Carter, Saunders, Johnson survive in deep SP final

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

A light rain at Hayward Field did nothing to dampen the greatest, deepest womens's shot put competition in U.S. history on Thursday.

It took 63 feet to make the team and the three women who did it are all looking ahead to Rio de Janeiro with a realistic hopes of seeing the podium. All three produced marks Thursday that would have placed in the top six at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Michelle Carter, the American record holder and 2016 World Indoor champion, was sitting third going into the sixth and final round. She threw 64-3.25 (19.59m) to leapfrog Raven Saunders and Felisha Johnson into first and win the competition.

"These ladies are awesome," Carter said of her new Olympic teammates. "I've been throwing with Felisha for a while so I know what she's capable of doing, as well as Raven. She's young, but she has that heart to go out there and compete. I'm excited about what Team USA is going to bring, and this is a tough team to make."

For the record, seven women in the competition threw 60 feet -- over and above the threshold that it usually takes to make the U.S. Olympic team.

Carter was in first place until the fifth round, when Johnson unleashed a big mark of 63-1.25 (19.23m) to move from eighth to first. Then Saunders, the 20-year-old two-time NCAA champion from Ole Miss, threw 63-1.50 (19.24) to take the lead.

Carter, when she is in top form, remains the top U.S. thrower and is part of a legacy that extends back to her father. She revealed in the mixed zone that she was unaware that her father Michael had won a medal for shot-putting in the 1984 Olympics until she was a junior in high school and a coach tried talking her into joining the team. Michelle knew only of her father's football background in the NFL.

But the same physical gifts that made Michael Carter a national high school record holder with a mark that some say is the toughest to break (81-3, dating to 1979), were inherited by Michelle.

Saunders' rise is one of the most compelling in the entire Olympic Trials. Three years ago, Saunders had a personal best of 39 feet, 5 inches as a junior at Burke High School in Charleston, S.C. 

She dedicated herself to learning the spin technique in the summer before her senior year and the results have been astounding ever since. In 2014, after breaking Carter's national high school record, Saunders started a Go Fund Me campaign on the internet to raise enough money so that she and her coach could travel to Eugene to compete at U.S. Juniors, which she won. Then she earned a silver medal at World Juniors, also in Eugene. 

"I knew that as long as I executed through my technique and put everything I had into it, the shot was going to fly," the 5-foot-5 Saunders said. 

Two years with Connie Smith-Price, the U.S. Olympic women's team coach, have helped Saunders realize her dreams ahead of schedule.

"It means so much," Saunders said. "Looking back at all the struggles and challenges that I had to go through, and seeing that there's so many kids (going through the same thing) ... I still want to inspire a lot ff kids in (my) high school. You don't have to have everything. As long as you have the will and determination, that's all it takes to succeed. Being here, I'm a living testament."