Ann Turbyne Andrews

Against all odds.

Ann Turbyne was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. When she was a freshman at Winslow High School in the spring of 1972, her physical education teacher, Ernie Gilbert, realized she had the physical and mental attributes to achieve success in the shot put. Ann was also fortunate to have the parents she had, Alexander and Pauline Turbyne. In order to facilitate her throwing, Ernie wanted her to lift weights. At this point in time, women didn't do that sort of thing. But, because it was important to Ann, her parents supported her 100 percent.

Ernie treated Ann no differently than he treated all her male counterparts in his gym. She went through the same workouts six days a week along with practicing the shot put every day. Ann did not miss a training session during those four years in high school. At her first track meet in April of 1972, after only three weeks of training, Ann threw 35 feet 6 1-1/2 inches, breaking the indoor state record.

During her high school career, Ann was state champion in the shot put for four years and state champion in the discus for three years (she learned how to throw the discus her sophomore year). In her junior year, she attended the Junior Nationals in Gainesville, Florida. When she went to weigh in her shot put, the meet officials confiscated it and said she could have it back at the end of the meet. To her surprise, she found out a 4 kilo shot put (8 pounds 13 ounces.) was being used and not one just 8 pounds. She still managed to place 3rd without having practiced with the heavier weight shot put. Her senior year (1975), she broke the national high school record in the 8-pound shot with a throw of 52 feet 6 inches.

She also practiced with the 4 kilo shot put to prepare her for the Junior Nationals. In June, after graduating in the top 10 percent of her class, Ann not only won the Junior Nationals, but also broke the national record with a throw of 48 feet 4 3⁄4 inches. She also placed 6th in the discus and 6th in the Senior National competition.

Since there were only nine inches separating her from second place and two feet from first, Ann decided to postpone attending the University of Maine at Orono where she had been accepted (early decision) the previous fall. Also during her senior year, Ann competed in a men's powerlifting meet in Nashua, New Hampshire. Ann broke the women's world deadlift record with a lift of 410 pounds, while earning 4th place in the meet. She was the only female lifter in the competition.

Ann continued her training, hoping to make the 1976 Olympic team that would be going to Montreal. In February of 1976, Ann won the indoor senior nationals at Madison Square Garden in New York City with a throw of 51 feet 2 inches. From this meet, she was chosen for the senior national team to go to Leningrad, Russia and compete. When she returned home, her training continued with her hopes set on making the Olympic team in May. Unfortunately, in April, a month before the Olympic trials, Ann fractured her right wrist while lifting in the gym.

Ann's family doctor told her it was time to retire, that wrist fractures don't heal well. Ann continued to do fitness types of training, waiting for her wrist to heal. In the spring of 1977, her wrist still had not healed. She went to Dr. Schneider at the Hand Rehabilitation Clinic in Philadelphia. He put her in a fiberglass cast for four months and it healed. She was able to return to throwing during the indoor 1977-78 season.

By the time the senior nationals came around in June of 1978, she was throwing over 51 feet again. She placed second in the Nationals and was selected to be on a national team competing in San Francisco against a Soviet team She also won the Women's Senior National Powerlifting Championships in her weight division.

Ann's training continued. That summer, she won the first National Sports Festival which was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was also asked to stay on at the Olympic Training Center to be evaluated and tested in hopes of helping her training. They would go over the results with her coach, Ernie Gilbert, later that fall. When Ernie attended the meeting, it showed in the electronic testing of the 50 yard dash. Ann beat everyone, including the sprinters, for the first 10 yards. In all the tests done, Ann came out on top. Her success was attributed to the weight training program she had been on since she first started throwing.

In the spring of 1979, she did her student teaching at Winslow Junior High. That May she again won the 1979 Women's Powerlifting Championships. In June, she placed second in the Senior National Track and Field Championships with a throw of 55 feet 9 1/2 inches. She was selected to compete on a national team touring the Soviet Union and Europe that summer.

She was also selected to compete in the Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Pan American Games were one of her most disappointing meets. She placed 4th, missing the bronze medal by one and one-half centimeters. Later that fall, she was chosen to compete in Mexico City at the World University Games.

In 1980, Ann's training continued and it looked promising that she would be one of the shot putters representing the United States at the Olympics in Moscow. In January, for the third year in a row, she won the Women's National Powerlifting Championships held in Los Angeles, and televised on NBC-TV. In this meet, she squatted 454 pounds, bench pressed 264 pounds, and deadlifted 468 pounds. Her bench, deadlift, and total were all world records. Those lifts are still ranked in the top five all-time best lifts in the country. She went on in May to win the Women's World Powerlifting Championships.

In June of 1980, Ann threw 56 feet 8 1/2 inches for second place in the Olympic trials. This throw enabled her to fulfill her dream of making the United States Olympic Team. Unfortunately, due to political reasons, the United States boycotted the Games and Ann, and many others, were unable to compete.

Ann decided to retire in 1980. She worked in Dallas, Texas for an orthopedic surgeon, as a strength trainer in his rehab clinic. In 1982, she returned to Winslow to teach elementary physical education in Albion and Clinton, and coach track at Lawrence High School. Here she met her husband-to-be, Chuck Andrews, who was the head track coach. Members of the Lawrence track team bought a gift certificate to the Manor and told Chuck to take Coach Turbyne out to eat. They were married in July of 1984, and the track team was invited! They now have two daughters, ages 12 and 9.

Since retiring from competition, Ann has coached numerous high school teams and also coached a few people privately. She wants to give back to the sport what it has given to her.