Maxwell Tankersley
Staff Writer
Five first-place titles. The Washington Post’s Track Athlete of the Year. Innumerable championships. Hours of practice a week while keeping up a 3.49 GPA. Record-breaking scores. Few individuals, let alone high school students, would be cut out for this, but Wisdom Williams has always shot through barriers.
“I want to be the best to ever do it,” Williams said. Committed to the University of Iowa, Williams is a rising A.C. legend. Having thrown 48-1.75 (in feet and inches) for shotput and 140-9 meters for discus, she’s broken school records on numerous occasions.
Williams has gone a long way. Having started throwing in 8th grade, she has almost doubled the length of her first shot put throw, going from 27-3.5 to 48-1.75 in her high school career. In the future, she plans to “go pro.”
To fully understand the feats that Williams has accomplished, you need to understand the sport of throwing. In throwing, you stand in a circular ring, and try to get as much momentum as possible to throw an object, such as the discus or the shot put, as far as you can without stepping outside of the ring. The shot put weighs 8.8 pounds, while the discus weighs 2.2 pounds. To train for this, Williams can bench up to 235 pounds.
So, how does she prepare to throw her best? Well, it’s not as special as you might think. “I don’t have any pre-meet rituals,” Williams said, “I don’t eat before meets.”
Her favorite part of track and field is the community. “I will miss the family the most: the teammates and the coaches,” she said. To younger student athletes, she advised, “Do your best, show up, [and] dedicate yourself.”
Article by Maxwell Tankersley
Additional Reporting and Interviews by Reagan Bradshaw
Infographic by Michael Welther
Featured Image by Vanessa Mensah
