PARIS - Monday morning signified a historic moment for Texas A&M University-Commerce track and field team as alum Joseph Brown became the second former Lion to compete for Team USA at the Olympics and first since 1968.
Brown was in the second group of qualification for the men's discus, after a foul attempt on his first throw, he recorded a mark of 61.68 meters in his second throw, and fouled in his third throw, falling short of making the 12-athlete finals in the event.
He is the first Olympian for Team USA to also compete for the Lions since John Carlos in 1968. Brown said, "the town did a big old send off for me, which was crazy. I have never had anything like that, so that was insane. But there's people who have been there with me since I got there. So that's the really cool part, they saw me from when I entered in 2014 as a freshman, to now they've been on this journey with me."
Brown is the second Lion to compete at this year's Olympics as Mariana Shostak raced for Team Ukraine in the mixed 4x400 meter relay last week. Ibrahim Fuseini takes the track for Team Ghana in the men's 4x100 meter relay on Thursday morning.
Here are some quotes from Brown in Paris.
On the experience of competing in front of 80,000 people at Stade de France ...
It was cool. It felt like Pan Ams. It felt pretty much the same as Pan Ams. But at the beginning, when we first got out there, it was just like deafening noise that, it hurt my ears, and I wasn't ready for that part. But other than that, it felt, it felt the same.
On his performance on Monday ...
It was basically 63 that would have qualified. And I've thrown that multiple times this week already. When I put myself in practice competitions and scenarios, I did it within three throws, so I knew I could do it. I could get that distance, above that distance. It just didn't happen.
On how his experience at A&M-Commerce helped him on his path to the Olympics ...
Making it to the Division II national championship my junior year, I think that was the first time I ever made it to a big championship. I got to see other people at that level who were just, they were normal people like me. And so that's kind of what opened my eyes to the reality of things - they're human, just like me. So, I think that was the turning point for me, where I was like, Maybe I can do something cool like these guys are doing. And then, then I won the Division II championship my last year, and I think that was where I was like, Okay, I'm not that far away from making this happen.