The night before the night before the Adidas Grand Prix meet in New York I got to spend some time shooting the breeze with two of my favorite women.

One was my wife Alice.

Alice is the kind of person who, about eight years ago, decided she wanted to publish a book. Many of us pointed out that one does not just “decide to publish a book.” The book-publishing industry generally has something to say about whose books get published and whose don’t, and that industry had already entered the precipitous decline that continues to this day.

Alice chose to ignore our sage advice, and within two years of declaring her intention, Simon and Schuster commissioned her to write a book. Which they then published.

And her adventures with magical thinking continue. Today, Father’s Day, she ran out to the store ostensibly to purchase a grill (a good, manly Father’s Day gift if there ever was one) and instead returned home with a magenta-colored bicycle. For herself.

She figured that it would make me happy to see her happily pedaling around on that bike, and once again she was correct.

The other person I got to shoot the breeze with was the fine American discus thrower Gia Lewis-Smallwood.

Gia is as friendly a person as you will ever meet, and like my wife an ardent practitioner of magical thinking.

As evidence, I will offer up Gia’s year-by-year progression as listed on her IAAF profile page.

Gia graduated from the University of Illinois in 2001 with a PB of 57.76m.

Eight years and three coaches later, she finally broke 60 meters for the first time.

Compare that with Sandra Perkovic who became Olympic champion (with a throw of 69.11m at the London Games) a few weeks after her twenty-second birthday.

By the age of 33, Gia had bumped her PB up to a respectable 63.97m, but that throw came in Hawaii and hardly served as an indicator that she was ready to compete with the big gals in the big stadiums in Europe–which is what you have to do to be considered a legit world-class thrower.

Bottom line, approaching her mid-thirties, Gia had no concrete evidence that delaying entry into the “real world” in order to continue as a full-time thrower was in any way a good idea.

But continue she did, and in September of 2013 she threw 66.29m to hand Perkovic her only defeat of the season.

By July of 2014, Gia had thrown over 65 meters in European stadiums on four occasions, a feat that prompted me to post an article arguing that she was the greatest American female discus thrower ever. Here is that post:

Is Gia the best female American discus thrower ever?

Then, last August, Gia made me look like I sort of knew what I was talking about when she obliterated the American record not on the wind-swept coasts of California or Hawaii, but in a stadium in France. Her throw of 69.17m established her as a legitimate threat to medal in Beijing and Rio.

Take that, oh ye of little faith!

Anyway, it was fun to get my two favorite magical thinkers together, and we talked about all kinds of things. Rome (Gia had just competed there and found it to be awfully crowded and dirty, my wife had visited during college and remembered having to hold hands with another woman to discourage men from harassing them on the streets)…step-parenting (Gia has a 23-year-old stepson, my wife had two boys when we got married)…farming (Gia lives on a farm in western Illinois, my wife’s mother owns a farm in Nebraska)…finances (my wife’s book was about managing money, Gia talked about the challenge of managing  money as a professional athlete.)

Every once in a while I snuck in a question about throwing. Gia’s best performance of the year so far was a 62.99m toss in Rome, and she explained that an infection in the index finger of her right hand (a very important appendage to a right-handed discus thrower) had limited her training earlier in the season, but that the finger was feeling much better and she was confident that she would soon regain her top form.

My wife actually asked an interesting question regarding throwing. Which thrower did Gia most admire?

It terms of straight up awesomeness, the answer was Virgilius Alekna, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from Lithuania.

But Gia also has great affection for the Estonian thrower Gerd Kanter, the gold medalist at the Beijing games. Kanter, it turns out, is a humble guy and very generous in sharing the many lessons he has learned over his long career.

A piece of advice that stuck with Gia was that the prelim rounds in major competitions can be harder than the finals, and that she shouldn’t lose confidence if she doesn’t get off a big throw in the prelims. Just get through the qualification rounds and you’ll be able to relax in the finals.

That is advice that Gia hopes to put to good use this August in Beijing.

That’s Gia on the left. I think the guy might be Brad Pitt.

There is a large man handling the baggage. Literally and figuratively.

After a pleasant chat with Moscow discus silver medalist Melina Robert-Michon in the lobby of the Hyatt Grand Central, I turned around and ran into the gold medalist from that meet and from the London Olympics, Sandra Perkovic.

There is not a more dominant athlete on the planet right now than Sandra. Unlike the elite sprinters who for some reason get all the attention in track and field, she will show up anywhere, anytime, take on anybody, and more often than not  smash them.

One thing I’ve noticed in talking to a couple of the dominant throwers of the past few years, and in observing Usain Bolt over the weekend in New York (more on that later) is that the effort required to stay on top can be exhausting.

The first time I spoke to Valeri Adams was at the New York Diamond League meet in 2010 when she was twenty-five years old, and the strain of the incessant travel and competition was already apparent. Granted, Val was going through some personal and professional upheavals at the time, but it sure didn’t seem like she was enjoying being the greatest shot putter in the world.

I interviewed  her in New York again last year, just after she had nailed down her 50th consecutive victory making her arguably the greatest putter ever. She was polite, as always, but there was no sense of celebration about the milestone she had just achieved.  On the brink of turning thirty and nursing a bad shoulder which would require off-season surgery, she seemed to look forward to a not-too-distant retirement.

When I talked with Robert Harting in New York last year, he too seemed to be looking forward to the end after several years of dominating his event. And that was before he injured his knee. I had a chance to watch him practice this past March, as he fought to regain his form following surgery on that knee and he literally seethed his way through the training session. He looked pissed off while stretching, while throwing, while retrieving his discs, while packing up his stuff.  I initially took up a spot along a fence that ran behind the cage, but I was so intimidated by him that I finally hopped the fence just to have some kind of barrier between us.

But I don’t blame him for being upset. It must suck to feel mortal when you are used to being…well, a hell of a lot better than mortal. When you’ve entered the ring needing a PR on your final throw at the World Championships and nailed that PR in front of 60,000 fans, when you’ve won the Olympics and another World Championship on days when you didn’t have your best stuff, when you’ve always been able to conjure up the strength, will, savvy or whatever you needed on a particular day to gain a victory…it has to be very disconcerting to think that you might not ever be able to do that again.

Sandra, queen of the women’s discus for the past four years, seems, in contrast, still to be enjoying her reign. And I think the main reason for that was standing a few feet away as she checked in at the Hyatt.

Wrangling a small mountain of luggage was her boyfriend/coach, former NCAA shot put champion Edis Elkasevic.

Edis is a very large, very good-natured man and, I think. the perfect buffer between Sandra and the demons that can beset an elite athlete. I’ve seen Sandra compete three times since Edis became her coach, and it is really fun to watch them interact.

John Smith has said that the job of a coach during a competition is to “keep the train from going off the rails.” Edis does this masterfully.

He and Sandra confer after every  throw, and though I do not speak Croatian, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him goad her, encourage her, give her technical advice, whatever it takes.

Clearly, Sandra derives great comfort from Edis’ presence, and I suspect that it is largely due to their relationship that she has not yet been done in by the stress of travelling the world while taking on all comers.

I went over to say hello to Edis, and to inquire how Sandra was feeling coming into the New York meet. “Good! Good!” he replied in his usual jovial manner. “She had a small injury but now everything is good. Her timing is better. With the 1k disc, timing is everything!”

With that, he gathered up the baggage, excused himself, and joined Sandra for the walk across the large, chaotic lobby. Wherever they were headed, they’d go there together.

This year’s New York stop on the Diamond League circuit featured the men’s javelin and shot put, along with the women’s discus. Accompanied by my wife Alice, a world class traveler and immensely patient woman, I headed to New York two days before the competition and took up residence in the lobby of the Hyatt Grand Central where the meet was headquartered.

My mission? Talk to some of the great throwers in town for the meet.

My method? Camp out in the hotel lounge overlooking the lobby and pounce on them like a panther from a tree when they least expected it.

My first victim…uh…new acquaintance? The fine French discus thrower Melina Robert -Michon, who made the mistake of lingering in the lobby after checking in.

Melina was silver-medalist at the Moscow World Championships with a throw of 66.28m, which I believe is still her PB.

And she is really nice! I know in this country we love to disparage the French as a bunch of arrogant quiche-eaters, but Melina, in spite of having just gotten off a trans-Atlantic flight could not have been more gracious.

She talked about what a crazy week it had been with a competition June 4th in Rome where she threw 63.09m, another June 7th in Birmingham where she threw 63.23m, still another June 9th in France where she threw a season-best 65.04m, and now the New York meet on June 13.

For her to travel and compete that much in that short a time and still act happy to talk to some knucklehead reporter when she probably wanted nothing more than to head to her room and collapse…well…maybe all of us should start eating  quiche.

Melina lives and trains in Lyon, with the same coach she has had for fifteen years. She has a four-year-old daughter named Elyssa whom she misses terribly when traveling to competitions. She has a degree in sports management and hopes to compete for at least two more years. “I want to do Rio and maybe London because the 2012 Olympic games was my first competition after I was pregnant and there is another competition in London (the 2017 Worlds), so London to London…it would be nice.”

In terms of training, she does a lot of jumping, some squatting and snatching, and not a lot of bench pressing.How much can she snatch? “Not much. I don’t do a lot of exercises with a lot of weight. I do mostly exercises with low weights. Sometimes with squats I do 120 kilos, very slow going down and fast coming up.”

After a short chat, I wished Melina luck and of course requested a selfie, which came out blurry.

There must be something odd about the length of my arms because I suck at selfies. Here is an example of one I took a couple of days later, during the meet.

It was a perfectly sunny day! And yet, I am shrouded in shadow.

But, I digress. Meeting Melina was a great start to what turned out to be a fantastic weekend.

While the kids are battling it out this weekend in Eugene, some of the best professional throwers in the world will be competing at the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League Meet in New York.

Here is a preview of what promises to be a fantastic day of competition.

Men’s Javelin

It has been a long time since the United States developed a javelin thrower with the pop to medal at a Worlds or Olympic games, and the Adidas Grand Prix will feature three young Americans who hope to make that leap.

Riley Dolezal…

Sean Furey…

and Tim Glover…

…whose season best of 84.09m is the farthest throw by an American this year.

The goal for the Americans will be to show that they belong in a competition that also features 2013 World Champion Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic…

,,,,two-time World Championship medalist Guillermo Martinez of Cuba…

…and one of the finest young throwers in the world, Thomas Rohler of Germany…

…who threw a PB of 87.63m at the Zurich Diamond League meet last August.

Women’s Disc

Watching Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic throw the discus is alone worth the price of admission. Nobody competes with more passion than the Croatian Sensation, who is always a threat to break the 70-meter mark.

That is especially true when Sandra is going against stiff competition.

Included  in the field in New York will be the only woman to have defeated Perkovic over the past two years: Gia Lewis-Smallwood, a veteran American thrower who posted a huge 69.17m personal best last August.

Looking to gain ground in her attempt to secure a third Olympic berth in 2016, the 2008 Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton will also be competing in New York.

A young thrower just beginning to make some noise on the world scene is Cuba’s Yaimi Perez,…

…who has posted a PB of 66.23m already this season, and whose presence could provide Perkovic with the spark she needs to blast some big throws.

Men’s Shot

An astonishingly successful group of Americans will provide the fireworks in this event.

Joe Kovacs has the farthest throw in the world this year (22.35m)…

…while Christian Cantwell…

…Ryan Whiting…

…and Reese Hoffa…

…are all former World Champions.

Toss in the young American Jordan Clarke (who finished second at the Rome DL meet)…

…the fine New Zealander Tom Walsh (PB 21.37m)…

…and O’Dayne Richards of Jamaica (PB 21.61m)…

…and you have the makings of a sensational competition.

Throws fans, don’t miss this chance to see some of the best in the world! Sunday. Randall’s Island. The jav begins at 9:40am, the disc follows at 10:55am, and the shot caps off the throwing events at 1:45.

Oh, and I hear some fellow named Bolt will be running the 200.