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Hammer time: the writing is on the wall for Amanda Bingson
Perhaps no elite athlete has travelled as far in four years as US hammer record holder Amanda Bingson – the affable Las Vegan whose destiny is written on her bathroom mirror.
"What the hell is this?" was the rather blunt response Amanda Bingson gave when she first saw a hammer, just over four years ago.
Now, she is somewhat of an expert at throwing that 4kg ball with a wire handle, and goes into the World Championships in Moscow as the US hammer record holder, ranked fourth in the world this year.
An "average" shot putter and discus thrower, she once accidentally stabbed herself with a javelin, and still has the scar to prove it. The Las Vegan had little optimism of excelling in athletics, until one spring day back in 2009 her coach Greg Watson, himself a former hammer thrower, introduced Bingson, then 19, to his favoured discipline.
“I’d never seen a hammer before and after he showed me a video of people spinning around a couple of times and I was like: no way am I doing this”
Yet after about two weeks of cajoling and persuading, she finally took the plunge. “It was a slow start,” she says. “At first I just couldn’t get the hammer out of the cage, or even move it.” Two months later she threw it "about 54m" and it "kind of clicked."
So what motivated her to keep going?
“My coach made me stick at it, and I’m kind of glad he has. My shot and discus were not that great,” says Bingson, a 5ft 7ins (1.70m) tall former gymnast. “I was way too short to throw the discus, and not big or strong enough to throw the shot. The hammer is more about technique than body type.”
Raised in Las Vegas, she says her strength was formed "hanging out and digging ditches" on her father’s construction site, located just a couple of miles from the The Strip, the iconic stretch of road laden with casinos and hotels.
Her technical acumen has been honed by Watson, who was once guided by the aptly named 1972 Olympic champion Anatoliy Bondarchuk, the man who coached legendary world men's hammer record holder Yuriy Sedykh.
Starting so late as a hammer thrower, the Texas-based athlete has been forced to play catch up. She has studied videos of Sedykh and other hammer greats.
She has, like any top athlete, become goal orientated. So much so, she wrote the US record (now former record) of 74.19m, set by Jessica Cosby, in big black ink on her bathroom mirror.
Bingson at London 2012, where she says: "it didn't really happen for me"
Last summer she improved her personal best by nearly two metres, and her 71.78m for second at the US Olympic Trials booked her place at London 2012.
To make the Olympic team after just three years in the sport was a "huge surprise" – not just to her but also the US Olympic Committee.
“While processing my paperwork [for the US Olympic team], it had the name of the girl that was supposed to go to the Olympics crossed out, and my name alongside it,” she says, laughing at the memory. “That is the great thing about track and field. It is all down to whatever happens on that day.”
She found her maiden major championship experience in London an "eye-opener". Slightly overawed she placed down in 28th almost four-and-a-half metres shy of her PB.
“It didn’t really happen for me [in London] but I learned what to expect,” she says. "How long the warm up lasts; how to interact; what questions to ask. Competing against the top girls took me into a completely different mindset. That took me aback.”
This winter the focus changed. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas last year, and free from the shackles of college competition could focus solely on the US Championships. The plan worked to perfection in Des Moines last month.
When it mattered, Bingson delivered. She threw a US record 75.73m to smash Cosby's US record mark by more than a metre and a half, elevating herself into the all-time top 20.
“I definitely started out wanting to break that American record, but hitting almost 76m completely surpassed it,’ she says. “It was another pleasant surprise but I knew I had the potential.”
Mirror image: Bingson celebrates a new US record of 75.73m
Heading into the World Championships in Moscow this summer Amanda now is among the medal contenders.
“I expect a little bit more of myself this year," she says. “Of course, I’m shooting for the finals, and producing the best performance by an American in the women's hammer at a World Championships."
She'll have to do better than Jessica Cosby and Anna Mahon, who both finished seventh in 2009 and 2003 respectively.
"I definitely believe there is more from me. Whether it is going to happen this year or next year, I don’t know"
Aged just 23, young for a top-class hammer thrower, time is clearly on Bingson's side. But what happened to the former US record plastered on her mirror at home?
“A friend said to me [after setting the new record], you now get to wipe that number off,” she says. “I thought: ‘holy crap. Yeah, I just achieved it.' To achieve my goals is mindblowing for me.”
Yet one mark remains on her bathroom mirror: Betty Heilder's world record of 79.42m.
Only time will tell if Amanda has the pleasure of wiping that one from her bathroom mirror. For now, the US record will do.
