TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tampa native Parker Valby punched her ticket to Paris after coming in second place in the 10,000-meter race, finishing with a time of 31:41.56 at the Olympic Trials.
“In the end, I made it on two teams which was pretty incredible, which is crazy to say. I never expected that, so [I’m] super grateful,” Valby said.
Reaching the Olympics is something Valby has pictured, she even has a vision board with a picture of the Summer Games on it.
“I put it on my fridge. My coach made us do them during a recruiting visit in December for the new year and I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s silly that my coach said put it on your fridge,'” Valby said.
The 21-year-old has six NCAA championship titles. She earned five in just one year alone.
Valby, who attends the University of Florida, is also the current NCAA record holder for the indoor 5,000-meter, outdoor 5,000-meter, and outdoor 10,000-meter.
“I think my favorite year was probably this year because, obviously, I got to run three whole seasons, so that was new for me. I had a lot of fun doing that and I had [great] teammates to do it with,” the track and field star said.
