Sophia Scott

Omaha Burke HS, Omaha, NE, c/o 2025
AthleticNET Bio

Sophia’s start in the javelin was at age four years old. Her father, Chris, grew up in New Hampshire where javelin was a sport. He had a friend who started young and had good success later, so he thought if Sophia did the same, she would be good as well.

“I've been competing in USATF since I was four years old. I went to my first national competition when I was seven[1st grade]” Sophia says of her early start. 

Scott lives in Omaha, Nebraska and attends Burke HS which creates some problems for her javelin throwing season.

“Well, we don't have javelin in high school in Nebraska. So I am actually not able to start my season by the NSAA requirements until high school track season is done. That’s at  the very beginning of June. I end at the end of July or the very beginning of August. I only get two months a year dedicated to javelin and then I go straight from volleyball to wrestling to track again. So I only spend about two months a year on javelin.”

That hasn’t hindered her progress. She has won the USATF JO age group competition as a 12 (119-10 AeroJav-450g) and  13( 131-0-600g) year old, and this past year won the AAU JO as a 15 year old ( 152-09.75). She won the American JavFest open division the past two years, ‘22(152-11) and ‘ 23(156-0) and was second at the Nike Outdoor Nationals this year with a 154-11.

She isn’t able to train regularly with the javelin and keeps herself condition by participating in volleyball, wrestling, track (discus and shot put) and doing some javelin exercises when she is not throwing.

“It's mostly just staying athletic during volleyball, wrestling and track seasons," she says of her off-season training. “ It's not much javelin training, throwing wise. I'll do drills with bands and stuff. I go to the gym pretty much year round and when I am there I'll do javelin work and flexibility training and stuff like that.”

Each year of high school she has played  volleyball in the fall (she is a setter), then she wrestles in the winter, a sport that is new to Nebraska and began her freshman year. Then she is off to track in the spring where she competes in discus and shot put. 

When she is able to train for the javelin, the facilities are a bit on the worn side. Omaha hosted the national championships there once and there is a runway she can use, but it is not the best. 

“My high school hosted nationals back in 2008 so there's a leftover runway out in the middle of a huge field. I throw there, but it's basically concrete and all the turf is torn up. There's not much you can do on that runway. You just do some three steps and I don't even do a full approach. In practice, I just throw for 30 minutes, twice a week. I don't actually train javelin that much.”

Her enthusiasm for the sport hasn’t waned despite the limited amount of training and practice facilities available. She watches competitions on Peacock and other places so she can analyze throwing technique. Standing only 5-03, height  is a hindrance for her. Her mother, Randi, is almost 6-0 and her father is close to 6-03 which has left her with “the short end of the stick.” On track broadcasts, she focuses on throwers of her stature like Avionne Allgood and Maggie Malone to see the technique they use.

“We make sure that we watch as many meets as we possibly can. We technically analyze everything throwers with my body type do. I'm five foot three, 130 lbs. I don't have this huge leverage that other throwers do so just being able to see what everybody else does and what works for other people my body type is really cool. Especially on TV.”

She has traveled to American JavFest the past three years too. She has come to value that meet immensely because it brings together all types of javelin throwers. In the two days, there are clinics and throwing events and it’s attended by the USA’s best throwers like Kara Winger and Curtis Thompson. The experience leaves her bellowing with praises and excitement.

“I think it's like the coolest thing ever. I mean getting to see these amazing throwers be so kind and do so well and throw that far. Afterwards, they just go up to everybody and are willing to take pictures and give high fives. It's really cool to see these people just be great people as well as amazing athletes.”

Sophia’s other passion is art. She is creative and wants to be a tattoo artist in the future. She draws on just about anything including herself and comes up with remarkable designs. Her creative side also takes a place during her throwing competition. She brings with her coloring books which she colors during competition. At Nike Outdoor Nationals, she brought her coloring books and they were a hit.

“I actually knew nobody there, but it was really cool. I bring coloring books before all of my big competitions because it really helps me focus and hone in on what I'm doing. I do struggle with ADHD so I have to bring something to keep my mind off and we obviously can't have our phones. So I got out my coloring book and I saw all the girls light up.  I asked if they all wanted a page. After that we were all just kind of coloring and talking for a while in the back just messing around. It was super fun.”

She’s excited to be a part of the Nike Elite program this year. She has two younger brothers who are on travel teams and the family must decide on which big meets for her to compete in. She wasn’t able to attend this year’s USATF U20 meet because she opted to compete in the Nike Outdoor Nationals In Eugene, OR,  AAU JO National meet in Des Moines, IA and the American JavFest in East Stroudsburg, PA.

This upcoming year she won’t do discus and shot put so she can focus more on the javelin as the Nike Elite program will help her get to bigger meets. Despite her size and the toll the throwing takes on her body( she sees a chiropractor once or twice a month when she’s throwing), she is positive about the prospects of throwing even further than she has to date.

“I was supposed to be pretty tall, but I just kind of stopped growing at some point. It is a hindrance but it's not stopping me from throwing far. If I was six foot I'm sure I'd be throwing much farther, but it's not a shot put where I would not be throwing very far because of my height and my size. Javelin is completely different where you can be any size or shape and you can still throw far as long as your technique is good.”