U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Winning Secondary Motive for Mayhew

The question seems innocent. “Did you win?”

The people back home want to know.

You have traveled, dressed in the good ol’ red, white and blue, to distant and foreign lands, representing Uncle Sam and the American way.

So, tell us, did you make us proud? Did you break a record and put those mustachioed East Germans in their place?

If only it were so easy.

If those people only understood that winning, per se, was not the point.

Donna Mayhew has won enough to know. And lost enough, too.

Three of the past four years she has been recognized as the best women’s javelin thrower in the United States, an accomplishment which, on a scale of international prestige, rates favorably with being Jamaica’s top bobsledder.

A critic might say that Mayhew is merely the best of a weak American lot.

Compare, they would say, Mayhew’s lifetime best of 208 feet, 10 inches to that of the world record holder, East Germany’s Petra Felke, who threw 262-5 two weeks prior to last September’s Olympic Games.

But then a critic would not understand, either. All Donna Mayhew ever wanted was to be the best she could be, and if that’s 50th in the world, 15th in the U. S. and fifth on her block, then so be it.

“People have a hard time understanding that even your best sometimes doesn’t win the meet,” said Mayhew, who is favored to win a gold medal today in U. S. Olympic Festival competition at John Jacobs Stadium. “But if you win within yourself, you have a reason to be happy.”

Sitting outside the athletic dormitories at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday, she recalled one such occasion: the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Mayhew, a La Crescenta resident, finished seventh in the competition, which was about 20 places above her world ranking at the time. She didn’t bring home a medal, but she earned something more important--personal satisfaction.

“Just to make it to the finals, I was very grateful for that,” she said. “That was my goal going in, just to get all my throws.”

Her goal will likely be similar in September at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

The Olympic Festival marks only the fifth meet Mayhew has entered since the ’88 Games. She is confident of her physical condition, but not of her technique.

“If I could throw a (personal record) that would be great,” Mayhew said. “It would give me a confidence boost going into the World Championships. If the conditions are right and I can make the right adjustments, it could happen. This is a tuneup, but I always go out and do my best.”

Mayhew’s last two efforts, both of which came in Europe, resulted in throws of 204-2 and 205-5.

“I’ve been consistent,” she said. “Hopefully now I can peak for the World Championships.”

At 29, Mayhew should be reaching her physical prime. But someone should tell her right arm.

Injuries--specifically those to her elbow--have plagued Mayhew periodically during the 14 years she has thrown the javelin. The problem, she says, stems from learning to throw a softball first.

“I’ve needed a couple of operations from throwing it sidearm,” said Mayhew, a former infielder and catcher on Glendale-area YMCA teams. “I’ve found you can’t throw a javelin like a softball.”

But she learned it the hard way, after two operations.

Still, even after missing most of two years--from 1981 to ‘83--Mayhew never considered giving up the javelin.

“It comes with the territory,” she said of the pain and mind-numbing rehabilitation exercises. “Even when my arm was in a sling after surgery I always knew I’d come back.”

Competing for the University of Arizona, Mayhew finished third in the 1983 NCAA championships before she was forced to leave the sport for another two-year period. Only this time it was mostly by choice.

Mayhew had completed her athletic eligibility but still didn’t have a degree. So for two years she studied full-time while working full-time in order to pay her tuition. Mayhew returned to competition with a flourish in 1986, becoming the U. S.’s top-ranked thrower.

She fell to No. 4 the following year, but she won both the TAC meet and the Olympic Trials in 1988.

Mayhew believes the American record of 227-5, set by Kate Schmidt in 1977, is well within her reach. Her 210-foot effort at last year’s trials--the third-best ever by a U. S. woman--was 14 feet better than Mayhew’s previous top mark. Another similar jump would put her close.

“A little adjustment in the alignment and release point is all it takes,” Mayhew said.

Some additional time to train wouldn’t hurt, either. Since her return from Europe, Mayhew has been looking for a part-time job but has found well-paying and flexible employers hard to come by.

Chalk up another advantage for her competitors from the East bloc, who are subsidized by their governments.

No matter, Mayhew says, she will do the best she can for as long as she can. “I don’t feel like I’ve reached my potential,” she said when asked why she presses onward. “Some people never do, but I’d like to reach mine. Then I can walk away content.”