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Cal Poly alumnus Stephanie Brown-Trafton is a three-time Olympian and won a gold medal in the discus throw at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Brown-Trafton shared thoughts with The Big West's Chloe Clark to look back on the experience and joy ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Brown-Trafton was initially a two-sport athlete in basketball and track & field at Cal Poly. However, a knee injury forced the San Luis Obispo native to give up hoop dreams and focus on throwing. Brown-Trafton earned six All-America honors, two for indoor shot put, two for outdoor shot put, and two for outdoor discus throw. At the conference level, the former Mustang was a four-time Big West champion in the shot put (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003) and three-time winner in the disucs (1999, 2002, 2003), and still holds the shot put league record at 17.37m/57'0".  
As a senior in 2003, Brown-Trafton finished runner-up in the discus throw and fourth in the shot put at the NCAA Championships.

After graduating from Cal Poly in 2003, Brown-Trafton continued to pursue track & field and competed at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. There, the former Mustang earned a spot on Team USA after recording a mark of 61.3m/201'3", a personal-best by over nine feet. 

“It was a dream of mine from the time I was about four years-old,” Brown-Trafton said. “Just being able to compete at the Olympic games was a life-long dream.”

Brown-Trafton earned a second trip to the Olympics with a third-place finish at the 2008 Olympic Trials with a throw of 205'5". In Beijing, the former Cal Poly student-athlete recorded a mark of 64.74 m/212'5" in the first round that ended up being the event-winning throw. It was the first American gold in the event for 76 years.
 
“That was an amazing experience to be able to go to Beijing, be part of an amazing team, and win a gold medal. (The feeling of) winning an Olympic gold medal is like getting struck by lightning. The chances of being the number one thrower on the day that it counts in front of the entire world”
 
“It was just really cool to be part of the Olympic village experience where you see the gymnastics team walking around. The gold-medal winning USA women’s soccer team, I got to sit down and have lunch with some of them. It was really cool to be part of that experience as well." 

In 2012, Brown-Trafton punched ticket No. 3 to the Olympics by winning the discus throw competition at the Olympic Trials. In London, Brown-Trafton finished in seventh place. 
 
“One of the hardest things that you can put yourself through is trying to figure out how to be a high-level performer, but you’re still caring all this baggage of, ‘well something happened yesterday’ or ‘I’m so worried about the future’. You have to just stay in the moment. I actually got that engraved on my Olympic ring… I was just reminding myself and I remind the athletes that are coming from The Big West going to experience this amazing event, to soak it all in and just stay in the moment. Don’t worry about the past and just let it all go.”

Track and field competition from Paris is set to take place August 1-August 10. The head coach of Team USA women will be Long Beach State's LaTanya Sheffield. The complete event schedule can be found here >>>