Aretha Thurmond still itching for a medal

The itch never left.

Not after two Olympics. Not after her marriage to fellow discus thrower Reedus Thurmond. Not even after the birth of her son Theo.

Aretha Thurmond had a good job, working as a fundraiser in her alma mater's athletic department. She was loving the married life, enjoying all the spoils of motherhood and prepared for her life after discus throwing.

Except for the itch.

The itch was telling her that even as her 32nd birthday approached (she will celebrate it in Beijing on Aug. 14), even as her son's first birthday neared, even though so much else was happening in her life, she still hadn't reached her peak as a thrower.

Thurmond, who as Aretha Hill competed for Washington and was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame in 2006, felt there were more throws, better throws left in her talented right arm. She wasn't ready to put away the discus, wasn't ready to concede the Beijing Olympics to the kids gunning for her spot.

Aretha Thurmond, wife, mother, discus thrower, believed deeply that she could have it all.

"I've always believed that if I gave this my all, I can be a really great athlete," Thurmond said by phone from her training home in Auburn, Ala. "That to me is really exciting, because now people are asking me if I'm going to keep throwing after Beijing.

"Now I'm not saying I'm in their class, but I always answer people by saying how good would Michael Jordan be, or Tiger Woods or Alex Rodriguez, if they also worked full-time jobs?"

The exciting part for Thurmond in 2008, is this is the first time in her career she has devoted herself solely to throwing the discus. For the first time she isn't squeezing training into her work week. She isn't distracted by a boss or an unfinished assignment.

She is committed to her sport like never before.

"Right after my son was born, I went back to work at Washington right away and still tried to train at an Olympic level," she said. "I was being a wife and still trying to juggle about 10 things all at the same time.

"I told myself, 'I didn't really sign up to be in the circus.' I had to define a little bit more exactly what it is that I'm actually doing. That's when things started to really hit home. I really wanted to be there for my son. I really wanted to be there for my family. You really start to go to work on your check list. I started prioritizing."

She and Reedus put together a game plan that addressed both the itch and her need to be with her family.

A natural fundraiser with a carbonated kind of energy, Thurmond painfully decided to give up her job at Washington. She found a coach, Jerry Clayton at Auburn, and last winter she went to New Zealand and Australia to judge where she was in her sport and where she had to go.

"Over there, once I started to compete a little bit in February, I realized, there's this bug, this Olympic bug, and it has not left my system," Thurmond said. "It is not gone. I am not done, and I have to see this through."

Eighteen days after Theo's birth, Thurmond competed in the 2007 U.S. nationals and finished fifth.

She and Clayton had been working together long-distance for almost a year and a half. He would send her workout schedules but couldn't see how she reacted, how she recovered from those workouts, post-Theo.

After the nationals, after not making the team and missing the world championships in Osaka, Team Thurmond had to make another difficult decision.

She was going to move to Alabama, away from her husband, who is the throws coach at Washington, and train full-time with Clayton.

"I had to put myself in a training environment, which I had really never done," she said. "I said, 'I'm going there and I'm going to be a mom and I'm going to throw the discus and let's see what happens.' "

How is the plan working? Thurmond won the Olympic trials with a throw of 213 feet, 11 inches and qualified for her third Olympic Games.

Clayton created what Thurmond calls a "family friendly" training environment. She often brings Theo to practice with her. He plays in the long-jump pit while she throws.

"I've really been able to be a mother for him, and that's truly been a blessing for me," Thurmond said. "Coach Clayton deserves a lot of credit for that. He and I just connected as coach and athlete, and almost from the start I said, 'OK, this is working. I'm never going to look for another coach again.' "

Thurmond first qualified for the Games in Atlanta in 1996. She finished fourth and failed to qualify for Sydney in 2000, but returned to the Olympics in Athens in 2004.

In her other two appearances she was just happy to be there, thrilled just to be an Olympian. But this time she believes she has a real shot at a medal.

"When I was younger it was just a great experience," she said. "But now that I've been there a couple of times, I know what it takes."

Her personal-best throw is 65.86 meters (216 feet, 1 inch), third-best in U.S. history. And using history as her guide, Thurmond believes it will take a throw of about 66.5 meters to get her on the medal stand.

And now that she has listened to her itch, done exactly what she was supposed to do and trained the way she was meant to train, Aretha Thurmond believes she has that kind of throw, that medal-sized throw, in her.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com