Valarie Allman sets the women's discus record* in Throw Town, USA
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Allman launches best women's discus throw since 1989; likely the longest throw ever with doping controls actually in place.
Valarie Allman regained the North American discus record on Saturday with a throw of 73.52m at Millican Field in Ramona, Oklahoma. Allman had the world's farthest women’s discus throw since 1989, and as The Sports Examiner founder Rich Perelman pointed out in his recap, Allman’s throw is the longest throw ever with doping controls in place; so in other words, ALLMAN SET THE WOMEN’S DISCUS WORLD RECORD*.
Allman became just one of 11 women (see full list, below) to ever throw a discus over 73 meters and second since 1989.
9 of the 11 women threw their best throws from 1984 to 1989 while competing for U.S.S.R or ex-Soviet bloc countries like East Germany1, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Three women tested positive for steroids and the other six women competed for the U.S.S.R. or East Germany where state-sponsored doping programs were common during this time period.
Because these athletes did not fail a drug test in competition, many of their best throws still remain in the record books. In 2016, the 1984 gold medalist in women’s discus, Ria Stalman of the Netherlands, admitted to anabolic steroids use at the time of her gold medal-winning throw. Stalman said her reasoning was because of the rampant doping in the event: “If you can’t beat them (Eastern Bloc women’s discus throwers), join them, and that’s what I did.”
It might have helped that Allman decided this year to compete in Ramona, Oklahoma, for the first time in her career. The only two women to throw over 73 meters since 1989 did it in Ramona, Oklahoma - last year when Cuban defector2 Yaime Perez threw 73.09 meters, and this past Saturday when Valarie Allman threw 73.52 meters.
How does a town in Oklahoma with a population of 524 people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, become a mecca for the top discus throwers in the world? The simple answer is WIND and a throwing coach named CALEB SEAL .
In track and field, tailwinds over 2.0 meters/second can make certain races (short sprints, short hurdles) or events (horizontal jumps) not eligible for world or national records because of the advantage a strong tailwind could give the athlete.
Discus is an event in which wind assistance and its ability to affect an athlete’s performance is NOT considered in terms of records or standards. Therefore, discus athletes can go to Ramona, Oklahoma, now branded “Throw Town,” and take advantage of a strong headwind3 to set personal bests, break national and world records, and qualify for major meets like the World Championships or Olympics by hitting the entry standard, designed to be at a distance where only about half of the field should be able to meet in competition.
Ramona, Oklahoma, which is 25 miles north of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has an average wind speed of over 18 mph in April (see chart below). A good idea of how windy it was in Ramona, OK, this weekend, look at the American record holder in women’s javelin Kara Winger and Citius throws reporter Paul-Hof Mahoney discussing the meet in this clip on X.
Caleb Seal4, USATF Seal Throwing Club founder and Tulsa assistant track and field coach, built a world-class throwing facility in Ramona, Oklahoma, up to World Athletics specifications on a piece of land previously filled with grazing cows and two sheds filled with farming equipment. Seal’s vision, which he originally drew up on a napkin, came to life with the financial help of oil executive Don Millican and the engineering help of Amy Backel, former javelin thrower at Oklahoma, in which they decided set up a throwing ring in every direction to take advantage of the strong Oklahoma winds that Seal had seen running meets at local high schools in the Tulsa area.
The facility, which has been compared to the baseball movie “Field of Dreams”, is actually more advanced than building a baseball park in the middle of nowhere because it is equivalent to building a baseball stadium where you can move home plate so that every pitch has a higher likelihood of being a home run. As you can see from this link put out by MLB, if the Cubs were able to do this at Wrigley Field, they could manufacture, on average, three home runs per home game.
Ramona has only been hosting professional athletes at Millican Field for the past three years, and Seal credits a lot of the success of raising the awareness of what Throw Town can do to your personal best to three-time Olympian Alex Rose attending a meet there in April 2023. Rose, born and raised in Michigan who represents Samoa on the international stage, set an Oceanic record at 70.42 meters at a meet in 2023 and the last two years many more professional discus throwers have flocked to Oklahoma.
The men’s world record has now been set in back-to-back years in Ramona, Oklahoma, by Paris silver medalist Lithuania’s Mykloas Alekna. Alekna became the first man ever to launch a discus further than 75 meters at meet in Throw Town this Sunday. Paris bronze medalist Australia’s Matt Denny also participated in the meet and threw a personal best (74.78 meters), surpassing Alekna’s world record from last year.
According to World Athletics, 14 of the 19 men who have thrown over the qualification standard (67.50 meters) for the 2025 World Athletics Championships have achieved their best throw at Millican Field in Throw Town just this month, including three Americans, Sam Mattis, Robbie Otal, and Marcus Gustaveson5.
As many documentaries and research projects have explored, East German athletes were doping successfully in the late seventies and eighties, setting numerous world records without their athletes getting caught. No East German athlete tested positive during the four Olympic Games that took place during this time period (the East Germans boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics), and not until the Berlin Wall fell did details start to emerge of their state-sponsored doping program.
Yaime Perez defected from Cuba to America at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. According to reports, Perez is on schedule to be eligible to represent Team USA at the 2025 World Championships and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, so Perez should be competing at the US Trials (July 31- August 3) this summer.
Beacuse of the spin in discus, unlike short sprints or horizontal jumps or sports with other throwing projectiles, science shows a strong headwind is more beneficial for an athlete’s throw because it lifts up a disc and allows it to get more time in the air therefore going a further distance.
For more on Caleb Seal’s creation of Millican Field in Ramona, OK listen to this podcast between Caleb Seal and Mike Cunningham, National Business Development Manager at Gill Athletic.
Gustaveson threw a PB 70.63 in Fort Worth, TX as the TCU Alumni Invite in March. Both Gustaveson’s throws from Fort Worth meet and the Ramona meet are still awaiting the usual ratification from World Athletics but as of Monday morning April 14, 2025 - World Athletics only lists Gustaveson’s performance at the recent Ramona meet on their website.