{"id":7687,"date":"2024-08-09T16:10:31","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7687"},"modified":"2024-08-09T17:21:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T20:21:56","slug":"we-still-love-her-sarah-mittons-hometown-fans-react-after-disappointing-olympic-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/08\/09\/we-still-love-her-sarah-mittons-hometown-fans-react-after-disappointing-olympic-result\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We still love her’: Sarah Mitton’s hometown fans react after Olympic result"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Hundreds of Sarah Mitton fans cheered on the Olympian on Friday afternoon at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a disappointing result for Brooklyn\u2019s Sarah Mitton on Friday in the shot put at the Olympics in Paris, but for the hundreds gathered at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, she\u2019s still a hometown hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a boisterous crowd that cheered Mitton on at the live viewing party as she tried for Olympic gold in the shot put. People were decked out in red and white and waved Canadian flags. Every time Mitton showed up on the big screen, people erupted into cheers and applause.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t Mitton\u2019s day.<\/span><\/p>\n

After three throws, Mitton did not make the cut for the final eight competitors. Her best throw was 17.48 metres in rainy and wet conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her third throw appeared to be close to the 20-metre mark, but she fouled out after losing her balance and stepping out of the throwing circle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitton was a favourite going into the Olympics, after dominating most events this year. She won the World Athletics Indoor Championship in March and broke her own Canadian record three times. She also qualified easily for the Olympic final, with her first throw of 19.77 m.<\/p>\n

Before the event, anticipation was building for the 250 people gathered at the Astor to watch Mitton compete live.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

People travelled from around the South Shore and beyond to cheer her on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karen Hofrichter of Hubbards was there with her granddaughter Lily Lantz of Chester. Hofrichter and Lantz arrived an hour before the viewing party and snagged seats front row centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lantz is a 14-year-old shot put athlete herself at Chester Area Middle School. She said she was at the Astor to cheer on her idol.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hofrichter said the result wasn’t what they expected, but she’s confident Mitton will be back.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunate. It was a tough day, tough with the weather, I think. Not everyone was doing their best. But you know what? We still love her. She gave it her all. And she can regroup and come back. We know she\u2019s got it in her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lantz said that the conditions didn’t help. Early on in the final round, another athlete slipped on the rainy surface and fell after her throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally feel like (Mitton) might have gotten in her head after that one girl had slipped,” Lantz said. <\/span><\/p>\n

“She tried her best and unfortunately lost her balance on that one throw, her good one out in the 20s. Which is OK, she tried her best and she\u2019s gonna come back and she\u2019s gonna hit harder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruth Anne Zwicker of Liverpool said despite the result, she’s still proud of what Mitton has accomplished.<\/p>\n

“I’m so proud of Sarah. She’s worked so hard. My heart’s sad for her today because I know this isn’t where she wanted to be. But I’m excited that her mom (Bonnie) is there with her today. And proud to be a Canadian.”<\/p>\n

Dave McKiel of Alberta was visiting his parents and watched Mitton compete.<\/p>\n

“I know that the community is very proud of her and her efforts up to this point. It’s kind of disappointing that she didn’t advance today but she’ll receive a hero’s welcome the next time she’s back because everybody is super proud of her efforts.”<\/p>\n

“The turnout and the crowd, you can tell the community loves her and supports her.”<\/p>\n

German athlete Yemisi Ogunleye won gold in the event, with New Zealand’s Maddison-Lee Wesche taking silver \u00a0and China’s Jiayuan Song capturing bronze.<\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mittonastorolympicsaug924.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a disappointing result for Brooklyn\u2019s Sarah Mitton on Friday in the shot put at the Olympics in Paris, but for the hundreds gathered at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, she\u2019s still a hometown hero. It was a boisterous crowd that cheered Mitton on at the live viewing party as she tried for Olympic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2555,38,48,2556,2558,2559,39,884,1818,49,2557,267,1805],"class_list":["post-7687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-2024-olympics","tag-astor-theatre","tag-brooklyn","tag-dave-mckiel","tag-karen-hofrichter","tag-lily-lantz","tag-liverpool","tag-olympics","tag-paris-2024","tag-queens-county","tag-ruth-anne-zwicker","tag-sarah-mitton","tag-shot-put"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7687"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7695,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687\/revisions\/7695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}