YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Harrodsburg

Track & Field: Kentuckian Pounds back in training for 2012 Olympics

June 08, 2010|By LARRY VAUGHT | larry@amnews.com

Two-time NCAA champion demonstrates the javelin throw Monday at a camp in Harrodsburg. (Clay Jackson photo)

HARRODSBURG — She had every right to be bitter and give up her Olympic dream. However, Lexington native Dana Pounds never thought that way.

Instead, the Air Force captain is back in training for the 2012 Olympics and hopes to compete in the javelin. She was U.S. Olympic Trials runner-up in 2008, but missed the Olympic qualifying mark by two inches and was not allowed to compete.

Now she’s married, stationed in Colorado and once again training with the Air Force’s blessing in hopes of making the 2012 Olympic team.

“The dream is still there for me. That is why I am back in training. My body is fighting me hard at times, but it is just a case of mind over matter,” Pounds said Monday.

Pounds is in Harrodsburg to work at the track clinic being conducted by former Olympians Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sharrieffa Barksdale.

She won two NCAA javelin championships for the Air Force Academy even though she had never thrown the javelin when she arrived at the academy. She was the 1999 Kentucky High School Athletic Association discus champion, the 2000 KHSAA shot put champion and the 2002 Florida High School Athletic Association shot put and discus champion.

Pounds earned first-team all-state honors in basketball, softball and track in 2002 and eventually went to Air Force to play basketball.

“With my softball background, I walked into the Air Force Academy and threw the softball 213 feet and the (track) coach said immediately that when basketball was over he would love for me to try the javelin,” she said Monday.

Now the 5-2 Pounds hopes to help inspire others to try the javelin and stay open-minded about dreams.

“I want to help others. I don’t care if you are 5-2 or weigh 300 pounds, there is something out there for you that you can do if you put your mind to it,” she said. “There are diamonds in the rough everywhere. Does that mean everybody can be a Division I athlete? No. But I think there is a way to chase dreams. It may not be the conventional way. It may not be in football, basketball, soccer or baseball. But there are all kind of other sports.”

Kentucky, like most states, does not sanction javelin competition. However, Pounds brought javelins with pole vault plugs on both ends for campers to use to show how safe they are.

“They are no more dangerous than a shot put or discus,” she said. “You are not going to impale yourself or someone as some people fear. I’m here not only to show off the javelin, but to show it can be safe.

“I would love to see the javelin grow, but the lack of experienced coaches is a problem, too. I think some coaches are resistant to adding the javelin to meets because it has been hard enough for them to pick up coaching the shot put and discus they never threw and they don’t want to add another event. But I am passionate about my event and when I get a chance to show it off like I am here, I am going to do it.”

|

|

|