Senior Track Thrower Marina Ashurkoff

Q: What is your favorite thing about throwing? 

MA: My favorite thing is something I’ve been able to do starting this year, which is to help mentor others and their throwing technique to figure out how body mechanics might be a little bit different than someone else’s, and kind of figure out how to tweak the throwing form to make it work for them. I enjoy it because it’s an opportunity to connect with other people and also use my skills to help someone else succeed. It really builds in that element of teamwork. 

Q: Do you have any favorite memories or moments from the past few seasons that stand out to you?

MA: I have to say, getting my PR [Personal Record] at regionals last year, which was 26 feet, which isn’t super impressive in the throwing world. But you know, it was my personal best, so it meant a lot. To me, that was a really exciting moment. My [coaches], both Coach Williams and Coach Burzumato gave me a high five. 

Q: Have you experienced or heard any mistreatment occurring with individuals with regards to the ability to participate in sports due to being a certain gender?

MA: I have definitely heard situations where that does happen, a lot of it especially with throwing because you have an eight pound shot for the for the girls versus a 12 pound shot for the guys so there’s already that immediate assumption that women in the sport, no matter what level they’re at, [they] are always going to be ‘comparatively weaker,’ when that’s not reality but because that’s how the sport has been set up for so long. Even with Title Nine, it’s kind of always that immediate assumption. There was one time when there was a freshman guy [from another school], he had probably never thrown before and he immediately assumed that I wasn’t going to be able to throw very far at all, I wasn’t going to really be able to do anything and that I should just quit. [In the end] I was very proud, I ended up throwing further than he did, so that made me feel good.