DAYTON — University of Dayton athlete Casey Bogues and her tool of trade, the javelin, are headed to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field in Oregon. She’s only been outside the United States once, so she’s hoping everything goes well so she can launch that spear at the Games in Paris this summer.
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“I mean it’s been a dream since I was a child,” Bogues told News Center 7 at 5:30. “Every kid grows up wanting, hoping to be an athlete at the Olympics.”
These Olympic trials will be the second for Bogues, who is coming off her second ever trip to the NCAA Championships at Heyward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
The Olympic hopeful’s resume also includes her listing in as the school’s record holder in the javelin throw. Also on her resume is placing at three separate meets, one of them being the 2024 Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships where she finished first with a 46.98 meter (154.1 feet) javelin throw.
The redshirt junior is an All-American and one of only two Flyers to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships twice.
“I was hoping to go and be competitive at the A 10 and hopefully qualify for regionals. I never imagined I’d actually would be qualifying for nationals twice or the Olympic trials twice,” she said.
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There’s a comfort level in going to Eugene this time around because she has been there before.
“It’s just another track meet to me,” she said. “That’s how I try to approach every track meet as just another day in the office. I find that if you let your nerves get the best of you, you never really compete as well as you hope to.”
Bogues will continue training for her turn at the trials and like most athletes, won’t change a thing in her routine because it has gotten her this far.
But training in this Midwest heat wave?
It will be beneficial, Bogues said.
“We were competing in 100-and-something degree weather last time. So we’re anticipating it being real hot when we’re there [in Eugene] as well. So, you train the way you’re going to compete.”
Bogues hopes her training for these trials will bring her the opportunity to represent Dayton, a place she calls her second home.
“I’m honored to able to be qualified and go back to trials again this year, especially to be able to represent Dayton one more time at that level, it means a lot.”
The 2024 Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field are Friday, June 21, through Sunday, June 30.
Qualifying for the women in the javelin throw is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on June 28.
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