This is Savannah Sanitoa. She’s a shot putter and javelin thrower from American Samoa.
Jill, I hear you say, why is she running in your picture if she’s a shot putter? Shot put doesn’t require running.
WELL MY FRIEND.
In 2009 Sanitoa missed out on qualifying for the shot put for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, but decided to take up the wild card that was available for the 100m sprint.
Which she then ran in a very respectable 14.23 seconds.
I mean yeah the winner ran three seconds faster but she came eighth out of ten, which isn’t too shabby considering her actual discipline is THROWING.
Anyway these pictures make me very happy, but this quote (from the Telegraph article) is even better.
“It’s a personal best just for me to be here at the worlds, we have little competitions back home, but to be here amongst the best in the world is pretty exciting,” said Sanitoa, who is about to sign up with the US army.
Like, what a sportswoman she is, seriously. She missed out on the chance to compete in her own discipline but she flew fifteen thousand kilometres just for the chance to compete with the best in the world at something.
“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
