Laulauga Tausaga-Collins is in her world-champ era. The Team USA track and field athlete just made history at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, becoming the first US woman to hold a world title in discus.
The part-Samoan Hawaii native won the event with a throw of 69.49 meters, beating her personal best by a whopping 4 meters. Reigning Olympic champion Valarie Allman, also from US, took home second.
“I don’t know if I have a fairy godmother or something, or my ancestors had some say in it, but I was able to do something tonight that I didn’t think was possible yet,” Tausaga-Collins said, according to World Athletics, the global governing body for the sport of track and field, which runs the competition. “I was confident if I was on my A game I could sneak through into a medal place and not be 12th like I was in the last two world championships. I’m just so happy. It’s unbelievable to go from 12th to first. No one was expecting me and I just showed up.”
The video of her winning throw (below) is mesmerizing, and you can see that Tausaga-Collins even surprises herself with her strength. “I just screamed,” Tausaga said, according to AP News. “I was like, I don’t know how to contain this emotion.”
One Instagram user who commented on the video of the throw shared by @Togethxr captured our exact sentiments about Tausaga’s performance: “absolutely obsessed with that epic twirl and scream (i do not know the terms!) absolutely glorious and congrats!! 🥇💫💫”
Image Source: Getty / Sam Mellish / Contributor