Three-time Olympic hammer thrower Amber Campbell-Moore of Huger wants to help Lowcountry young women pursue their athletic dreams once she finds an opening in her busy schedule as a mother of three and a social justice advocate.
“I want to run some camps and do athletic readiness and girl empowerment [programs],” said Campbell-Moore, who competed in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 games. Although she didn’t qualify for the finals in her first two Olympic appearances, she didn’t give up.
During the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when she was 36, Campbell-Moore threw the hammer 72.74 meters (79 yards, two feet), the best ever by an American woman in that event. Although the distance was 2 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) short of a bronze medal, she considers it a win.
At that time, Campbell-Moore was eight years older than the other competitors.
“A lot of women had decided to retire by then. During my career, I saw three generations of different throwers come and go” and she rebuked hints that she too should step aside, said Campbell-Moore, a senior organizer with the Charleston Area Justice Ministries (CAJM).
“[It] was disappointing that I didn’t get the bronze, but I was still motivated by the fact that I was happy … healthy, and … I gave it my all. And to place the highest among the American women up until that point, I felt almost redeemed like I told you I can do this.”
Saunders to compete again
Meanwhile, Lowcountry Olympian and Burke High School graduate Raven Saunders, 27, will compete in the shot put during her third Olympic game this summer in Paris. Saunders qualified recently at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials with a shot put throw of 19.90 meters (65 feet four inches.)
Saunders finished fifth in the 2016 Rio games and she won the silver medal in the women’s shot put at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics held in 2021 due to the pandemic. The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris begins July 26.
Social justice in Charleston
Campbell-Moore grew up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, a small community where as a high school athlete she competed in the shot put and discus. As an eighth grader, she qualified for the Class AAA State Track and Field meet in both events. Campbell-Moore’s track and field successes continued after her family moved to Indianapolis, where she excelled in volleyball, basketball and track and field.
Campbell-Moore said she knew she needed to leave the snowy Midwest so “my [high school] coach Wayne Angel made a deal with me,” she told the Charleston City Paper. “He told me if I kept my grades up and continued to be competitive, he would help me find a college.”
She received a scholarship at Coastal Carolina where she soared as a three-time Big South Athlete of the Year with 16 Big South conference titles as a shot put, hammer, discus and weight thrower. She graduated in 2004 with a psychology degree. As a professional, she holds 11 national championships as a hammer and weight thrower.
A chance 2018 meeting at the Target department store in Myrtle Beach connected Campbell-Moore with her future husband, Jamie Moore of Charleston. They were married in December 2020. A year later, they moved from Myrtle Beach to Charleston,
A CAJM job opening made the move to the Holy City possible, she said. Following the street protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the spring of 2020, Campbell-Moore said she wanted to get involved in the social justice movement.
When she saw the CAJM job ad, Campbell-Moore said she considered it “a nod from God” that signaled a move to Charleston and working in the social justice arena was the right thing to do.
The hammer throw is more than a sport, she said. It’s also a metaphor for life. On the field, the hammer thrower swings, turns rapidly in a tight circle then releases down the field a 8.8 pound ball attached to a wire.
“I am turning, turning on a pinkie toe and watching, watching … so I can throw straight down the middle … to my mark,” she explained.
“Life turns on a dime just like you do in the hammer throw,” she said. “Things can come at you from all different ways. You have to constantly look around and re-evaluate your environment as you have to be focused on the field ahead.”
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