Brittany Stockton

KATIE BIBB – Hoof Prints Staff

“We were at the zoo and I was feeding a kangaroo with my roommate and this emu came
up and just started pecking her head! She screamed and we took off running from it and it
chased us!”

You can say that Brittany Stockton had quite an exciting experience while she was
in Australia for the Junior Olympics on July 1 through 10 this past summer. She was
awarded the opportunity to attend after she placed second in state discus her sophomore
year.

“It was a once in a lifetime experience, so it’s safe to say I’ll never go back. The jet lag
from the 36 hour flight there and the food were the only things that made the trip bad,”
said Stockton. “For breakfast one day we had horrible spaghetti and meatballs, barbeque
beans, fruit, pancakes, and waffles. Their ketchup was made by Kraft and called ‘tomato
sauce.’ The only good food there was the ice cream.”

In the Junior Olympics, she placed 18 out of 25 in discus and 14 out of 25 in shot-put.
These awards are no surprise since these are the events she competed in at state, but one
award that was unexpected was her placing 12 out of 25 in javelin throw. “There was
hammer and javelin throw and I was told to choose one and throw it.”

“There were several contestants from each state there,” she said, “I had two roommates
and I still talk to one of them. Her name is Kayla and she’s from Montana. I think there
were five from Arkansas and around 500 total from the United States.”

The trip cost around $5,000 and Stockton and her family had a car wash and a booth at
the Watermelon Festival for fundraising. They also took donations and had sponsors to
raise the money. “We couldn’t just put all of the money in my bank account though, we
had to have it in separate ones and it got lost between banks and I had to raise $1,000 a
week before the trip.”

After all of the hard work and practicing, Brittany Stockton earned her right to go to
the Junior Olympics. She placed high in the categories she participated in and made
a few friends along the way. Although her feelings are ambivalent about the trip, she
represented our state well during her trip ‘down under.’