The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

Rhema Otabor, the national record holder for the women’s javelin event, is gearing up to have another successful outdoor season during her 2025 campaign.

Otabor left no stone unturned during the 2024 track and field season. She made her first Olympic Games appearance last summer, retained her NCAA DI javelin crown and repeated as the women’s national javelin champion and Big Ten javelin champion last year. 

Her impressive résumé for the women’s javelin throw event speaks for itself but she expects to take it a step further for the upcoming outdoor season. “My biggest hope for this season is just to perform better than I did last year. I want to consistently put up competitive marks as the year continues and raise our women’s [javelin] national record in the process. 

“Currently, the biggest meet of the year is the World Outdoor Championships in Tokyo and that is the stage I am striving to compete on. I am just working towards qualifying for it and whatever else happens on that journey will be like icing on the cake,” she said.

The 22-year-old graduate student had a stellar season by her standards but one of her most memorable moments from last year was erasing Laverne Eve’s 24-year-old national record.

Otabor was within arm’s reach of the national record for quite some time