Academic

Stephanie Brown Trafton!

By Ann Bartow

Olympic Gold Medalist in the Discus!

… Stephanie Brown Trafton took her place at the head of the American team with a surprising gold medal in the discus, the first by an American woman since 1932 and the only medal of any color since 1984. Hers was a dream spawned when she was 4 years old and watching the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics at her home in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Back then, she wanted to be a gymnast.

Now 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds at age 28, Brown Trafton has found a more fitting route to Olympic glory.

?I want to meet Mary Lou Retton, so please, someone hook me up,? Brown Trafton said. ?She was my idol. I had a leotard like hers but I got too big to be a gymnast.? …

?I hope this gives all the kids in high school and college the confidence that they can medal in the Olympics,? Brown Trafton said. ?Myself, I have a great physique to be a thrower, long and lean. I?m going to get stronger and hopefully I?ll stay injury free.?

Brown Trafton is a bit of a throwback to the Olympics of old. For one, she has a job, working as a project manager for Sycamore Environmental Consulting in Sacramento. She trains in almost complete anonymity….

I think the training in anonymity thing is probably over now! Congrats to Stephanie Brown Taylor.

–Ann Bartow

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on August 18, 2008 (boomark / email).