Dani Samuels: Basketball helped me win gold
Australia’s world discus champion Dani Samuels takes time out from training to chat to spikesmag.com about how shooting hoops provided the foundation for her gold medal success in Berlin.
“I was alright as a basketball player – I played in the ABA League, which is the level below the national league. My team was the Bankstown Bruins in Sydney.
I played regularly until 2007.
The next year, 2008, was my first on the European tour, so I couldn’t play. I was actually going to play in November last year but I hurt my knee. In February this year I hadn’t thrown for about three weeks and I think then it sunk in that I couldn’t really play basketball in case I picked up an injury – it can put a great stress on the knees and ankles.
Having said that,
I loved playing basketball and started playing when I was eight. I remember watching the star names like Michael Jordan on TV but, for me, it was just something very social – I didn’t pay too much attention to what went on at the top level.
My sister, Jamie, is a very good basketball player and played for Sydney for four years. She also played for Perth for a year and made the Australian under-23 squad.
I took a lot from basketball, which has really helped me in my athletics career. My coaches, Hayden and Dennis Knowles, encouraged me to play basketball because the agility and strength I gained from the jumps and rebounds really helped complement my athletics. In fact,
the strength, agility and endurance I’ve got from playing basketball really helped me to win my gold medal in Berlin.”
Dani is not the only world champion to have benefited from playing basketball…
Trey Hardee - world decathlon champion:
The US multi-eventer dreamed of being an NBA star in his youth but after he was cut from his varsity team he took up track and field.
Phillips Idowu – world triple jump champion:
The red-haired Brit was formerly an English Schools’ Cup finalist in his youth and, up until a few years ago, he regularly played basketball to aid his conditioning work.
Brittney Reese – world long jump champion:
Brittney was a stand out basketball player at Gulf Community College, before later switching to concentrate on athletics.
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