By John Schumacher – jschumacher@sacbee.com | Photo: Paul Kitagaki Jr.

Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A

Stephanie Brown Trafton, Galt’s gold medalist, believes it takes a village to make an Olympic athlete.

So she relied on an extensive support network to prepare for the Beijing Games: a trainer, a massage therapist, a biomechanist, two former Olympic throwers, an understanding husband and a flexible employer.

When Trafton stepped into the discus ring Monday night at National Stadium in Beijing, though, she was on her own, her Olympic moment there for the taking.

And she grabbed it with all her might.

The 28-year-old Trafton threw 212 feet, 5 inches on her first effort, a mark that earned the United States its first gold medal in track and field at these Olympics and the first women’s discus gold since Lillian Copeland won in 1932.

The last U.S. woman to win any medal in the discus was Gridley’s Leslie Deniz, who claimed silver in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

It didn’t matter that the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Trafton had never qualified for World Championships, that she’d finished third at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials or that two other women entered the Games with longer throws this year.

What mattered was everything clicked, at the right moment, in the right place, with the world watching, leaving Trafton on the track clutching an American flag and a lifetime memory.

“I won a gold medal!” Trafton told USA Track and Field. “I almost started to cry on the victory lap but I didn’t. But I know I’ll cry on the medal stand.”

While Trafton’s toss was shorter than her personal best of 217-1 set in May, it kept her ahead of silver medalist Yarelys Barrios (208-9) and bronze winner Olena Antonova of the Ukraine (205-4).

“I knew she had a real good shot at it,” said her husband, Jerry Trafton, a composite engineer who said he arrived at his West Sacramento office at 3:15 a.m. Monday to monitor the discus competition on his computer, even though it didn’t start until 4 a.m. Sacramento time.

“It’s pretty sweet.”

Steve Brown, Stephanie’s father, was also feeling pretty good.

“I’m very proud of her,” said Brown, who lives in West Sacramento. “It’s fantastic. I’ve thought for a while she had a chance to do gold.

“It all sort of comes down to the moment. Throwing the discus is complicated. A lot of things have to come together to make that good throw.”

Trafton, the first Summer Olympics individual gold medalist from the Sacramento area since pole vaulter Stacy Dragila in 2000, has been working on letting her mind get out of the way so her body can do its job.

Experience from the 2004 Olympics, when she failed to make the final, helped. So, apparently, did a 7- by 8-foot picture of the view from the National Stadium discus ring that’s been been hanging on her garage wall in Galt.

Tony Mikla, a physical therapist at Results Physical Therapy and Training Center in Sacramento, has been working with Trafton three days a week for the past two years. While the focus has been on improving Trafton’s agility, body control and body awareness, he also included a thought for when she enters the ring:

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