2024 NCAA discus champion and Vanderbilt medical student Veronica Fraley will make her Olympics debut representing Team USA at the Paris Olympics, which begin this Friday, July 26. Discus throwing dates back to 708 B.C., and was one of the original events at the ancient Olympics. We had a chance to chat with Fraley about how she got into discus throwing, and what brought her to Nashville.
How did you get into discus?
“My mom put me and my brother in a summer track club in middle school because I wanted to lose weight and get fit before school. That was my first time really playing outside. It was just so hot! All the kids were faster than me, and it wasn’t a good time. After about a week, my brother decided to throw shot put instead. I didn't want to run anymore, so I followed him over there, and it stuck. I ended up getting introduced to discus through shot put first. The rest is history.”
How are you feeling about participating in the Olympics?
“It definitely hits harder, just being the Olympics. It's still setting in a little bit. But it's a really similar process to making the team at the two world championships I’ve been in. I compete on August 2 and 5. And then I'll be there until August 12. My vacation starts on August 6. My family's coming, so we’ll probably find bougie restaurants to eat at and do random stuff, whatever’s on their itinerary — outside of training, obviously.”
Why did you choose to come to Nashville and study at Vanderbilt?
“I got my undergraduate degree at Clemson in health science, and I wanted to continue that momentum by getting my prerequisites for med school. Of course, Vanderbilt has an amazing medical center, and all of the top-tier research you could imagine. I was able to get in mid-year with the biomedical science program. All the professors have been super accommodating and helpful with my dreams.
“On the track side, the real selling point was being able to put my name in history books. It's really special that I could come here and transform a program that hadn't even existed for 20 years. I already had the goal to make the Olympics. But I also wanted to have the support behind me to be able to do that, and that’s what Vanderbilt has given me.”
Good luck, Veronica! Tune in to catch her and the rest of the Paris 2024 Olympic action starting July 26 on NBC and its sister channels, including CNBC, E!, and USA Network, and Telemundo and Universo in Spanish. Events will also be available to watch digitally and stream live on Peacock.
