Lawrence Okoye determined to take his opportunities

British discus thrower knows he has the potential to be a global contender, but now he just wants to prove it

The first senior major championships medals of his career arrived for Lawrence Okoye in 2022. Yet, despite securing Commonwealth silver in front of a home crowd and a memorable European bronze in the discus, he was not satisfied with his year’s work. “I’m a bit sick and tired of these missed opportunities,” he sighs.

The opportunities to which he is referring in particular are his failure to reach the World Championships final in Eugene last summer, which followed on from a Tokyo Olympics to forget in 2021 where he couldn’t produce a single legal throw. These are the performances which stick in his mind. The ones which gnaw away. The ones for which he wants to atone.

Okoye knows there is an impression of a talent not quite fulfilled. He was only 20 when he shot into the spotlight at the London 2012 Olympics, having qualified for the final with his last throw. Having reached 68.24m earlier that year – a distance which would have been enough for Olympic silver – on the day all he could manage was 61.03m and 12^th place.

He didn’t give himself time to build on that start, though, as discus throwing was soon left behind for the NFL in America. The now 31-year-old was part of the sport for around six years, spending time with the San Francisco 49ers, the Arizona Cardinals, the New York Jets, the Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins, mainly as a practice squad member.

“I learned more about being a pro,” he says. “I learned about different cultures, different sporting cultures and a lot about myself, about success and adversity.”

The frustration with that team environment, though, came with not being in charge of his own destiny. He had gone to American football without a long-term plan and a return to discus came in 2019. No one had a vintage year in 2020 but, in 2021, Okoye enjoyed his first full season since 2021, winning 20 competitions.

Tokyo, however, was the one event which didn’t follow the positive trend. Okoye is reluctant to talk about the Olympics in detail and doesn’t want to appear to be making excuses for what he calls a “disaster”.  The frustration was intensified by feeling like he was in the shape of his life, as well as the fact that the humidity in Tokyo made him struggle to grip the discus securely. Normally throwers put saliva or chalk on their hands but…