Ep 152: "Throwing it into the pole" with Olympian Joe Brown

Today’s episode of The Mental Mettle Podcast is all about what you do after you hit rock bottom, in sport and in life.

My guest is Olympian discus thrower Joe Brown (@joethethrower on Instagram)—one of only a handful of Division II athletes to make it all the way to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Joe is the:

• 2019 NCAA Division II national champion in the discus (won on his final attempt)
• 4x USATF national qualifier (every year since 2021)
• 4th place finisher at the 2023 USA Championships, earning a spot on the Pan American Games team (5th place finish)
• Bronze medalist at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials—again, on his final throw in a historic competition, punching his ticket to Paris
• Currently ranked 31st in the world and in the top 100 male discus throwers of all time

But this conversation is not just a highlight reel.

When Joe talks about “throwing it into the pole,” he means it literally—slamming the discus into the metal pole of the cage under massive pressure at the Olympic Trials and nearly knocking himself out of contention. On his very last attempt, with his Olympic dream and his entire career on the line, he had to decide: walk away, or step back into the ring one more time.

That moment in the stadium mirrors the rest of his life.

Joe opens up about years spent in a destructive loop with alcohol—training hard all week and then erasing it with blackout weekends, drinking alone, using it to numb grief and depression, and “throwing it into the pole” in his own life over and over again.

We get into:

• The resilience it takes to keep fighting after you fall flat on your face on the biggest stage
• The mental framework behind being able to win on your final throw
• The discipline required to train in solitude with no coach, no teammates, and no cheerleaders
• How he handled doubt, depression, grief, and self-sabotage while still chasing an Olympic dream
• The tools he built through construction work with his dad, books, meditation, visualization, and trial and error

We also dive into Joe’s “Olympic Decisions” series on Instagram—where he breaks tough moments down into simple but powerful choices (confidence or curiosity, belonging or independence, etc.) and uses those choices to come back from failure instead of being crushed by it.

If you’ve ever felt like you keep slamming into the same wall—whether in competition, with alcohol, or in your own patterns—Joe’s story is a blueprint for how to step back into the ring and take one more throw.

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