DeAnna Price of the United States won the gold medal in the women’s hammer at the World Championships in Doha Saturday, completing a superb victory after a career ravaged by injury.
The 26-year-old from Missouri took gold with her third throw of the night, launching a 77.54-metre effort onto the field at the Khalifa Stadium.
Poland’s Joanna Fiodorow took silver with a throw of 76.35m while China’s Wang Zheng claimed bronze with a best throw of 74.76m.
Price looked close to tears after sealing what is comfortably the biggest win of her career.
The American, who has only one kidney, has fought back from a catalogue of injuries over her career including a dislocated shoulder, fractured shoulder blade, torn stomach muscle and torn knee ligaments.
“I didn’t even think I was going to compete this year,” Price said after her win. “I was in a lot of pain. I couldn’t even throw over 70 metres.”
She attributes her success this year to a decision taken at the end of the 2017 season to shed 45 pounds to help her movement.
“I’m actually stronger than I was when I was 265 pounds,” she said in a recent interview. “It was realising that there was a problem and that my body needed to be at a certain weight for what I do.”
Price is also a passionate advocate for body positivity, hoping to inspire young female athletes of all shapes and sizes.
“Who I am doing it for is to impact female athletes and let them know that you can be any shape and size and still be strong and beautiful,” she said.
“Society has a way of making you feel that there’s still something wrong with what you have versus embracing it. But you can definitely see that mould being broken by just loving who you are.”
