In sports, nothing is guaranteed, as this Trials has already shown us. However, putting your money on Valarie Allman to make the team for Paris would have been about as safe a bet as you could make.
On a comfortable night in Eugene, Allman stepped into the discus ring and would come away with an opportunity to defend her Olympic title. Valarie’s first throw at 67.19m would have been good enough to win the competition by nearly four and a half meters, but she continued to put on a show for the crowd at Hayward Field, keeping everyone watching for each subsequent throw.
Though she had the USA Championship and Paris bid locked up by her sixth and final attempt, that did not stop Allman from launching a victory lap throw. With the Olympic spot now a foregone conclusion, she let one go that would challenge her American Record (71.46m, set in 2022). As the measuring devices did their magic, the crowd, and Valarie, looked on in suspense as the scoreboard eventually read 70.73 meters, the fourth best throw in USA history (and yes, Allman holders the three beyond that point too).
Her dominance in the event cannot be understated. She holds over a dozen of the top marks in USA history, and is the only American woman to throw beyond 70 meters (which she has now done nine times!).
Rounding out the podium in the discus competition are collegians Jayden Ulrich and Veronica Fraley. Fraley has the Olympic Standard, so she will be on Team USA for Paris, though in the absence of the Standard, Ulrich must rely on world ranking to make the field. Per Kara Winger in a post to Twitter, with the spreadsheet to back it up, Jayden is very likely to stay in the top-32 in ranking (likely at 24th). It would be a reasonably assumption that she makes the team.
WATCH: Valarie Allman DOMINATES women’s discus final at Trials to secure Paris spot
