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Arkansas thrower, NFL hopeful Roje Stona sets Olympic discus record, wins gold for Jamaica

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham•08/07/24•

AndrewEdGraham

Olympics: Athletics-Evening Session
James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

It was a historic day for Roje Stona at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday. And not just for him, but his native Jamaica.

Stona, who competed collegiately at Arkansas after starting his career at Clemson, jumped from eighth place to first — and stayed there — with an Olympic record throw of 70 meters. Stona won gold, becoming the first non-European to do so in the event.

He also became the first Jamaican man to medal in any throwing event and the first to win gold in any field event at the Olympics.

And Stona’s size and strength are not just something he uses for throws. NFL teams were interested in him, as he attended New Orleans Saints minicamp earlier in the summer.

The 6-foot-6, 260-plus pounder even worked out at Arkansas’ pro day and projected as a potential tight end or defensive end as a football player.

Given that fall training camps are well underway for the NFL, and Stona is now a reigning Olympic champion, his NFL dreams might get shelved for the time being.

There was plenty of drama in the track and field events on Wednesday

There’s confidence and there’s cold calculation. Somewhere in the middle stands 110-meter hurdler Freddie Crittenden, a United States sprinter who showed a remarkable amount of both in qualifying.

Crittenden’s Olympics could have been over when he felt a slight twinge as he ran his qualifying heat of the 110-meter hurdles.

Instead, in a split-second, seemingly, Crittenden ran the math. He could pull up in his qualifier and preserve the muscle he might have just injured or he could sprint it out and hope to make his way through standard qualifying. He opted for the former, seeking the repechage round as his ticket to the 110-meter final.

And, rather brilliantly, the move paid off.

Freddie Crittenden ran a 13.23-second time to advance out of the repechage round into the final of one of the sport’s most challenging events. This after he made headlines internationally for simply jogging out his original qualifier.

The former Syracuse sprinter explained that he had strained a right abductor and was trying to be careful about inflaming the injury further.

“So I decided to just not make an emotional choice, make a smart choice,” Crittenden said after his qualifier. “Give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated. Lean on my medical doctors. Lean on God. And just wait for repechage round.

“Come out [here] and try to kill it at the repechage round.”

He did just that, getting into the 110-meter hurdles final as the seventh of eight qualifiers. He’s certainly capable of giving a push for the gold medal, though, having entered as the second-fastest in the event in the world this year.