ATHENS — James Parker's Olympic experience came and went in a hurry, lasting considerably shorter than his bout with a stomach bug he picked up his first night in Greece.
"I don't know what I got, but it's something intestinal," said Parker after failing to make it out of the qualifying round in the men's hammer throw Friday morning. In a competition that involved 35 athletes from 24 countries, with the top 12 throws qualifying for Sunday night's finals, Parker finished 21st. He improved with each of this three throws, but his best distance of 246 feet, 2 inches was almost six feet short of qualifying. Finishing first in the preliminary round was Ivan Tikhon of Belarus, the reigning world champion. Parker, the 2004 U.S. champion, was the top American. Teammate Alfred Kruger finished No. 33 with a throw of 227-7.
"The experience was so neat that right now I'm OK," said Parker, who was raised in Layton and is a Northridge High School and Utah State University graduate. "I'm disappointed I didn't qualify because I came in feeling like I was prepared. Things I didn't have control over came into play. I just had low energy. But it was great, walking in the stadium, hearing all the cheering. I've never thrown the hammer in front of so many people, I'll tell you that. I had fun."
With a personal best over 259 feet, Parker was easily capable of qualifying in an event the United States once dominated in the Olympics but has won only one medal in since 1960. With designs on reversing that trend, Parker spent a week training in Prague before coming to Athens, where his throwing, he reported, had never been better. "I was throwing father than I've ever thrown in practice, farther than I threw today," said Parker. "I really felt I was prepared."
He arrived in Athens Tuesday night, three days before the competition.
It was that night that he began to feel queasy. Not only was he ready to throw, he was ready to throw up. "The food's been great, I really don't know what happened," he said. "But two or three nights of not sleeping much and going to the bathroom a lot doesn't help. I felt pretty dehydrated."
Parker said the team doctors were also baffled about his ailment and gave him Imodium AD "to stop everything" for the competition.
"Now we'll see what happens," he said, "I feel kinda weird talking about this."
But in the worldwide glare of the Olympic spotlight, everything becomes public knowledge. It's a glare Parker said he would like to encounter again.
"This was a tremendous experience. I'd like to go to another Olympics," he said. "I just feel like the stars weren't aligned for me this time. I'd like to go again and get some revenge for myself and some respect back for U.S. hammer throwing."
At 28, Parker is hardly old by hammer-throwing standards. Among Friday's qualifiers was 41-year-old Igor Astapkovich of Belarus.
"I've been throwing 10 years. Most of them have been doing it more than I have," said Parker, who is a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and has been training fulltime the past couple of years as part of the military's World Class Athlete program. "I've got more years I can throw."
E-mail: lbenson@desnews.com