Only the top three finishers made the U.S. teamm which will compete in the Tokyo Games next month in Japan.
Maggie Malone won the event with a Olympic Trials record throw of 208 feet, 4 inches. She competed in the 2016 Games, where she finished 25th and currently holds the U.S. record in the javelin, throwing 219 feet 3 inches last month.
Kara Winger, who had held the American record for 11 years, finished second on Saturday with a throw of 201 feet 8 inches. This will be her fourth Olympic Games.
Avione Allgood Whetstone was third with a toss of 193 feet 4 inches, but unlike Malone and Winger, she has not met the Olympic standard which is just over 209 feet, 9 inches.
McMillian’s best throw Saturday was 168 feet, 6 inches (51.36 meters). Previously this year she had thrown over 175 feet.
She just recently switched to the javelin after years competing in the heptathlon.
After competing in London, the University of Nebraska grad – who moved to Dayton in 2012 to train here as had former Olympic heptathlete Hyleas Fountain – found the spotlight away from the sporting field.
In 2015 she was featured in the ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue and last year she was a winner on The Titan Games, the NBC reality series featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
She married former U.D. football player and Sidney High coach Devon Langhorst, who is now a helicopter pilot in the Army, and they have a 2-year-old son, Otto. After the Tokyo Games, she and her son had planned to move from Troy to the Washington D.C, area where Langhorst is newly stationed.
After failing to advance through the Trials in 2016, McMillan flirted the next year with trying to make the Winter Olympics in the bobsled. She then switched to the javelin – one of the seven events in the heptathlon – and had progressed steadily along the learning curve.
Coming into the Trials she had trained with UD javelin thrower Casey Bogues, who won the A-10 Championships this year, had finished 11th at the NCAA Championships with a throw just over 175 feet and also made it to the Trials.
In Friday’s qualifying round Bogues finished 23rd of 24 entries with a throw of 143 feet, 2 inches.
About the Author