U.S. Olympian Stephanie Brown Trafton is launched into spotlight

BEIJING — Stephanie Brown Trafton is a discus thrower, an event that ranks low on the Summer Games food chain. Its stature in the U.S. isn't much better because it hasn't produced a female Olympic champion since 1932 or female medalist of any kind since 1984.

But Trafton managed to change all that Monday when her first throw held up as the winner, a happy surprise on a warm and humid night.

"It's an awesome feeling," she said. "I knew I had a shot at medaling here, but I didn't know it was going to be a gold medal."

Her toss of 212 feet, 5 inches was more than 4 feet shorter than her season-best effort, and she acknowledged the competition was "a little more open" without the favorite, Darya Pishchalnikova, who was suspended by the Russian federation for manipulating drug-testing samples.

The 6-foot-4 Trafton, using the leverage of her long arms and legs, set a standard no one could match. Yarelys Barrios of Cuba won the silver medal with a throw of 208-9, and Olena Antonova of Ukraine won the bronze with a season-best throw of 208-4 on the fifth of her six tries.

Former Washington thrower Aretha Thurmond finished 10th in the competition, though she made the final for the first time in three Olympiads. And she was named captain of the track team in Beijing.

"I gave it my all today," she said. "I'm not going to be disappointed. It is disappointing to know I had a legitimate chance for that podium. My last throw, I set it up, I did everything I wanted to do and the disc just got away from me. I just came up short. It's always a learning experience."

Trafton, who had placed third in the Olympic trials, an event Thurmond won, watched the 1984 Los Angeles Games as a child. She was fascinated by Mary Lou Retton, the all-around gymnastics champion.

"I had a Mary Lou Retton leotard that I wore all the time, and I grew out of it quite quickly," she said.

She switched her Olympic dreams and got a basketball scholarship to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but a torn ACL detoured her again. She had taken up throwing events in junior high and gladly went back to them.

She made the Olympic team for the Athens Games, where she didn't get out of the qualifying round. She didn't make the U.S. teams for the 2005 or 2007 world championships but improved slowly, earning the final Beijing discus berth at the U.S. trials.

Although she thinks she can still improve, she was good enough Monday to become America's first women's Olympic discus champion since Lillian Copeland triumphed in 1932.

Seattle Times staff contributed to this article. For more about Aretha Thurmond, see Steve Kelley's blog from China at www.seattletimes.com/Olympics.