By Kyle Coppola
Clermont’s Donavan Banks Headed To 2024 Paris Olympics For Javelin
Donovan Banks, who works in Technology Education and Robotics at Windy Hill Middle School in Clermont, is headed to the Olympics!
Banks was able to finish 3rd in Men’s Javelin, which will send him to the Olympics with the chance to win a medal!
(Banks right looks down at his bronze medal. He stands next to winner Curtis Thompson who won the olympic trials will be one of the favorites win in Paris.)
The competition was fierce. Curtis Thompson came in as the favorite and had a massive throw early in the competition of 83.04 meters, which was going to be the mark to beat. Meanwhile, it came down to the final few positions, as catching Thompson was going to be an uphill battle.
Capers Williamson had a throw of 79.57 and Donovan Banks managed 79.19. That put pressure on Dash Sirmon and James Kotowski. While it appeared Sirmon had the strength to rival Banks, Sirmon would end up pulling out of the competition due to an unspecified injury. The only other athlete who could rival Banks was James Kotowski.
(Donavan Banks is currently a teacher at Windy Hills Middle School in Clermont. He teaches Technology Education and Robotics.)
Kotowski tried his best on his last throw, but it was not to be, and Donovan Banks, who represents Lake County, Florida, is headed to the Olympics!
He also got to sign his name on the Paris statue that was in Hayward Field along with all the other Olympians who are headed to Paris in a few weeks’ time. Banks was a standout track & field competitor for McNeese State
Now begins the final weeks of training. The question will be if Banks can close the gap to Curtis Thompson. He only needs to find 4 meters, so we hope the next few weeks of training bode well for Donovan Banks!
We are so excited to have a member of our community headed to the Olympics. Windy Hill Middle was excited as well. They shared in a social media post, “HE DID IT! MR. Banks is going to Paris!! We are all so incredibly proud of you, Mr. Banks!”
We look forward to seeing Donovan Banks at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
