She is going for the Gold again.

Former SIUC basketball stand-out and Saluki track and field phenom, Connie Price-Smith, is training for her third appearance as a representative of the United States in the 1996 Olympic Games, in Atlanta.

Price-Smith, who competed in the 1988 and 1992 Summer Games, has been training for her upcoming challenge this summer.

Advertisement

Training is going really well, Price-Smith said. I guess I’m about where I was last year. I’m looking forward to something good.

She also said she has not lost her touch after four years.

I’m not worried about it (keeping in top form), Price-Smith said. Everything’s been going well.

Her best performances in the shot put and discus throw are 64-3 3/4 and 212-8 respectively, and her strength has earned her numerous national titles.

Among her feats, she was the first woman thrower to medal at a World Championship meet in 35 years (silver medal at the 1995 IAAF World Indoors) and is currently ranked number six in the world in the shot put.

Price-Smith’s first collegiate interest, however, was basketball. After a four-year stint on the basketball court from 1980-84, exhausting her basketball eligibility, she traded in the court for track and field.

Her career in track and field has brought her one accomplishment after another since her days at SIUC.

Advertisement*

I threw shot in high school, but I didn’t throw discus in high school Price-Smith said.

She said being out of the practice of throwing the shot put for four years, due to her basketball career, did not make a big difference when she returned.

In the beginning it (throwing the shot put) was hard and for whatever reason, I didn’t do it in college, she said. When I started doing it again, it came back.

According to SIUC women’s basketball coach Cindy Scott, Price-Smith, was the kind of athlete who never quit, was always determined, and always wanted to do well.

She always worked extremely hard and was very coachable, Scott said. It doesn’t surprise me at all how well she has done in her track career. If she did something, she was very focused at it.

Scott explained she recruited Price-Smith based on her height and athletic talent.

Her basketball skills were very raw coming in, Scott said. We felt like we could develop her into a good basketball player. She worked very hard at it, became an outstanding player, and had an outstanding collegiate career.

Scott also said Price-Smith is a great example of what a person can do with their life if they work hard.

Price-Smith said she enjoyed the team atmosphere of basketball and that is why she chose it over track and field.

I loved the team sport and I loved the people on the team, she said. Coach Scott and the other coaches were really great. I enjoyed it a lot.

Price-Smith attributes her ability to out-perform collegiate athletes and continuing improvement with the shot put and discus to her ability to train more and concentrate solely on training.

The amount of years training has probably been part of it (her success) as well as the experience that I’ve had, she said. I train full-time, so it’s a little different than having to go to school.

The two-time Olympian said her transition from basketball to track was made easy by both SIUC women’s track and field coach, Don DeNoon, and Scott.

Don, the coach there, was really supportive, Price-Smith said. Even the basketball staff and all of women’s athletics was real supportive, and that was important.

DeNoon said Price-Scott, who competed in the triple jump, shot put, and discus, loved athletics and competed in two outdoor seasons and one indoor season while she was under his wing.

First of all, she was an awesome physical specimen, DeNoon said. She had some previous track background and we encouraged her to come out for track. As far as the basketball coaches go, why not. She was done with her eligibility and they wanted what was best for Connie.

DeNoon said after her first outdoor season, Price-Smith concentrated her efforts in throwing only during her final year.

I don’t think she really became an outstanding discus thrower until after she left college, DeNoon said. She was throwing the shot put pretty well for us by the indoor season.

After her performance in the Saluki/USA Track and Field Invitational on Feb. 17, of which she launched the shot put a distance of 58-2, Price-Smith said she is steadily on her way to the Indoor USA Track and Field Championships in Atlanta on March 1-2.