The man killed by a flying weight thrown off-course during a Sunday high school track-and-field meet in Colorado Springs was a 57-year-old father there to watch his son compete, El Paso County coroner officials said.
Wade Langston was sitting in the audience at the Mountain Lion Fieldhouse on the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus when a hammer weight thrown by a participant cleared “certified barriers” and struck him, school officials said. The incident happened around 9:30 a.m.
In the hammer throw event, the athlete spins in a circle to generate momentum and hurls a metal weight — attached to a chain and grip — as far as possible.
“Wade was a devoted husband, loving father, cherished brother and brother-in-law, fun uncle and an even more fun great-uncle,” Langston’s niece-in-law, Tamara Rocha, said in an emailed statement on behalf of the family. “He was a truly wonderful person who brought laughter to every room he entered with his great sense of humor.”
Rocha said Langston is survived by his wife and son, who is a senior in high school.
She also started a GoFundMe to help support Langston’s family.
“There are no words to express the depth of our sorrow, but we are clinging tightly to the memories, laughter and love that we shared with Wade,” Rocha said in the statement. “We appreciate the outpouring of love and support but ask for privacy as we process this profound grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with all others impacted by this tragedy.”
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