Courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly has its first Olympic gold medalist.
Stephanie Brown Trafton earned the gold medal in the women's discus Monday night at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Brown Trafton, 28, an Arroyo Grande High School and Cal Poly graduate who currently resides in Galt, won the Olympic title with a best mark of 212 feet, 5 inches.
She reached that mark on her first throw and the rest of the 12-person field couldn't catch her. Brown Trafton was third at the U.S. Olympic Trials but had the best throw by an American this season.
Yarelys Barrios of Cuba, a bronze medalist at the 2007 world championships, took silver at 208 feet, 9 inches, and Olena Antonova of Ukraine won bronze at 205-4. American Aretha Thurmond was 10th with a mark of 196-2 1/4.
"Someone told me that I was coming to the Bird's Nest to lay a golden egg," Brown Trafton said. "That's what I tried to do.
"I knew the United States didn't come in here as the favorites," Brown Trafton added. "I knew we hadn't made a final since 1984 and just found out that we hadn't won gold since 1932. I just thank God for giving me the strength to be the one to do it."
That strength was on display early. Moments after Barrios, the event favorite, launched a throw of 207-3 on her opening attempt, Brown Trafton let fly with a throw of 212-5 that seemed to awe the rest of the competitors. Of the 47 throws by her competitors that followed, only three exceed 62 meters.
"All through college, and even when I was coming up, my first throw has always seemed to be my best throw," Brown Trafton said. "That was definitely the strategy here tonight. No one else stepped up and I was able to pull off the upset."
Brown Trafton's gold is her first title on the international level and gives the United States its first gold medal in the event since Lillian Copeland won at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. It also is the first U.S. Medal in the event since Leslie Deniz won silver in 1984, also in Los Angeles.
I'm just so thrilled that mine was gold and I got to represent my country," Brown Trafton said. "Every Olympics, anything can happen."
Mac Wilkins, who triumphed in 1976 at Montreal, was the last American winner of the men's discus.
Brown Trafton posted the top mark in the qualifying round Friday with a throw of 205 feet, 11 1/4 inches on her final throw, jumping from 16th place in her flight to the top of the field.
Brown Trafton, who graduated from Cal Poly in 2004 with a degree in engineering, competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, placing 11th in the first of two groups in the prelims with a mark of 192-1. She did not advance to the final round.
Brown Trafton's third-place mark June 29 at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials was 205-6. She was runner-up in the 2004 Olympic Trials (203-1).
She placed fourth in the USA Outdoors in 2006, fifth in the 2007 USA Outdoors and has cracked the 200-foot mark in five meets this year, including the Olympics and U.S. trials. She placed first at the Nike Prefontaine Classic (208-4), third at the Reebok Grand Prix (204-6) and established her personal best of 217-1 with a first-place finish at the Hartnell Throwers Meet in Salinas on May 8.
Brown Trafton was a seven-time Big West champion -- four in the shot put and three in the discus -- and three times earned NCAA All-America honors, placing seventh in the shot put in 2001, fourth in the discus in 2002 and fourth in the shot put in 2003. She still holds Cal Poly records of 57-0 in the shot put and 189-7 in the discus.
Brown Trafton is the third Cal Poly graduate to earn a medal in any Olympic Games.
Gina Miles (Crop Science '97) earned a silver medal last week in the equestrian sport of eventing in Hong Kong while Karen Kraft (Architecture '91) earned a silver medal for pairs rowing at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and a bronze at the 2000 competition in Sydney.
Miles currently resides in Creston while Kraft recently was named assistant coach of women's rowing at the University of Wisconsin.
Former Cal Poly high jumper Sharon Day begins her quest for Olympic gold on Thursday, with the final on Saturday.
In baseball, former Mustang first baseman/outfielder Jimmy Van Ostrand is playing for Team Canada, which has posted a 1-4 mark so far at the Olympics.
Van Ostrand was 2-for-4 in Canada's 10-0 win over China on Wednesday, then went 1-for-3 with a double in Thursday's 7-6 loss to Cuba.
He was used as a pinch-hitter in Canada's 1-0 loss to South Korea on Friday as well as in Saturday's 5-4 setback against Team USA. Van Ostrand was 0-for-1 in both games.
Van Ostrand did not play in Monday's 1-0 loss to Japan. Team Canada has lost each of its last four games in the Olympics by a single run.
Canada plays the Netherlands on Tuesday and Chinese Taipei on Wednesday to complete preliminary-round play.
Van Ostrand was named to the 24-man Team Canada roster in July due in large part to his performance in the seven-game round-robin Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Chinese Taipei in March. Van Ostrand hit .556 on 10-for-18 hitting, striking out just twice and walking three times. He drove in eight runs.
Van Ostrand currently plays for the Houston Astros’ Hi-A Salem Avalanche in the Carolina League after one season with the Lexington Legends in 2007.
A Mustang in 2005 and 2006, Van Ostrand was selected in the eighth round of the 2006 June Amateur Draft by the Astros. He is a senior in kinesiology at Cal Poly.