EXACTLY A YEAR before Valarie Allman boarded a plane to London for her first IAAF World Track and Field Championships, Zeb Sion was announced as Stanford's throws coach.
At that time, Allman was content to complete her career as one of the top collegiate discus throwers in the nation. She would graduate, gather her trophies and move on with her life. But not long into their partnership, Allman felt differently and chose to redshirt her senior season to extend her Stanford career and continue the progress she sensed she was making with Sion.
With the decision, Allman needed something tangible to shoot for this season and established a goal of wearing a U.S. singlet at worlds in August.
On Friday, she will reach that goal, competing in her first senior global competition. By her previous timetable, she would have thrown her last discus months ago. Instead, her appearance at the Olympic Stadium in London seems only the beginning to a promising career.
"Sometimes, I wake up and think, Wait, am I really going to London?" she said, while training at Stanford before her trip. "There's no way this is actually happening. I feel so thankful."
Allman, 22, has the seventh-best throw in the world this year. Her distance of 212 feet, 3 inches (64.69 meters) at Stanford's Cardinal Classic on April 22 made her the 12th-best female in American history and was a 10-foot improvement over her lifetime best entering the season. It signaled her emergence among the world's elite.
Having reached the IAAF World Championship standard already, Allman needed to place among the top three at the U.S. Championships in Sacramento on June 22 to earn a world berth. The task meant navigating a field that included 2008 Olympic champion Stephanie Trafton, U.S. record holder Gia Lewis-Smallwood, and two other Olympians. Allman skillfully did so, taking third to cap a hectic week that began with her graduation with a degree in product design.
With this much success, and greater possibilities on the horizon, the message was clear: Why stop now? In 2018, she will become the first Stanford track and field athlete in 12 years to compete for the Cardinal after representing the U.S. in a world or Olympic competition, as she begins graduate studies while completing her fifth and final year of eligibility. Could the 2020 Tokyo Olympics be next?
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AN ACCOMPLISHED DANCER in her younger days in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Longmont, Colorado, Allman joined the track team at Silver Creek High in Longmont as a jumper and sprinter, but switched events so she could attend the spaghetti dinner that the throwers had every year.
"When I first started throwing discus, I would think of it as choreography," Allman said. "Put left arm here, my right leg here. The type of movement from dance really helped in throwing the discus. There's a certain level of coordination and balance and placement of things."
Allman definitely is goofy – impromptu rap dance parties with roommate Elise Cranny are a staple. Allman also has long had a maturity and thoughtful side to her, donating her hair to an organization that makes hairpieces to disadvantaged children, and distributing used shoes to those in undeveloped countries.
In her first three years at Stanford under Michelle Eisenreich, Allman won two Pac-12 titles, steadily improved, and placed third at NCAA's as a junior in 2016. When Eisenreich left to become the director of the women's track and field and cross country programs at Princeton, Allman was wary of taking a step backward under a new coach in her final season.
It helped that she knew Sion, who had recruited Allman at his previous stop of Wake Forest. Sion felt he knew her well enough where he didn't have to win her over. But trust isn't something to be handed out without being earned.
At a weight room dedication of the team weight room, Allman expressed her concerns. She didn't want to make drastic changes in her throwing mechanics.
"I totally get it," Sion told her. "We're going to ease into this."
"I kind of fibbed a little bit. I told her we're not going to change a lot. And now, nine months later, we have changed a lot. I told her I wouldn't change anything too drastically and I changed everything. It's not totally true, but we can joke about it. It makes it more dramatic. At the end of the day, we changed what was appropriate in the time we had this season. It worked out pretty well."
The changes were gradual. The biggest visible change is the path of the disc in flight. The flight angle is lower from keeping the shoulders and hips on a flatter plane, allowing the disc to travel out, rather than up.
"The general goal was to try to make her more efficient," Sion said. "Use her abilities, but more efficiently."
Those abilities can be traced to dancing. Her explosiveness in the ring is overshadowed by her athleticism, body awareness and balance. Her lower body is strong -- Allman said she can clean 113 kilos (249 pounds) and squat 145 kilos (320 pounds). That allows the hips and legs to drive the throw itself.
"Discus is weird," Allman said. "It's such a mix of patience combined with power. It's always this fighting of forces.
"You spend so much time doing thousands and thousands of reps for something that occurs over a span of 2 ½ seconds. You can only think about one or two things well in that time. You really want to minimize margin of error."
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AT THE STANFORD Invitational on April 1, two weeks after a personal best of 202-3 (61.65m), throw after throw sailed out of the sector. With one legal throw, Allman settled for ninth place with a dismal 135-4 (41.25m). At the Tucson Elite Classic, her first meet of the season against mainly post-collegiates, she was 10th at 167-2 (50.97), again with only one legal throw and did not make the cut to the final.
But in both cases, she bounced back with a big performance. After the Stanford Invite, she threw a personal best 205-6 (62.64) at the Beach Invitational in Long Beach. After Tucson, she threw 210-9 (64.26) at the Iron Wood Throws Classic in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on June 2.
"She's had her share of ups and downs this year," Sion said. "But those things are almost necessary in order to take the next step. Each time that's happened, they've triggered a response in a positive way."
Those ups and downs never were in greater relief than in the days after her mammoth throw at the Cardinal Classic. During the last rep of a drill before the end of practice, Allman slipped and hit her head on the asphalt ring.
"I've fallen a hundred times in practice," she said. "You slip and laugh it off. But this time just felt different."
Allman suffered migraine headaches and dizziness.
"For the next six weeks, it felt like my mind and my body weren't working together," Allman said. "When things are going well, it feels like the most effortless natural thing. But during that time, it felt like I was working so hard and the discus would not fly. It just felt like I totally forgot how to throw, like I didn't belong in that environment."
The stretch came at a crucial time in her training, and with her struggles, Allman began to think she wouldn't be prepared for the U.S. Championships. All the while, Sion's belief in her was unwavering.
Allman chaffed at hearing she needed to remain patient, but eventually realized that was the wisest advice she could receive. When she hit the big throw in Idaho, Allman knew she was back, but with a different perspective.
"I used to always be so focused on the outcome," Allman said. "But I've realized you really have to focus on the day-to-day things. You always have to find something that motivates you and keeps you going, otherwise it just feels like a long process. To me, that progress I've worked toward every single day is what drives me.
"Now, when I walk into that ring, it's about feeling confident and trusting in the work we've done."
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HER PERFORMANCE AT the U.S. Championships (190-0, 57.93m) wasn't great, but it fulfilled the only true goal Allman and Sion established during a redshirt year. With a year's worth of ambition hanging on the outcome of one meet, Allman was in danger of not making the final, but uncorked a strong third throw to ensure three more and won a battle of nerves to make the U.S. team.
For five years, Allman had competed at the U.S. senior nationals and each time a light grew brighter and brighter in her own mind. It took getting hammered by the best to realize what it takes to become one – to understand the difference between a thrower and an athlete. With Sion's help, Allman has joined that elite club.
At worlds, two qualification groups total 32 competitors from which 12 advance to Friday's final. The top eight after three throws earn three more and a champion will be crowned. Allman is too competitive to take the happy-to-be-there tact, and is too talented not to believe she can place highly.
"I feel like a little girl at heart," Allman said. And that's her secret.
The discus can be powerful, yet graceful. That's where Allman shines. On a stage of growls and guttural screams, she remains the dancer.