Olympic thrower returns home to Old Monroe to share faith-filled life lessons

Deanna Price’s talent for hammer throwing has taken her to Olympic Games and world championships around the globe — most recently, Paris 2024.

But her favorite place of all?

Coming back home to Immaculate Conception in Old Monroe.

“This is where all my core values started, including being Catholic,” she said.

On Aug. 29, she was welcomed back to the school with a banner proclaiming, “Welcome home to our hometown hero!” Price arrived during the lunch hour, quickly exchanged her Ralph Lauren opening ceremonies blazer for an apron, and took up a post in the cafeteria serving line, dishing out salad to the star-struck students.

The students’ shyness evaporated as she emerged with arms open wide for hugs. Between lunch periods, she grabbed a washcloth and wiped down tables alongside principal John McGinley, sharing memories of her own school days.

She was raised in Immaculate Conception Parish and graduated from the school in 2007. The stone painted by Price’s eighth-grade class still sits outside the school, she noted, bearing the message “Dream big.”

“And there’s a reason why: because we have very high aspirations. We’re coming from a small community, you know, but it’s not limited to small thoughts, small minds,” she said. “It’s being able to impact the world in a positive way and preach God’s word, showing it through kindness.”

After lunch, she visited classrooms to chat with students and sign autographs, inking her name onto water bottles, backpacks, shirt sleeves and more. Fifth-grader Jolie Dailey offered Price a red-and-white beaded friendship bracelet, which she immediately slipped onto her wrist where it stayed for the rest of the day.

Price signed a small Rosary pouch for seventh-grader Wyatt Schneider, inscribing “God is 1st” under her name. Teacher Donna Reed welcomed Price with a big hug, beaming as she watched her former and current students together.

“We’re so unbelievably proud of her,” Reed said. “When I had her in third grade, she was very sweet, very shy. The thing I remember most about her is her beautiful singing voice. She loved to sing in church, and she sounded like a little angel.”

At an afternoon all-school assembly, Price shared her experiences growing up at Immaculate Conception, which she said gave her a supportive community to try many different sports and activities.

“I was always very strong. I was a little bit bigger, but I was never really judged for it,” she said. “The community and the teachers and everyone did a great job showing being a kind person and how much farther that can take you.”

She recalled a school “Olympics Day” as one of the first times she was introduced to track and field events. When she continued on to Troy Buchanan High School, she went out for the track team, in addition to being an all-state softball player.

“This school gave me the confidence that whenever I went to Troy, that I was able to do anything,” she said. “I tried show choir, tried gymnastics, tried softball, basketball, volleyball, track, soccer. I knew nothing was limited.”

She picked up the hammer throw, a track and field event where athletes throw a weighted metal ball attached to a wire for distance, toward the end of her senior year of high school. With several softball and track scholarship offers, she ultimately chose to attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale on a track scholarship, where she also earned a degree in accounting.

Throughout her hammer throwing career, Price has competed in three Olympics — 2016, 2020 and 2024 — and four world championships, earning a world championship gold medal in 2019 and bronze in 2023. At the 2021 Olympic trials, she set the current U.S. women’s record of 263 feet, 5 inches (80.31 meters).

Her relationship with God has been a constant source of strength through incredible career highs — and lows.

Before the Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), she broke her ankle, tore three tendons and injured her hip labrum. Prior to the injuries, she was a favorite for the gold medal; throwing while hurt, she placed eighth.

“I was very low. I was really sad. And it took a lot of my faith and my community to get back to a certain position,” she said.

She put in the hard work to recover and get herself back to Olympics-ready condition before the 2024 trials, she said. Then, in Paris, she placed 11th, which was a disappointment after she worked so hard to qualify again.

But even at a low point, there’s a lesson to be learned, she shared with the students. “It’s OK to not be OK, and failing doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. It means you have something to learn from it,” she said. “You’re going to come into situations like this, and you’re going to question why, and it’s OK to lean on your faith and lean on your family.”

Price also has taken up a personal mission of spreading kindness and positivity among the athletes at international competitions, she said, joking that her favorite title is “international hugger.”

“I have friends from China, a great friend from Poland, France — I have so many friends all around the world now because of this, and I’m able to just lead by faith and lead by God because it’s just something that I carry with me,” she said.

Price and her husband, James Lambert, are now track and field coaches at the University of Illinois. It’s always a treat to be able to share her experiences with the next generation, including at Immaculate Conception, reminding the kids that “what you learn here — kindness, sharing, being a good person — you’re able to implement that later on throughout your life as well.”

Not everyone at Immaculate Conception will stay in Old Monroe as they grow up, she said, including herself. “But it’s great to remember where you’re from and always go back home, because home is what made you who you are.”

Ann Price, Deanna’s mother, proudly watched her daughter from the front row of the school bleachers. Ann also graduated from Immaculate Conception School and is still a member of Immaculate Conception Parish with her husband, Dan. She’s seen how faith has been a bedrock for her daughter over the years, she said. And when anyone inquires how Deanna is doing, Ann asks that they pray for her.

“I told Deanna a long time ago, we don’t love you because you’re a thrower,” she said, voice catching with emotion. “We love you because of the person you are.”