UT’s Michelle Carter wins bronze medal at IAAF World Championships
By Steve Lansdale
Former University of Texas thrower Michelle Carter won the bronze medal in the shot put for Team USA Saturday at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Austin, Texas.
Carter threw 19.76 meters (64 feet, 10 inches) on her second attempt in the final, giving her four throws that landed within less than a half a meter of each other. (Continue reading below...)
(...Continued from above.) That she won a medal is not surprising for Carter, whose family enjoys royalty status within the throwing community. She still holds the national high school record in the shot put, at 16.73 meters (54 feet, 10¾ inches), while her father, Michael, still holds the all-time national high school record for boys with a heave of 81 feet, 3½ inches in 1979. Michael Carter, who was a track and football (nose tackle) star at SMU, remains the only athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal and Super Bowl championship in the same year, and won three Super Bowls as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.
The bronze medal performance is another honor in an already-impressive 2015 season for Michelle Carter. She won her third consecutive (and sixth overall) USATF outdoor title in June and ranks second in the IAAF Diamond League “Diamond Race” for the women’s shot put with one more meet, which will be held Sept. 3, in the competition in Zurich, Switzerland.
Four other former Longhorns and one future Longhorn still plan to compete at the IAAF World Championships. Marielle Hall will run the prelims of the 5,000 meters and Leo Manzano will open the 1,500 meters Wednesday. Trey Hardee will start the decathlon Thursday and Sanya Richards-Ross is in the pool of runners for Team USA in the 4x400 meter relay. Incoming junior college transfer Chrisann Gordon is in Jamaica’s relay pool for the 4x4.
