From Frugivore: When I imagine track & field athletes, I have to admit, I usually tend to forget the field competitors. From the incredibly agile high jumpers to the muscular shot putters, these athletes put in as much work as any other Olympic hopeful, yet they’ll usually set historically relevant marks in comparative anonymity.
Either way, I have a confession though to make … at six-foot-six and over 260 pounds, I’m extra partial to larger women (that’s not to say I don’t love ALL women!). So when I set out to see who Frugivore’s ”Fitspiration” would be this week, I looked to the field since, like most sports fans, I’m caught up in who will make the 2012 Olympics. So fittingly, I had to put two of my many crushes from this year’s United States Olympic Trials.
So without anymore avail, let’s get familiar with two of the spectacular athletes who made our Women’s Hammer team and will represent America in London in this July.
First up we have Amber Campbell, a Nap-Town native who made her second Olympic team after setting The Trials record with a throw of 235 feet, 6 inches. She stands 5-foot 7 inches tall and tips the scale at a nimble 200 pounds.
What is fascinating about what Campbell does as an world-class athlete is that, while she clearly uses her power and explosiveness to set records, she has impeccable balance and core stability.
[youtubevid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Ujkt7X_mk]
Just look at how she swings metal ball — weighing 8.82 lb (4 kg) and 3 feet 11 inches (119.5 cm) in length (men’s hammer is 16 pounds (7.257 kg) and measures 3 feet 11 3⁄4 inches (121.5 cm) — in a circular fashion, using the ball’s momentum to spin her violently forward without having her feet fall outside of the circle.
Although the hammer throw is over a century-old standard in the men’s games, it was just recently added to the women’s field events in 2000 for the Sydney Olympics.
A six-time USA Indoor champion and two-time Outdoor champion, Campbell is one of the favorites to medal while the third-place finisher Jessica Cosby is trying to redeem her less-than-spectacular 2008 Beijing result.
Hailing from sunny Southern California, Cosby, 30, was the 2011 Outdoor Champion. At this year’s Olympic Trials she threw 232 feet, 2 inches, capturing the Olympic “A’ standard and booking her ticket to London.
Standing 5-foot 8 inches and 175 pounds, Cosby is cut and muscular, dispelling any myths about women losing their tone once they lift heavy weights. Nevertheless, Cosby’s physique was called into question after she placed seventh at the 2011 World Championships and tested positive for a banned diuretic (usually a masking agent for steroids). After successfully appealing her two-year ban, reducing it to only four months, Cosby hit the practice field and her hard work paid off with a thrid-place finish at The Trails.
Both of these women are clear examples that fitness and health are more than meets the imagination, giving bigger young girls a template for how to turn a supposed negative into a positive. Good luck to Amber and Jessica!
Read more great stories about black health on Frugivore.