Upcoming Event: Track and Field versus OU Winter Field Fest Invitational on December 5, 2025
Track and Field
vs OU Winter Field Fest Invitational
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Backel's Career Sets the Mark
June 09, 2010 | Track and Field
NORMAN, Okla. -- On Saturday morning, a University of Oklahoma athlete will step onto the runway in Eugene, Ore., ready to compete in the women's javelin at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Amy Backel, who is OU's school record holder in the event, has already won the Big 12 Championship this spring as she closes out her Sooner career.
This athlete, though, is so much more than a successful javelin thrower. In fact, it could be argued that she may be one of the most complete student-athletes in OU's long athletics tradition.
In just the last month, Backel has graduated from OU with special distinction, won a Big 12 title and qualified for the USA Track and Field Championships in the process with a 182-5, earned Academic All-Big 12 honors for a fourth year, earned ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic all-district honors for a third time, received the Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship from the Big 12 Conference and qualified for her third NCAA Championship as the third-ranked javelin thrower in the country.
Her undergraduate degree is in civil engineering with a minor in math. Named the 2010 outstanding senior in OU's College of Engineering in civil engineering, she finished her undergraduate career with a 3.98 GPA, earning one B in her five years of classes. A record like that earned her a spot on the President's Honor Roll at OU for nine semesters and the Dean's Honor Roll once. And just days after she won her Big 12 title and graduated from OU, she began work on her master's degree in engineering.
To get a better idea of her place in Sooner history, when she was named to the CoSIDA all-district academic team last week, she became the first female student-athlete at OU to earn all-district honors three times. As a first-team honoree, she is eligible for Academic All-America honors. If that honor comes later this month, she will become the first OU student-athlete ever to be a three-time Academic All-American in the CoSIDA program.
And Backel is about more than just classes and competitions. She has served as president of OU's Student Athlete Advisory Committee after serving one year as a team representative and another year as secretary of the group. As OU's SAAC president, she served on the Big 12's SAAC and has been active in community service projects too numerous to mention. Her contributions away from the classroom and competition have earned her OU's Athletics Council Service Award four times and she was nominated this spring for OU's Letzeiser Award, which is given annually to the outstanding senior man and senior woman on the Norman campus.
All of that, though, still doesn't paint the complete picture of this young woman. Earlier this year, her throws coach, Brian Blutreich, had seen a weight lifting workout on YouTube that used unique adjustable steel boxes. He showed the video to Backel and asked if she could design something similar. In true Backel style, the project was finished and became something she and her teammates used throughout the season, opening yet another door for Backel and her future.
By her own definition, Backel is "a little OCD. When I get started on something, whether it's for track or school, I want to do it to the best of my ability," she continued. "My course work is the highlight of my day. You can ask my coaches - I talk about classes all the time. I don't know if it's a balance or just chaos. I've learned how to live with it after awhile. I've learned to be efficient with my time."
When she arrived on the Sooner campus after signing with OU in the spring of 2005, it would have been hard for anyone to predict that her career would turn out this way. She signed with one set of coaches, found another set of coaches on campus when she began classes that fall and has had another position coach change since then. Signed originally as a multi-event athlete, she earned all-conference honors in both the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon during her first two years of competition and finished ninth in the heptathlon in the 2006 US Junior National Championships before changing her focus to the javelin and shot put. That has brought five more all-conference honors in the last three years.
She earned All-America honors in the javelin in 2008, the first woman in school history to do that. Later that year, she finished 10th in the U.S. Olympic Trials before her career took another turn as she had to quit throwing the javelin in 2009 after an elbow injury. That setback didn't alter her pattern of success, though, as she qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet in the shot put. She returned to throwing the javelin again this spring. Just three weeks into the spring season, she had already won one competition, earned Big 12 athlete of the week honors and extended her own school record, a mark that she stretched again in winning the Big 12 title.
As her collegiate career winds down, Backel has taken some time to reflect on her career and what it has meant to her to be a student and an athlete. "I believe we are defined by the things we do and the people we surround ourselves with. The community service projects I have participated in have enabled me to give back, help, reach out to and meet people from different places and backgrounds.
"The amazing thing about being a student, an athlete, and a leader all at the same is the huge number of people you have contact with and can influence. When I volunteer for an organization, I try to act as a liaison for all the groups I'm involved with and that organization. I advertise events the YMCA is hosting, for example, and recruit people from my sport, classes, and campus to get involved as well," Backel added.
"It is nice to do good things, but it is amazing when you can get others excited about volunteering along side you. My college activities have shown me how to be a motivator, for myself and others. I have learned how to push my personal limits and encourage others to do the same, because only then can we discover our true potential. Ultimately, my experiences have made me understanding and giving, confident, outgoing, inspiring, and ambitious in all aspects of life."
The next time you hear about something that is wrong in collegiate athletics, take a moment to remember OU's Amy Backel. She represents everything that is right about college athletics and the role it plays in so many student-athletes' lives. And, rest assured, there are many more Amy Backels out there than there are those who don't get it about the opportunities they have been given.
This athlete, though, is so much more than a successful javelin thrower. In fact, it could be argued that she may be one of the most complete student-athletes in OU's long athletics tradition.
In just the last month, Backel has graduated from OU with special distinction, won a Big 12 title and qualified for the USA Track and Field Championships in the process with a 182-5, earned Academic All-Big 12 honors for a fourth year, earned ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic all-district honors for a third time, received the Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship from the Big 12 Conference and qualified for her third NCAA Championship as the third-ranked javelin thrower in the country.
Her undergraduate degree is in civil engineering with a minor in math. Named the 2010 outstanding senior in OU's College of Engineering in civil engineering, she finished her undergraduate career with a 3.98 GPA, earning one B in her five years of classes. A record like that earned her a spot on the President's Honor Roll at OU for nine semesters and the Dean's Honor Roll once. And just days after she won her Big 12 title and graduated from OU, she began work on her master's degree in engineering.
To get a better idea of her place in Sooner history, when she was named to the CoSIDA all-district academic team last week, she became the first female student-athlete at OU to earn all-district honors three times. As a first-team honoree, she is eligible for Academic All-America honors. If that honor comes later this month, she will become the first OU student-athlete ever to be a three-time Academic All-American in the CoSIDA program.
And Backel is about more than just classes and competitions. She has served as president of OU's Student Athlete Advisory Committee after serving one year as a team representative and another year as secretary of the group. As OU's SAAC president, she served on the Big 12's SAAC and has been active in community service projects too numerous to mention. Her contributions away from the classroom and competition have earned her OU's Athletics Council Service Award four times and she was nominated this spring for OU's Letzeiser Award, which is given annually to the outstanding senior man and senior woman on the Norman campus.
All of that, though, still doesn't paint the complete picture of this young woman. Earlier this year, her throws coach, Brian Blutreich, had seen a weight lifting workout on YouTube that used unique adjustable steel boxes. He showed the video to Backel and asked if she could design something similar. In true Backel style, the project was finished and became something she and her teammates used throughout the season, opening yet another door for Backel and her future.
By her own definition, Backel is "a little OCD. When I get started on something, whether it's for track or school, I want to do it to the best of my ability," she continued. "My course work is the highlight of my day. You can ask my coaches - I talk about classes all the time. I don't know if it's a balance or just chaos. I've learned how to live with it after awhile. I've learned to be efficient with my time."
When she arrived on the Sooner campus after signing with OU in the spring of 2005, it would have been hard for anyone to predict that her career would turn out this way. She signed with one set of coaches, found another set of coaches on campus when she began classes that fall and has had another position coach change since then. Signed originally as a multi-event athlete, she earned all-conference honors in both the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon during her first two years of competition and finished ninth in the heptathlon in the 2006 US Junior National Championships before changing her focus to the javelin and shot put. That has brought five more all-conference honors in the last three years.
She earned All-America honors in the javelin in 2008, the first woman in school history to do that. Later that year, she finished 10th in the U.S. Olympic Trials before her career took another turn as she had to quit throwing the javelin in 2009 after an elbow injury. That setback didn't alter her pattern of success, though, as she qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet in the shot put. She returned to throwing the javelin again this spring. Just three weeks into the spring season, she had already won one competition, earned Big 12 athlete of the week honors and extended her own school record, a mark that she stretched again in winning the Big 12 title.
As her collegiate career winds down, Backel has taken some time to reflect on her career and what it has meant to her to be a student and an athlete. "I believe we are defined by the things we do and the people we surround ourselves with. The community service projects I have participated in have enabled me to give back, help, reach out to and meet people from different places and backgrounds.
"The amazing thing about being a student, an athlete, and a leader all at the same is the huge number of people you have contact with and can influence. When I volunteer for an organization, I try to act as a liaison for all the groups I'm involved with and that organization. I advertise events the YMCA is hosting, for example, and recruit people from my sport, classes, and campus to get involved as well," Backel added.
"It is nice to do good things, but it is amazing when you can get others excited about volunteering along side you. My college activities have shown me how to be a motivator, for myself and others. I have learned how to push my personal limits and encourage others to do the same, because only then can we discover our true potential. Ultimately, my experiences have made me understanding and giving, confident, outgoing, inspiring, and ambitious in all aspects of life."
The next time you hear about something that is wrong in collegiate athletics, take a moment to remember OU's Amy Backel. She represents everything that is right about college athletics and the role it plays in so many student-athletes' lives. And, rest assured, there are many more Amy Backels out there than there are those who don't get it about the opportunities they have been given.
Problem Solvers: Beyond The Game - Kennedy Clarke
Wednesday, July 02
TF Highlights: NCAA Outdoor Championships Day 4
Saturday, June 14
TF Highlights: NCAA Outdoor Championships Day 3
Friday, June 13
TF Highlights: NCAA Outdoor Championships Day 2
Thursday, June 12
