EUGENE, Ore. (EYT/D9) — What Evie Bliss had accomplished didn’t really sink in until hours after she won the U20 women’s javelin competition at the USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon on a sun-drenched Sunday afternoon.
The recent Union graduate received her Team USA uniform. As she stared down at it after her winning throw of 51.79 meters (169 feet, 11 inches), it all began to hit her.
(Pictured above, Evie Bliss at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon)
“Oh my gosh, it’s surreal,” she said. “Very surreal. I don’t even think words can describe it. I just came from a fitting of my actual USA uniform here a half-hour ago. Little me would be so happy and proud of how far I’ve come.”
Little Evie Bliss always thought big. But she always thought swimming would be the sport in which she would accomplish all those huge things.
Bliss was a standout in the pool throughout her youth and high school career, swimming for Union as an independent and winning eight District 9 titles along the way.
The javelin, though, emerged as an intriguing event for Bliss, who showed steady improvement.
Then she made a quantum leap at the end of her junior season, placing second at the PIAA Track and Field Championships.
This spring, she picked up right where she left off and set a Class 2A state meet record with a throw of 170-2 to easily win the PIAA title as a senior in May.
Bliss went into the USATF U20 Nationals as the No. 1 seed and launched her winning throw on her first attempt.
Shea Greene of Princeton was second with a mark of 51.18 meters (167-11).
With their top two finishes, both Bliss and Greene made the USA team for the 2023 Pan American U20 Championships, which will be held on Aug. 4-6 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
“It sort of hit me before I walked in to be processed for Puerto Rico,” Bliss said. “I had to sort of stop for a second and take a moment. I was in the dressing room and I had the uniform on with the USA and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I actually did this. I made it.’”
Bliss didn’t have much time between the state meet and nationals. She took a few days off and then was back at it, training.
She threw three days a week, working at first on her mechanics and fine-tuning everything and then on her explosion. The other days she spent in the weight room, getting stronger for the up tick in competition.
Her approach for Puerto Rico will be the same.
“My family and I are taking a vacation here for a couple of days and then going home on Wednesday,” Bliss said. “Then it will be back to work.”
Bliss, 18, flew out to Oregon on July 4, five days before her competition.
She said she wanted to do that to acclimate herself to the three-hour timezone change and to get her feet wet inside Hayward Field.
“Being out here and being at Hayward Field is super incredible,” she said. “And when they talk about Hayward magic, they really do mean it.”
Bliss said she felt like the strategy paid off.
Two days before the Pan Am Championships, she will fly to Orlando to meet up with the rest of Team USA and then travel to Puerto Rico.
“I’m just gonna go and take in the experience,” Bliss said. “There’s going to be some incredible throwing there and it’ll be exciting to see and to compete against them all.”
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