Sarah Mitton has her sights set on legacy heading into the world indoor track and field championships.
The 28-year-old from Brooklyn, N.S., enters the event, which runs from Friday to Sunday in Nanjing, China, as the reigning champion in the women's shot put. Last year, she won gold throwing 20.22 metres in Glasgow, Scotland, for her first world title.
"It's funny, I've never gone into a championship as the defending champion," Mitton said. "World indoors last year was my first title and the cool thing about it is, it hasn't changed my expectations. I know the goal is to win and I think it would be an awesome legacy to leave as a two-time world indoor champion.
"But the win in shot put is at another level than it was last year, so I know that I'm going to have to be at my best, and the cards will fall where they will on Friday night."
Mitton enters the championships having already set a Canadian indoor record with a 20.68-metre throw on Feb. 7 in Karlsruhe, Germany, during her second competition of the season. The throw matched her personal best in outdoor competition last season.
Mitton says having already recorded that type of throw this early, along with some far fouls in competition, excites her about the potential for what she can do this weekend.
"I love that I was able to do that so early in the year," she said. "We had seen some hints of that throw coming and like I said, the throws in training had been really good. But that one kind of snuck out of me which at the time, it wasn't necessarily a surprise, but it was, again, pretty early.
"I didn't feel like I was in the best shape of my life and I was able to … find a big throw like that. But what it's done too is completely raise my expectations."
Mitton’s 2024 season was marked by strong achievements, but it was overshadowed by a disappointing result at the Paris Olympics. Despite a career year and being a pre-Olympic favourite, she finished 12th in rainy conditions, missing the podium.
"I'm gonna say no," she said when asked if she had any extra fire entering 2025. "I pretty much had, this is gonna be controversial because I didn't achieve what everyone and I expected of myself in Paris, but other than one day, I achieved everything I wanted to last year.
"I won world indoors, I won the Diamond League, I crushed Olympic qualification and then I fell short in the final. … There's so much good that I think the fire has always been there."
Mitton, a 2023 outdoor world championship silver medallist, says the Olympic setback didn’t provide her with extra motivation heading into 2025.
"I think what gave me the most motivation for the next season was my final throw of the Diamond League (20.25 metres)," she said. "Coming off of the Olympics, I felt pretty let down by myself and the situation. And then, you know, being able to finish out the next six weeks of my season, motivation was pretty low. (I) struggled to get the job done."
Mitton reflected on how difficult it was to return for the Diamond League final after the Olympic disappointment.
"It was really tough," she said. "But then, to have probably the best story of my career on the last throw of my season, I was like, 'OK, there's still so much in there.'"
"I'm so grateful that it happened. And I'm so grateful that I didn't get (an Olympic medal) in a way because it's given me the motivation to dig deeper, train harder, make some changes for the upcoming season."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
