Honolulu-born track and field athlete Laulauga Tausaga, or Lagi as she’s known in the sport, made history in August as the first American woman to win a world championship in the discus throw.
Tausaga was born on Oʻahu and attended Pearl Harbor Elementary, but she and her family moved to California when she was 7 years old. The Conversation got the chance to talk to Tausaga about her historic victory at the World Athletics Championships in Hungary.
Interview Highlights
On the moment she realized she had the potential to win the gold
I guess the feeling was almost like finally taking a deep breath after being underwater for so long. I didn't have the best season coming in... My coach was like, "You have the potential to be one of the best in the world." And I was like, "Yeah, okay, like, I haven't been consistent. Things aren't happening well." So when that throw left my hand, it was literally a moment where I was like, "That was it. That's the one." I didn't realize at the time that I had passed anybody yet. I just knew that, I was like, "You hit it and you did exactly what you needed to do." And I was just so shocked in the ring. I was like, "Oh my goodness, that was definitely a personal best." After the rounds, when everybody went and I was the last girl standing and I was still in that first-place moment, I just, again, it was just like a breath... It was so many emotions. I couldn't help but like, just start crying before I even stepped into the ring to take my last throw.
On representing Polynesian women in discus
You kind of walk through life and you're just like, "Alright, there's not a lot of us out here." I'd seen some of us in college, but I think with Polynesian communities we're so set on certain sports, the boys go play football or rugby and the girls play volleyball. And I realized as I was going through school and through professional when a lot of us would just go back home to get jobs, I was like, there's so much untapped talent because we're so focused on certain sports. When I won, I was like, "Okay, this is amazing because this shows that we're out here, we have the ability to do great things." And I hope that inspires a lot of us because there's no way that we shouldn't be out here. There's no way that we shouldn't be able to dominate other sports. I was so glad when I got to see messages from some of the younger Polynesian girls that I coached here in California. I hope this inspires so many more like them because this is a field that is lacking of Polynesian representation. I hope that by me showing up and doing it, it gets more of them out there. Like look, we can actually do something that's not just in these regular sports that we're used to.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 22, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
