13
Aug, 2016
Uni Olympian Barb Nwaba competes at Rio
[Posted August 13, 2016] Uni’s first Olympian in 68 years overcame a slow start to finish 12th in the Olympic heptathlon in Rio de Janeiro. Barbara Nwaba ‘07 entered the event as the U.S. champion after winning the Olympic Trials in July and had high hopes of competing for a medal.
At the Games, she started slowly in the 100-meter hurdles, running 13.81 for 1,005 points. She then high jumped 6-0 (1,016 points) and threw the shot put 48-7 1/4 (848 points) before finishing the day with a mark of 24.77 in the 200 meters (908) points. Her first-day total of 3,777 had her in 11th place overall.
On Saturday, she opened with a long jump of 19-0 3/4 for 792 points, then threw the javelin 153-8 (799) and finished with the 800 m in 2:11.61 for 941 points and a total of 6,309.
She was well back of her lifetime best of 6,500 points from 2015, but at age 27, she has her best days in front of her and can certainly expect to compete to be on the U.S. team for Tokyo in 2020. If she makes it, she would be Uni’s first-ever two-time Olympian!
Uni had another Olympic connection to Rio through Melanie Goodman ‘74. Her daughter, Andi Murez, was an All-American swimmer for Stanford and competed for Israel at Rio in the 50 m Freestyle, 100 m Freestyle and 4×100 m Freestyle Relay. She swam well, but did not advance out of the preliminaries in any of her events. On to Tokyo!