Athlete of the Week: Nicky Grant '02

Senior Nicky Grant is one of the true success stories of Harvard athletics. Grant walked on to the Crimson track and field team as a freshman, asked to compete in the hammer throw and shot put and has not looked back since.

After three years of slow but steady improvement, Grant exploded onto the national scene last weekend, setting a school and Ivy League record in the hammer throw at the Larry Ellis Invitation at Princeton.

Grant, the team’s co-captain, tossed herself into the top 15 nationally with her record-setting throw. Still, she attributes much of her success to those around her.

“My coaches and teammates have been very supportive,” Grant said. “These results are just as much theirs as they are mine—they are a testament to four years of our hard work. We have all been really pushing each other in practice, and it has helped a lot.”

It is this kind of dedication and support that allowed Grant to break her own school record last weekend. Her toss of 59.42 meters shattered her old record by three meters, placed her second in the meet behind a member of the Canadian national team and earned her an 11th place ranking nationally.

All this is coming just a few weeks after Grant first set the school record with a toss of 56.88 meters. After falling off from her previous mark the next weekend against New Hampshire, Grant decided to go by herself to Princeton this weekend and just compete in the hammer throw to see if she could improve upon her mark.

Improve she did.

“This was a more relaxed meet and it really helped me come into my own,” Grant said. “These results are really exciting right now.”

Grant’s season might be far from over. Usually around 15 competitors are invited to the NCAA Championships in June in Baton Rouge, La., and Grant’s 11th-place ranking looks promising. Not that she’s dwelling on it.

“For now, I just want to enjoy this for a while,” Grant said.

And enjoy she should—the co-captain now owns both an Ivy League and a school record and an almost certain bid to the NCAAs. What’s more, she owns one of the finer success stories in Crimson athletics.