With the recent Rio 2016 Olympics in the rear view mirror, NCU had a chance to catch up with assistant track & field coach Paula Berry, a member of the 1992 USA Olympic team in Barcelona. Coach Berry reflected on her journey to get to the Olympics and the memories she made in Spain.
 
When did you first pick up a Javelin?
 
When I was a young girl I wanted to be the first American woman to dunk a basketball in the Olympics. I loved basketball and wanted to spend my life playing it, but I wasn't very fast and my vertical was not something even a five year old would brag about, so I turned my sights towards track. At first it was the high jump and the 800 meters. I stuck to that, with some discus and shot put. At one of our meets in junior high they had javelin and my coach, Skip Inscore, suggested I try. I told him I didn't know how, but he'd seen me throw the softball in the softball throw in seventh grade and he knew I could do it. He said "just aim for that high jump pit down there and do a crow hop like a softball player would and see how far you can toss it".
 
Were you successful right away?
 
On that day as an eighth-grader, I tossed it 124'8". From that point on I was put into Junior Olympics and won my first state track meet then my regional. By my fourth track meet throwing the javelin I had won nationals and set an age group record.
 
Is that when your Olympic dream shifted from basketball to track?
 
From that moment in eighth grade all I could think about was making the Olympic team. As a high school senior, I qualified for the Olympic trials. I did not make it that time, but was so grateful for the experience and the exposure of being in such a high caliber meet. When I found out that I had made the Olympic team four years later, it was as if everything hard went away. All the hard work, the long practices, the frustrations, and I only saw the goodness and joy of the journey. I was excited to not only represent my country, but proud to represent my high school coach, the University of Oregon and every young girl who had a dream to go the distance.
 
Can you describe for us that feeling when you first stepped off the plane in Barcelona?
 
It was a great feeling of pride. There I was competing in an age old sport at the highest level of competition and it was me, the little girl from Dayville, Oregon, population of 195. It was then that I realized that champions have to come from somewhere, so why not from Dayville, or Eugene, or anywhere.
 



What was the overall experience of competing in the Olympics like?
 
The actual competition was amazing. As I walked out onto the track under the giant Olympic flag, adorned in red, white, and blue, I was proud and humbled at the same time. Most of the joy I experienced at the Olympics, though, came from things not associated with my event. Perhaps my greatest moment from the Olympics was walking in the opening ceremonies. It was the time of the Dream Team and there was much hype about that and many people felt like they shouldn't be there, but if you walked beside them entering the stadium wearing the colors of the United States, you saw they were just as proud as we were to be there and it was great to be a part of that. The closing ceremonies are wonderful, as everyone joins in as a united world, but the opening ceremonies was more about representing your country and honoring other countries who in turn are extremely proud to be there.
 
As a member of Team USA, you had many opportunities to volunteer and represent your country. Can you tell us about any of those experiences while you were in Barcelona?
 
We were able to go to a hospital for children that were terminally ill and share our stories, take dolls and uniforms and hugs and hope to those whose dreams far exceeded ours: the dream to live. I also volunteered with Special Olympics and there was an event while we were there when they announced that Adidas would be partnering with Special Olympics moving forward. There was a big celebration for those of us who had volunteered and I was invited by the Ambassador for Sport Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci. It was great to participate in a function where we were a part of something bigger than ourselves.
 
Did you have any opportunity to connect with other Christian athletes while you were there?
 
I was invited to attend the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) event at the games. It was a very moving encounter to hear world renowned athletes like tennis player Michael Chang and decathlete Dave Johnson talk about how God plays a role in their life and how everything they do outside of sport has helped them achieve the goals the set for themselves.
 
 
Being around so many other world-class athletes, did you have any other cool "celebrity encounters"?
 
It was more embarrassing than anything, but Entertainment Tonight was there doing a story on athletes from small towns. Being from Dayville, I was selected to be part of the story. Italian hairdressers did our hair and we were given some fun opportunities. We were followed during the opening ceremonies by John Tesh and the Entertainment Tonight crew. Because of that, Katie Couric interviewed me during the opening ceremonies before going on the field. I was incredibly nervous and prior to air, I threw up on Katie's shoe. It was perhaps the most embarrassing thing in my career thus far. Katie had an assistant wipe it off and we kept going. Jennifer Capriati was so impressed with my ability to handle the situation that she later invited me to watch her play, and it happened to be the gold-medal game at the Olympics. Crazy things happen.
 
Finally, where does qualifying for the Olympics rank among all of your many achievements?
 
Making the Olympic team was the realization of a lifelong dream, so I don't know that there is anything that can compare to that. However, overcoming cancer, becoming a parent and having the opportunity to coach younger athletes to realize their dreams ranks right up there.