Laulauga “Lagi” Tausaga, virtually unrecognized, flew home to San Diego on Sunday, headphones covering her ears and a pink Labubu doll hooked to her backpack.
Prefontaine Classic women’s discus results July 5. (PDF)The defending world champion in the discus gathered her gear at Terminal 2 baggage claim after a 2-hour Alaska Airlines flight from Eugene, Oregon.
At the University of Oregon’s packed track stadium, she’d taken sixth Saturday against a world-class Pre Classic field including two-time Olympic champ Valarie Allman (who won).
“I can’t be mad about today,” Tausaga told Times of San Diego in the media tent.
Her best throw of 64.94 meters (213-0 3/4) was satisfying after what she called “shitshow” marks last month in Rome, Stockholm and Paris (62.68, 59.79 and 57.39 — just 188-3 1/2).
Also a relief: After four Diamond League events, she qualified for that top-ranked professional track circuit’s Swiss finals in late August — where top prize is $30,000.
Best of all, the Mount Miguel High School product was finally home.
Spring Valley’s Lagi Tausaga Shocks Track World with Global Gold Medal in Discus A ‘Divine Presence’ and Selfless Coach: Untold Stories of World Champ Tausaga Spring Valley’s Tausaga, SDSU Graduate Ricketts Both Second in Diamond League 2 World Champions from San Diego County Crash at U.S. Olympic TrialsOver the past three months, competing 10 times from China to Europe and from Florida to Oklahoma, she’s slept in her own bed only 2 1/2 weeks.
“There’s a lot of change going on, trying to make sure that I’m ready for this year,” said the Spring Valley native. “So I’m not surprised with all the kinds of dips that I’ve had.”
Dips but also delights.
At a specialty meet April 13 in Oklahoma, she leveraged favorable winds to throw the 2.2-pound disc a personal best 70.72 meters (232-0 1/4) — taking second to Allman’s new American record of 73.52 (241-2 1/4).
On the 2025 global list, Tausaga’s mark remains second in the world.
Watched at Eugene by Mira Mesa High School football and throws coach Jorge Reyes, Tausaga opened with a “flat” throw — an out-of-sector foul.
But instead of repeating her 2024 Olympic Trials nightmare, where she fouled all three times in the prelims, “I’m just glad I kept my head level and was able to kind of get something done today.”
Though admitting she “kind of ran out of gas at the end,” she was happy to “adjust things on the fly.”
Now she’s looking foward to a “full block of training” at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego, where she coaches throwers.
In turn, Tausaga is trained by Eric Werskey, who guided her to an NCAA title in 2019 when they were at Iowa. He now coaches her remotely from the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she opened her season April 5.
Before her Oklahoma blast, Tausaga told Daniel McQuaid how her old Chula Vista-based coach John Dagata moved to the Bay Area “while I stayed in San Diego and did a lot of training on my own.”
“It was sometimes difficult to set up sessions where he could coach me over FaceTime,” she said. “I would go to him for training camps, and we did our best, but after a while I had to face the fact that it wasn’t working.”
She admitted: “We are in crisis mode.”
But with Werskey, she’s found some of her old mojo.
And with a Budapest gold medalist’s “bye” into September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, she needn’t worry about qualifying via the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships — also in Eugene. (Her final is Aug. 3.)
“I know I can throw really far,” Tausaga told me. “I just got to keep [improving] with the timing. I haven’t seen my college coach in like a month and some change.”
Track & Field News picks Tausaga for second at USA nationals — behind Allman.
She isn’t ceding the title, however.
“You know,” she said, “everybody has a bad day.”
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