Former Olympic Throwers Aiming to Lift a New Generation

July 02, 2008

by Bryan Holmgren

Typically getting a visit from a pair of ex-olympians - one of them a former world record holder - would be the type of thing that would garner a lot of attention... typically.

For Brian Oldfield and John Powell being unsung isn't exactly a different tune.

"Generally the throwers are the step-children of track and field," said Powell, who won bronze medals in 1976 and 1984 and popped a discus throw of 69.08 meters in 1975 to set what was then a world record. "The glamour events are the hundred or the 1500 meters."

But while the following for throwers may be much smaller, the participants are arguably that much more passionate. Upwards of 30 young athletes from as far as a thousand miles away converged on Garden Plain to work with Oldfield and Powell. Most had never attended a throwing camp.

"I was thinking 'Wow! That's great! Because most kids don't get that experience," said Maggie Dick - a 12 year old thrower from Cleveland, Ohio. "I'm so lucky because I'm going to get really good at whatever they're going to teach me here."

Quite a bit, it turns out. Believe it or not, there's much more to checking heavy objects that just brute strength.

"There's a big difference between easy and simple. Something can be simple but it's not easy to incorporate in your movement," said Powell. "So all the stuff we show these kids is simple."

But over the course of a few relatively short session, the gains are... well... long.

"10 to 20 feet extra," thrower Ami Orton estimates. "They taught me to spin. I really didn't know how to spin very well before."

Ryan Hershberger was more interested in refining. Consider him impressed. "Throughout the year I had a lot of trouble getting down the little things. They've really helped me get most of those things kinked out."

And these aren't just beginning or even intermediate throwers we're talking about. Garden Plain's Zack Puetz is the state's reigning shot and discus champion in 3A.

"[Oldfield] saw my old form and said, you won state?... Basically at this camp they broke everything down and retaught it to me. In the discus I've already improved 25 feet, so I know that's working."

For Oldfield - a former U.S. record holder in the shot - and Powell, that's the reward.

"Kids e-mail me all the time to say I really got a lot out of your camp and improved 20 feet and won the state meet," said Powell. "And that's why you do it."

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