Games a unique, special experience
Dane Miller, a Schuylkill Valley grad in Tokyo as a coach, and Mattis, a U.S. discus thrower, carry plenty of fond memories back from Japan
It’s a walk Sam Mattis and Dane Miller won’t forget.
The American discus thrower, Mattis, entered the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo for the final when he turned to his coach, Miller, and reflected.
“Sam looks at me, ‘Dude, we met in a barn and now we’re walking into the Olympic Stadium for the finals,’ “said Miller, a Schuylkill Valley grad who runs Garage Strength in Maidencreek Township. “I hadn’t put it into perspective. … It’s such a neat journey, and I think it’s cool to have him appreciate that, too.”
Mattis, who now lives in Berks while training at Garage Strength, can’t help but laugh when recounting the path that culminated in that entrance.
“It was a pretty cool moment both before and after the final,” Mattis said, “just thinking back to the first time I met Dane. It was January of 2016, I think. It was cold. It was probably 25 or 30 degrees. I drove up from Penn after maybe a night of enjoying myself a little bit too much.
“At the time we were working out of a barn in Ontelaunee. It was crazy. We were throwing into a goat pasture. The barn didn’t have heat so we had to heat it up with a wood stove and try to warm our fingers up between lifts. But even in that craziness something clicked between me and Dane, and I knew that he was going to be the coach for me. Now he’s got a really good gym and a bunch of really incredible athletes, and we were just at the Olympics.”
That walk is just one of the memories the duo brought back to Berks from Tokyo.
Mattis’ performance was the best of the five Garage Strength athletes who qualified for the
Games.
The 27-year-old came in eighth with a season-best throw of 63.88 meters (209 feet, 7 inches). The finish was the best by an American at the Olympics since Casey Malone finished sixth in 2004.
“Definitely excited,” Mattis said. “I thought I could have thrown a little bit farther, but probably not far enough to get a medal, and my goal coming into the competition was to make the final and then the top eight. So, I’m very happy with how I placed and hopefully have a few more meets left this year to throw as far as I want to.
“I don’t think anyone was really expecting me to get eighth, so it was cool to get basically every throw and every opportunity I could at the Olympics.”
Mattis, who finished third at June’s U.S. Olympic Trials, was the only one of the three Americans to advance to the final. He went into the Games ranked 17th in the world, according to worldathletics.org.
“I think a lot of people counted him out because he didn’t have a huge throw this year,” Miller said, “but he came into form at the perfect time.”
Fellow discus thrower Alex Rose of Samoa, who had medal aspirations, didn’t qualify for the final, leaving Miller, who officially was part of the Samoan contingent, questioning what he could have done differently as a coach.
CiCi Onyekwere, who was to represent Nigeria in the women’s discus, found out the day before she was to compete that she was one of 10 athletes from the country banned from competition by the IOC because the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) failed to administer enough drug tests. The AFN took responsibility for the administrative error.
“That was just a disaster,” Miller said. “It should be the proudest athletic moment of her life and instead it turns into this. She had no control over it.”
The other two Garage Strength Olympic athletes — South Africa’s Jason van Rooyen and Canada’s Tim Nedow — did not qualify for the shot put final.
But the performances are just part of the story of the Games for Miller and Mattis.
From the start of their time in Japan, the uniqueness of it all was obvious.
“The first day we go into the dining commons and Yao Ming coaches the Chinese basketball team and I’m like, ‘Is that Yao Ming?’ “said Miller, the 37-yearold who stayed in the Olympic Village with the athletes. “And you turn around, ‘Is that (track star) Allyson Felix? Is that (swimmer) Caeleb Dressel?’ Everybody that you could ever imagine. You’re like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ “
Both men also talked about the incredible vibe they felt and the motivation that it provided.
“I think it was just really cool being in a place where everybody was just focused on seeing their potential through and seeing what they could do,” Mattis said. “Just a ton of really dedicated, incredible people all working towards essentially the same goal. That’s energy I hope I can take with me and continue with, and get a little inspired from that over the next couple of years.”
Miller called it a “mystical land.”
“It’s just the intensity of every moment of the Olympics that makes it so special,” he said, “and I think that’s my biggest memory. It’s like every single thing you’re doing. You get in an elevator and you’re surrounded by guys wearing a medal. It’s like, ‘What did you do?’ And you hear their story. The stories that you get out of it are phenomenal, and the experiences
that you get out of it are really cool. It’s such a unique thing.”
Mattis also talked of athletes using the Olympics to send messages that transcend sports. Gymnast Simone Biles put the spotlight on mental health. Mattis said he thought the actions of U.S. shot putter Raven Saunders were also powerful.
Saunders, who won silver in the shot put, raised her arms and crossed them into an X while on the podium. The 25-yearold, who is Black, gay and has suffered from depression, said it represented “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.”
“It was cool to see a bunch of the athletes who were obviously focused on their athletic performances still trying to push through a message of social justice,” Mattis said, “and using their platforms while we were at the Games to stay focused on the problems facing the real world right now.”
In an attempt to share some of those moments and memories, Miller and Mattis hit the shop in the Olympic Village.
Miller made a tactical error by
not taking the advice of those who told him to take an extra suitcase.
“I was like I gotta get my kids stuff, my wife, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother,” Miller said. “I gotta get my dentist this, all the guys.
“I brought back towels, cups, anything. This is something special. It’s cool.”
Mattis was victimized by the difference between U.S. sizes and the smaller Asian sizes sold at the shop.
“All my family and friends have really cool shirts that they can look at but not really fit into,” he said with a laugh.
He didn’t get much for himself, however. T-shirts and hats are neat, but they aren’t what the Games are about.
“I think the experience is the big thing I’ll bring back,” Mattis said. “It was a cool experience. The way that the Japanese Organizing Committee carried it out was, I thought, very effective. It seems like they controlled COVID decently and everything was super organized. It was just a great experience. It was the Olympics. I don’t think much beats that.”