EUGENE, Oregon – It wasn’t the finish Maria Bienvenu wanted, but it was the best-ever showing by a woman from Natchitoches at the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials.
In fact, the TCU student is the only local woman ever to reach the USA track Olympic Trials.
Bienvenu, 21, an All-State basketball star who helped St. Mary’s win a state championship in that event four years ago, was one of only seven American collegiate women to reach the 12-competitor finals Sunday evening in the javelin competition.
She was among 12 finalists emerging from a 24-woman field of qualifiers who competed Friday evening in the opening round. She threw 171-3 to advance, then fouled on her next two throws, finishing 11th in the prelims.
Sunday, on the final day of the Trials, Bienvenu fouled on all three of her throws and did not record a mark. The winner was pre-meet favorite Maggie Malone Hardin, who set a meet record with her winning 211-10 throw, and is the only American advancing in the event to the Paris Olympics. The second and third place finishers, also professionals like Hardin, did not reach the Olympic standard measurement in 2024 or at the Trials.
A 200-8 throw, exactly 32 feet past Bienvenu’s 2024 and career best, took third place. If Bienvenu had been able to equal her lifetime best (178-6), achieved at this year’s Texas Relays, she would have finished eighth.
She is a two-time NCAA All-American, having won those honors in her first two full seasons competing at UL Lafayette, sandwiched around major elbow surgery after an injury early in her sophomore season. Bienvenu, in her first-ever full season of throwing the javelin in 2021, finished 12th at that season’s NCAA Outdoors.
She made a remarkable recovery to repeat as an All-American in 2023, finishing 13th at the NCAAs. She transferred last summer to TCU.
Bienvenu barely missed getting a third All-America award in early June, finishing 17th at the NCAA Outdoors. The top 16 earn All-America status and those recording a mark and placing 17-24 get honorable mention All-America recognition after advancing from the top 96 qualifiers from around NCAA Division I in East and West regionals. She was fifth in the East Region after a fourth-place finish at the Big 12 Conference Championships.
She had earlier won the prestigious Penn Relays javelin championship and set her personal best at another of college track and field’s signature events, the Texas Relays, to highlight her junior season.
Her father, Russel Bienvenu, offered his thoughts Sunday evening on behalf of his wife, Amy, and their family on Facebook:
“Been an incredible four days at the Olympic Trials in Oregon. Maria didn’t have her mojo today but it was the experience of a lifetime for her. She made the final round of the Olympic Trials and we couldn’t be prouder of her,” he posted.
“Got to see Sydney McLaughlin break the world record in the 400m hurdles in the very last event tonight which was pretty cool!”