.92 meters (213 feet), set at a competition just a few months earlier.
Photos by Alida Duff Sullivan.
“That’s definitely not how I’d like to do it. It’s a little stressful, a little
nerve-wracking,” Brooks told the Denver Post afterward. “But I’ve always seemed to throw well at the end of the meet.”
Lance Brooks ’06 raises the Olympic flag at his parents’ home in New Berlin, Ill. Fall 2012 | Millikin quarterly
Fall2012_Front.indd 21
21
11/2/2012 12:15:32 PM