NMSU assistant track coach preps for Olympic debut in discus
LAS CRUCES , New Mexico - As an assistant coach with the Aggies' track team, Rachel Dincoff usually wears the black and crimson colors of New Mexico State.
But these days, she can be found be sporting a more patriotic color scheme: the red, white and blue of Team USA.
That's because Dincoff will represent the United States later this summer at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she will make her Olympic debut in the discus.
Dincoff's dream became a reality after a Top 3 finish in last month's United States Olympic Trials, when her fifth throw of 197-6 vaulted her into third place and secured her spot in Tokyo.
“I just got so emotional and to the point where I felt weak in the knees and I just had to pray and give thanks and let out all my emotions I was feeling," says Dincoff, a ntive of DeKalb, Indiana. "The fight that it took to make that team....the realization that I did just achieve my childhood dream.”
Dincoff’s Olympic journey coincided with her journey to Las Cruces, when after finishing a stellar college career at Auburn, she sought personal instruction from then Alabama-assistant and now-NMSU head coach Doug Reynolds.
"He was at Alabama at the time, and we chatted and he decided to take me on and coach me," says Dincoff of Reynolds. "He believed in me and saw my potential and saw that I was willing to work hard."
When Reynolds moved west to New Mexico in 2017, Dincoff followed.
"He took the head coaching job here at New Mexico State. Naturally I packed up everything and moved with him and his family to New Mexico. It's been fantastic."
Dincoff currently serves as a volunteer assistant with New Mexico State meaning she is technically not on the payroll, but her acumen as a professional is invaluable to the student-athletes. It's not many places that a school can claim an Olympian as an assistant coach.
For Dincoff, her focus turns to Tokyo where will compete against the best in the world.
"The mindset going into the Olympic is actually a little bit different. I am not seeded to win a medal, not saying that I can't (and) not saying that I won't. But I don't have that extra pressure."
"I think that's a very healthy place for me to be at, it puts me in a spot to where I can basically show up and cause chaos."
Dincoff will participate in the preliminary round on July 30th to try and attempt to qualify for the medal rounds in the days following.
"I can throw confidently because I have nothing to lose. It's going to be my debut on this international level. I want to show people that I'm here and I'm here to stay."
