Once an Olympic hopeful, Amy Haapanen is just happy to walk without pain or discomfort these days.
A traumatic rappelling accident not only threatened her athletic endeavors, but her quality of life. The lasting effects from the head and spine injuries were not just physical, as the long road to recovery for the 2002 East Union graduate has been as taxing mentally and emotionally.
Now 40 and residing in Sacramento with her husband, Haapanen is making a comeback as hammer thrower. She is competing in the USA Track & Field Masters Outdoor Championships this weekend at American River College. Her event is on Sunday starting at noon.
Next month, she’ll head to Sweden as a member of Team USA in the World Masters Athletics Championships. Haapanen is seeded No. 1 in the 40-44 age group.
“I’m still getting better,” Haapanen said. “I feel like I’m at about 90 percent better now, and I’m able to do so much more. This really turned my experience as an athlete to one of deep gratitude, for sure. There was a point where I was just going to be happy to walk and run normal again.
“But now, I’m able to lift weights and do athletic things like sprinting and throwing a hammer. I’m just grateful. Sometimes, it’s easy to fall into that old habit of being hard on myself, but I just have to remind myself that this is a gift to be out here. I’m really just grateful for every opportunity to compete again.”
After college, Haapanen continued to train with coach John Dagata to prepare of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. She placed 14th but followed that up with her best effort four years later. The 2012 Trials was when she came the closest to realizing her dream, taking fourth with an all-time personal best mark of 70.63 meters (231 feet, 8 inches).
Haapanen came up short again in 2016 with an 11th-place finish, but she was not discouraged. After taking some time off from track, she set her sights on the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“I was getting ready to start training again with full intentions of going for it,” she said.
The plan was to resume training after the rappelling trip in October of 2017, but the accident changed everything. Haapanen said that equipment failure caused her body to swing and slam onto the rock that she was descending.
“I ended up landing on granite with my head and spine,” Haapanen said. “I was on the ground for a while. My body was writhing in pain. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but when I opened my eyes I said, ‘This doesn’t look right at all.’ I could not see things correctly and knew that this was a concussion.
“Eventually, I was able to stand up. There was no cell service where we were, so I had to hike out of there. I guess I had enough adrenaline pumping at the time. I actually drove back to Manteca and saw my mom, and since that day I’ve basically been trying to heal and recover.”
Haapanen took her time in coping with the neurological and physical issues that ensued with help from multiple therapists. Whenever she felt confident enough to work out, her body would not respond well. Various parts of her body were affected by muscle atrophy. Her legs would swell, and it was a struggle to lift her arms.
“It took a while to realize that these are still spinal impacts from the fall,” Haapanen said. “That has been my struggle since 2020, was figuring out what was going on with my legs and then trying to heal the things that were happening to them.
“My husband was really worried for me, and I was worried for myself. Would I be able to walk normal again? I was thinking of quality-of-life stuff. If I have kids, would I even be able to play with them? All of my efforts were fully focused on healing my legs and finding that normal quality of life. Just being able to move normally. I wasn’t then thinking about anything athletic, like training toward a competition. I was thinking, ‘Can I just be a healthy person that can move?’”
Her hard work and patience are paying off.
Last summer, Haapanen decided to test run her progress by entering a Masters meet in Sacramento. She was the only entrant in the 35-39 division, but marks and results did not matter.
“That was more of an emotional exercise,” she said, later calling it “emotional push-ups.”
“It was hard, because I knew I had to grieve the loss of health and the loss of years in my career as a thrower and just feeling like an athlete. That was the reason I went to that meet.”
One year later, she is experiencing far fewer hiccups when lifting and throwing weights. She has even taken up kickboxing.
Haapanen ramped up her competition schedule, traveling up and down the state to enter multiple meets every month since February. She didn’t even realize that her marks were pushing the USATF Masters record for the 40-44 division until a coach brought it to her attention.
Haapanen has eclipsed the previous mark held by Oneithea Lewis (57.08 meters, 2005) three times, though she does not officially have the record — yet. Haapanen’s season best of 57.99 (190 feet, 3 inches) was established June 9 in the SoCal Jim Bush Championships at Moorpark College, and her application for the record is under review.
This journey back into athletics has not been about chasing records or contending on an international stage, however.
“That’s just a bonus. I have had a totally new way of looking at everything,” Haapanen said. “I’m having fun at practice now. I can feel an emotion of happiness when I throw. Even if I’m not throwing a record mark, just the fact that I’m out there at all is something I am grateful for.”
She is especially thankful for husband Kevin Valente, who provided support and encouragement in every step of her recovery.
There have been some celebratory moments during this process, including the couple’s wedding in 2018. And in February of 2020, a month before the world was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, Haapanen returned to her alma mater as an inductee to East Union’s Hall of Fame.
“That was really emotional for me, especially with what I was going through,” Haapanen said. “It was nice to know that there were people who appreciated my accomplishments and my career. I really did feel honored.”
With the National Masters Championships taking place in Sacramento, Haapanen is expecting to see familiar faces in the rooting section. She and Valente are hosting a post-meet party for any friends and family who attend the meet.
Then, it’s onto the World Masters Athletics Championships from Aug. 12 to 25 in Gottenburg, Sweden. The women’s hammer throw is on Aug. 17. Haapanen and Valente, both with Scandinavian roots, plan on exploring neighboring Finland and Denmark during the trip.
“Yesterday, we received our Team USA uniforms,” she said. “I’m excited about that. I’m really using it as a celebration of how far I’ve come and all the hard work I’ve put in over the last eight years to get to this point right now.”
