Road to NBNI Blogs: Lena Giger, Week 2

by Lena Giger

I’m now one foot closer! 

Last weekend, my high school team (Highland HS, Highland, Ill.) opened our indoor season at a local meet, the Triad Invitational, and I threw a new personal best!  After my frustrating performance at The Simplot Games, I was hoping for a rebound and my toss of 49’9” sure did that. 

I opened with a foot foul, but quickly fixed a few technical things in the back of the ring and hit a 49’6.5” on my third throw.  After a couple of 47’ throws, I finished my day with a 49’9”, which also set the Illinois indoor state record!  I was quite ecstatic that I finally broke the 49’ barrier and now my sights are set on the 50’ mark.  Just one foot at a time!

Since I’m still relatively new to the world of weightlifting, and especially its effects on my performance, my dad (a.k.a. coach) and I are still adjusting my pre-meet workouts.  The last few weeks have consisted of a large volume of throws along with a rather heavy lifting cycle, creating some shorter throws on meet days.  Luckily, the many little pieces are starting to fall in the right spots and, after last week, are looking nice and solid.  Hopefully, there are many more to come!

On another note, I wanted to talk about the incredible experience I was a part last summer.  I, along with 42 other talented athletes, represented Team USA at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.  Now let me be honest: When I first heard that we’d be going to the Ukraine I was kind of bummed, because the previous teams traveled to places like France and Italy.  But after being there, I feel like the Ukraine was the perfect fit.  Experiencing parts of this country’s culture, while performing at the biggest meet of my life thus far, made for an extraordinary trip!

Previously, I had never been away from home, nor my parents, for more than a week and let me tell you, it was quite a shock.  Fortunately, we created our own little family among the athletes and coaches.  I can’t thank USATF enough for giving me the opportunity and our team coaches and trainers for helping me through the most incredible, yet nerve-racking 15 days of my life.

The meet itself was... WOW!  To compete on the international stage at the age of 17, and against the best youth athletes around the world still amazes me.  I witnessed firsthand the champion Emel Dereli of Turkey throwing more than 65 feet in our shot put competition.  How could it get any better?

(Note: We threw the smaller 3kg Youth shot, compared to the 4kg used for high school and beyond)

As for my own performance, it was unlike anything I’ve ever done.  I will never forget how it felt to walk out onto that track, proudly wearing a uniform with USA displayed on the front.  It was a mixed feeling of pride and pure awe that I know I will never experience the same way again.  I still remember walking into the stadium with a zoo-full of butterflies in my stomach.  While I usually don’t get nervous at meets, there was nothing that could have kept my nerves calm that day.  I just remember hoping and praying that I could keep calm and focus on my technique. 

After prelims, my nervousness only intensified because I hadn’t gotten off a good throw and was close to not making finals.  Thankfully, two of our coaches (Coach Webb and Coach Palavicini) were watching and helped me focus on doing what I needed to do.  In finals, I ended up throwing just over 54 feet (again, remember it’s a 3 kg shot), about two feet off of my previous best, but it was good enough to place 8th and score a point for the victorious Team USA!

Now, every time someone mentions the World Youth Championships, I can’t help but smile.  While there’s some aspects of what the experience offered that I simply can’t put into words, I can say it gave me a huge confidence-boost about my abilities and made me realize how much I’m looking forward to competing collegiately for the upcoming years.  Speaking of college, one of my USA teammates, Olivia Baker – an incredible 400m runner from New Jersey – will be a Stanford Cardinal with me next year, and I’m thrilled that we will be teammates once again!  But before that next step, I have many more meets and goals to strive for and I look forward to meeting up with a few of my U.S. teammates at New Balance Indoors next month!


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