©  2008 Bob Burns and Pacific Association. All rights reserved.

2008 Pacific Association/USATF Olympic Hopeful

Profile: Suzy Powell-Roos

By Bob Burns

As befits an earnest student of her craft, Suzy Powell-Roos has done her homework.

“The average age of the Olympic gold medalists in the women’s discus is 31.8 years,” Powell-Roos said. “The older you get in our event, the better.”

The women’s discus final at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will be held Aug. 18. Should Powell-Roos qualify, the two-time Olympian will be 31.9 years old.

“Technique is a probably a big factor,” she said. “It’s like golf. It takes years to develop a swing that repeats.”

She has been making national news in the discus for 15 years. Under the direction of her father, Mac Powell, she won the first of three straight California state high school titles in 1992 as a sophomore at Modesto’s Downey High School. She set a national high school record two years later, throwing 188 feet. In 1996, following her sophomore season at UCLA, she won the U.S. Olympic Trials with a career-best throw.

She qualified for her second Olympic team in 2000 and earned her first world ranking (eighth) in 2001. She shattered the U.S. women’s record in 2006 with a throw of 227-10, but the mark was disallowed due a slope in the landing area. Her 222-0 throw in Hawaii in 2007 was ratified as the American record.

But there was a gap in her resume. In major meets – held in large, enclosed stadia, without the benefit of advantageous winds – she seldom met her own expectations. When she failed to qualify for the discus final at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan, she came to the conclusion, along with coach, Dan Pfaff, that changes were necessary.

“Dan and I sat down in 2007 and went over what it takes to throw far in the summer, in a big stadium,” Powell-Roos said. “We wanted to work on the something that would hold up in Beijing.”

Pfaff, a highly regarded coach with a strong technical background in the field events, elaborated.

“When people are under pressure, sometimes they go back to their old tools,” Pfaff said. “Maybe try harder, get more fired up. But composure, rhythm and timing drive the bus. When Tiger Woods is three shots down in a golf tournament, he doesn’t swing harder. He turns that adrenaline into focus.”

Powell-Roos is still working out the kinks in her new technique, but she’s optimistic that she’ll be prepared for the big battles this summer.

“I’m more of right-sided thrower than I used to be,” she said. “The main goal at the end of the day is to create the longest path for the discus to travel without a lot of brakes in the continuity.”

Powell-Ross commutes from Modesto to Stockton several days a week to train with Pfaff and other members of Tri-Valley Athletics. Much of her throwing is done indoors in a warehouse near the Port of Stockton. When they venture outdoors, they use an old Navy softball field on Rough and Ready Island.

Her results this spring have been solid if unspectacular. She threw 208-11 in Hawaii and has several other meets past 200 feet.

“The exciting thing is, I’ve been able to make the (technique) change,” she said. “Now the challenge is bringing this new tool box to competition.”

Powell-Roos contemplated retirement after a hamstring injury ruined her bid to make a third straight U.S. Olympic team in 2004. She married Tim Roos, a Modesto farmer, and decided she didn’t want to end her career on a down note.

Four years later, she talks about throwing for a long time to come.

“I’m married now, a little older, hopefully wiser, though sometimes I wonder about that,” she said with a laugh. “Throwing the discus is still very exciting.”

An Olympic year might not seem like the time to make technical changes, but that’s not the way she sees it.

“I’ve been doing since I was 10,” she said. “Could I have continued to do the same thing and enjoyed some success? Yes. Could I do better than I’ve already done? Yes.

“But this is about striving to do something great – win a medal in Beijing.

The women’s discus figures to be one of the most competitive events at the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. Four U.S. women have surpassed the Olympic “A” qualifying standard of 200-1 – Powell-Roos, Stephanie Brown-Trafton, Aretha Thurmond and Becky Breisch. The top three finishers in Eugene will head for Beijing.

“On the day of the meet, it’s anyone’s game,” Powell-Roos said. “It sounds like a cliché, but my focus is to execute the things I need to execute. If I do that, the results will take care of themselves.”

Pfaff believes Powell-Roos is one long throw in competition from having the technical changes kick in for good.