The amount of “Black Girl Magic” at this year’s Olympics is staggering. Some say it’s not even fair how Black women are dominating at Rio 2016 and we love it.
It’s been over a half-century since a woman from the United States earned an Olympic medal in shot put. An American woman had never before won gold. Since the women’s competition was introduced in 1948, American Earlene Brown, who took bronze in 1960 in Rome, had been the country’s only woman to medal in shot put.
That is, until Michelle Carter showed up and showed out in Rio.
The 30-year-old Carter qualified for the 2008 Games, where she finished in 15th place. Four years later at the London Olympics, she was fifth. But in 2016, she knew it was going to be different.
Her winning throw, and a personal best, came in her last attempt at 20.63 meters, upsetting the favorite, Valerie Adams of New Zealand, who delivered 20.42 meters on her second throw. Adams had been trying for a third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the event.
(Photo credit EPA/AP)
“I knew I had more in the tank,” Carter told reporters. “And to be able to go out there and put the pieces together and pull it out, I’m just really excited.”
READ: Simone Manuel Speaks About Her Olympic Win In Rio And Race Back Home In The U.S.
Carter set another mark at her third Olympics: She and her father, Michael, are now Team USA’s first father-daughter combination to medal at the Olympics.
“I’m numb right now,” said Michael, who’s both her first coach and coached her for Rio, Carter told IAAF.org.
Her father, Michael Carter, won a silver medal in the men’s shot put at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and won three (yes, three) Superbowls with the San Franscisco 49ers knows a thing or two about winning.
When she first told her father she wanted to try shot her father asked if she was serious. “At that time, I was not aware of what my dad had accomplished,” Carter told the Team USA website. “I grew up with him playing football, so…
… that’s all I knew. So he asked me a few questions and he was like, ‘OK, well, then since this is what you want to do I’m going to teach you, I’m going to make sure you do it right.’ And the rest is history.”
Michelle is already looking forward to the sharing in that history with her father every chance she gets.
“Of course, I can’t wait until I get the medal and I can walk around the house and say ‘Daddy, I got you,’ ” said Carter, who received her gold in a ceremony on Saturday.
For more magic at the 2016 Rio Olympics, click here.
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