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CELEBRATING THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH WITH ITS FAMOUS SON, ASHTON EATON

TRACKTOWNWelcome to

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FOREWORDEvery time my brother, Steve Prefontaine, stepped foot on Hayward Field he made it alive – there was fi re under those feet. He made athletics an exciting sport to watch. His style of running and his personality all fed into this and he made a huge impact on the people who attended those meets.

What he achieved in his career was pretty remarkable. He graduated in 1969 and died in 1975, and his accomplishments during those years were mega.

There is no doubt my brother helped achieve the current status that Hayward Field now holds. Mind, all the stars aligned to make it the place it has now become. There were many other people who helped create the magic of Hayward Field – like head coach Bill Bowerman and Bill Dellinger, the assistant distance-running coach, who ran in three Olympics. All those factors encompassed why Eugene is TrackTown, but my brother played a big part.

Of course, every time I step on the track at Hayward Field I think about Steve and the fans screaming, “Go, Pre! Go, Pre!” It was an exciting time.

We’ve witnessed some big changes at Hayward Field over the past seven years or so. The place has started to attract many great meets and that’s exciting for the community here. Eugene is a perfect place for track, whether that is a junior, senior or masters’ meet.

Lots of people ask, what do you think Steve would be doing today? And I think he would be doing many diff erent things. But I know, for sure, that he would be involved in track and fi eld in some way. During his time he was fi ghting to make the sport a better sport, so I know he would be thrilled to welcome the world’s best juniors here to Eugene.

Linda Prefontaine

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Read more from TrackTown on our site

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Foreword Linda Prefontaine remembers the hero of Hayward Field 03

Counter culture A novel way to avoid having to stand in line 06-07

A sense of hummus The Aussie athlete who'll chuck almost anything 08-09

TrackTown Pizza The fast food created specifi cally for fast people 10-11

Dina Asher-Smith The GB ace on fi lms, food and falling over on track 12-13

Perfect ten Catch up with Ashton Eaton, the world's best decathlete 14-19

Hashtag heroine If you're not following Emma Green, you should be... 20-21

Go Team USA! Seven homegrown heroes to watch out for in Eugene 22-23

A cut above the rest Your cut-out-and-keep SPIKES running shoe 24-25

The world at their feet Ten international stars heading to TrackTown 26-27

Go, Pre! "There may be men who can beat me but they'll bleed to do it" 28-31

The magic digits Oregon and the world junior champs in numbers 32-33

No joke! What do Avatar, Michael Jordan and a plane have in common? 34-35

Prepare to launch... Get the lowdown on the highfl iers of fi eld 36-37

Class of 94 The men who have run the 100m in under 10 seconds 38-39

Watch out Usain Trayvon Bromell's coming through (very quickly!) 40-41

Moves like Jager The US steeplechase record holder talks tactics 42-43

Can I kick it? These guys can dunk like LeBron and pass like Peyton... 45-46

Oregon Special Edition Summer 14

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No joke! What do Avatar, Michael Jord

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Watch out Usain Trayvon Bromell's com

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Editor James Charlton Art director Tim Scott Designer Michael Wescombe Associate editor Steve Landells Writer Michelle Sammet Production Sarah Dyson Pictures Dominique Campbell, Kim Collins Contributing editors Nikki Wicks, David Burton Digital management Wendy Southern Production manager Trevor Simpson Editorial director Simon Kanter Group art director Martin Tullett Director Cormac Bourne Managing director Andrew Taplin Chief executive Kevin Costello For IAAF Nick Davies, Laura Arcoleo, Jon Mulkeen, Phil Minshull and Chris Turner Reprographics Haymarket Prepress Photography/Illustration Getty Images, Matthew Crehan, Press Association Images, Michael Harvey, Earl Hulst, Philipp Stollenmayer, Liz Parke, Alamy, Boeing Company, Sean Jones/Merritt College, Claus Anderson/Courtesy of Track & Field News, Andrew McClanahan.PhotoRun, Thinkstock SPIKES email: editor@spikesmag.com Website www.spikes.iaaf.org Twitter @spikesmagProduced for IAAF by Haymarket Network, Teddington Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 9BE, UK. Telephone +44 (0) 20 8267 5000 Reprinting in whole or in part is forbidden except with prior permission of the publisher. Due care is taken to ensure that the content of SPIKES is fully accurate, but the publisher and printer cannot accept liability for errors and omissions.

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Hy jumperInika McPherson won a HJ competition with a difference at the Drake Relays in April. In a packed Hy-Vee store in Waukee, Iowa, some of the world’s fi nest jumpers navigated their way past the grocery aisle for a leap at glory.

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Headline

Hummus-fi lled sock 33.21m

Gumboo

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Caviar 56m vs. Vegemite 63m

Surströmming (rotten fi sh in a c

Tartan umbrella 53.51m

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Two-minute noodles 48.89m

You name it, he’ll throw it. Nattily dressed Aussie discus thrower Benn Harradine has invited the world into his discus circle, and is giving everyday items the heave-ho. SPIKES compiles the offi cial rankings of stuff Harradine chucks

Caviar

Surstr

Tartan

Two-mi

YYYou name it, he’ll throw itdressed Aussie discus thBenn Harradine has invitworld into his discus circgiving everyday items theho. SPIKES compiles therankings of stuff Harradi

If you’d like to see this man throw something, simply tweet @spikesmag and @bennharradine using #willitthrow with your idea.

B GANANGGB NNGABBBBBBBBBBBABBBBAAANGGAAANGANGGNGGANGANGAAANAANAAAB NNNAABBBBBBAAAAAABBBBBBBAABBABAAANAANANANGGNGNGAAAA ! THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS

Speedynoodles

BakedBeans

can) 56.35m

Avocado 57.71m

ussie meat pie 56.90m

Shoe 57.41m

iPhone 71.73mVEGEMITE

When Anita Hinriksdottir romped to 800m victory in a championship record 2:01.13 at last year’s World Youth Championships in Donetsk, she caused a storm back in Iceland.

Hinriksdottir’s shiny gold medal made her the fi rst track and fi eld world champion ever to come from the Kentucky-sized volcanic island.

Iceland’s newspapers and TV stations celebrated the country’s fi rst world champion with great gusto.

Marooned in the North Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between Greenland and the UK, it is the most sparsely-populated country

in Europe, and you could seat everyone from Iceland into America’s three biggest football stadia.

Born, raised and coached in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, Hinriksdottir, 18, has no intention of going anywhere else until at least 2016.

She likes running in the snow, because “it makes you stronger,” which is just as well. Iceland is 10% glacier, with an average winter temperature of 31°F (-0.5°C).

Now a European junior champion, too, Hinriksdottir is going to Oregon in July to win her, and her country’s, second world track title.

Anita Hinriksdottir

Ice Queen

Deadly day En route to the 200m world youth fi nal in Donetsk last summer, Nigerian sprinter Ejowvokoghene Divine Oduduru, 16, gave a full throttle post-race speech that has now been watched a quarter of a million times on YouTube. That’s double Usain Bolt’s equivalent interview in Moscow. Here’s how Divine conquered the internet...

“I feel happy, I feel grateful, I feel fulfi lled. I never expected it.”

“Wow! The wind was very much. I was trying to push and the wind was taking me back.”

“The fi nal will be a DEADLY DAY. One of us is going to die on the line.”

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SURSTROMMING

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TrackTown PNot since Usain Bolt powered himself to Olympic gold on chicken nuggets has there been a more fi tting union of fast food and fast people. Feast your eyes on this

PBANGGGBANGBBBAABBBBAANGANGANGGGANGANGANAANAAAAANNNBBBAAABBBBBBB NGGNGNGANAANANAAAA ! THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS

100 YARD DASHHAMMER

DECATHLON

Boasting the decathlon, with 10 toppings, and the carbo-loading 5000m: Canadian bacon, salami, pepperoni, mushrooms, red onions, linguica and sausage – TrackTown Pizza has a dish tailored for the needs of

every runner, jumper and thrower in Eugene.Opened in 1977 by a wonderfully-named food

impresario named Mr Happy, TrackTown Pizza has served up its track and fi eld fare through nine Olympic Games. It is located on Franklin Boulevard, just a 700-meter sprint away from Hayward Field.

Famous faces to have graced the 100-seat restaurant include world 800m silver medalist Nick Symmonds and decathlon king Ashton Eaton (see pages 14-19).

Manager Tim Meyers has worked there for the past 14 years, and is always on the lookout for new athletics-themed pizza ideas.

“For the 2008 US Olympic Trials (which were staged at Hayward Field) we came up with the Olympian, and our latest edition is the long jump pizza,” says Meyers. “We fi nd a lot of track athletes eat here, and if that athlete happens to throw the hammer, for example, they’ll tend to order the Hammer.”

Hungry hammer throwers can feast on anything from the small (10 inches) to the giant (16 inches), which is fi ve-times smaller than the throwing circle.

For the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships in July, Meyers is doubling his staff count to 14 to cope with the hungry demands of athletes and fans attending the six-day event.

Although reluctant to divulge any new pizza ideas, the astute Meyers did at least open up about his newfound love for athletics.

“I never used to be a huge track fan, but in the past few years I’ve truly gotten into it,” he says. And that’s good enough for us. Make ours a giant!

LONG JUMP

PizzaPSPIKES.IAAF.ORG 11

DECATHLONDECATHLONDDEEE5000 METERS

Three track and fi eld pizzas we want a slice of

THE OLYMPIAN Pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, sausage, and freshly grated parmesan.

TRACK AND FIELD COMBO Canadian bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, black olives and ground beef.

THE HEPTATHLON Canadian bacon, salami, pepperoni, linguica, sausage, and ground beef.

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TRIPLE JUMP

What are you most looking forward to about the Oregon 2014 WJC?Racing! And the whole experience of going to Oregon with my team-mates.

You’ll be 19 in December, so this is the last season of your junior career. What has been the best moment so far?I’m torn between getting (world 4x100m) bronze in Moscow, and winning (200m and 4x100m gold) at the 2013 European Junior Championships. It was something that I’d worked towards for so long, so obviously I’m proud of that. But Moscow’s result was such an amazing experience and surprise... I never even imagined I’d come home a medalist.

Worst track blooper?I fell over so embarrassingly in training when I was practicing starts in Turkey at the (Trabzon 2011) European Youth Olympics. It wasn’t a delicate ladylike fall, it was a massive ‘splat’ on my face and everything. My team-mates just burst out laughing, while I hid my face in shame. It was only when I looked up that I noticed all the volunteers were having a briefi ng in the stands. Probably about 100 people. They all saw it, and were holding their breath trying not to laugh. It was like the stadium was shaking. Needless to say, that’s never happened again.

Ha! Who is your role model?

Christine O (world 400m champ Ohuruogu, pictured right). She’s simply amazing as a person and athlete. I give exactly the same answer every single time I’m asked. She’s a true performer, and knows when to do it.

What would be on your TrackTown pizza?

This place sounds great! I’m tempted to say the Hammer (pepperoni, linguica and pepperoncini) but I’d probably end up making my own pepperoni one. Just plain and simple.

At the London 2012 Olympics, you were a box carrier on Super Saturday, when Great Britain won three gold medals. Describe that experience in fi ve words

AmazingLoudFriendlyPrivilegeUnforgettable

Tell us three things you know about EugeneGreen. Plenty of grass. Doesn’t Oregon have a ridiculous amount of species of grass? Or is that the wrong state? (No idea, Dina. But Oregon does grow 95% of the USA’s hazelnuts).The whole town is crazy about track. I guess that’s self-explanatory with the term TrackTown. But yeah, they love track and the city comes alive whenever there’s a competition.Obviously Nike has a great heritage there. The brand has its origins there, doesn’t it?

It sure does. Finish the sentence; When in TrackTown......bring your best.

BANGGBANGBBBABBBBBBBBBBBBANGANGANGANGANGANAANAAABAANNNBBAABBBBBBBAAABBAB NGGNGNGANAANANAAAA ! THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS

SPIKES catches up with the Great Britain sprinter who is currently the fastest junior over both the 100 and 200 meters

David BeckhamOscar Wilde

OprahSacha Baron Cohen

Kevin HartMuhammad Ali

Christina Aguilera

How much money do you have in your pocket?About £4 ($7). I don’t carry much change and often have to use my card for the smallest purchases, embarrassingly.

What’s your favorite fi lm?The Sixth Sense, even though I was only four when it came out. I just love the ending and plot twist, it’s so clever.

Desserts. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I love desserts, especially chocolate ones. I crave them all the time! Anything warm, gooey and chocolatey with a nice hot sauce would make me so happy. Obviously, because I do watch what I eat, especially in the thick of the season, I avoid desserts. Which just makes me crave them even more.

If I wasn’t an athlete, I’d be...A food taster. I love to eat so much.

dinaashersmith

@dinaashersmith

What are your favorite things to do outside track?Spending time with my friends and going out to eat. I also love cooking.

Would you rather win a world junior gold medal or set a world junior record?

World junior gold.

Who would be your dream dinner party guests?

What’s your guilty pleasure?

13SPIKES.IAAF.ORG

HOME

A shton Eaton was a wide-eyed teenager sitting in the fi rst row of Hayward Field’s east grandstand when he fi rst discovered the magic

of international track and fi eld.On the encouragement of his

fi rst coach, Tate Metcalf, he and his training group went along to watch the iconic Prefontaine Classic.

Aged “13 or 14” at the time, Eaton found the experience of watching the USA’s pre-eminent athletics meet captivating.

“That was the moment I realized Hayward Field was a special place,” says Eaton, speaking exclusively to SPIKES. “I enjoyed high-fi ving the athletes on their victory lap, but my biggest memory was the physique of the athletes. I remember thinking: ‘I’ll never be able to look like that.’ The triple jumpers had such long legs, they looked like praying mantises. I also remember watching Maria Mutola win her 14th straight 800m race [Mozambique’s multi-world and Olympic medalist

won 16 on the spin at Hayward Field between 1993-2008] and I was just amazed by her power and dominance.”

That experience ignited a passion in Eaton that would power his track journey all the way to world and Olympic decathlon gold medals, and four world records.

“That day, I got to see the potential of what track and fi eld could be,” he says. “I didn’t realize that you could even go to meets like Prefontaine. I saw the fans going nuts around those athletes. It was very inspirational.”

Born in Portland but raised from fi fth grade in the small city of Bend,

Born, raised and married in Oregon, decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton welcomes you to the town where track is front page news

14 ASHTON EATON

SPUN

BEST. DECATHLON. EVER: Eaton set a world record of 9039pts at TrackTown in 2012

BEST. DECATHLON.

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16 ASHTON EATONTON

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about a two-and-a-half hour drive to the east of Eugene, Eaton took up track at middle school.

A talented all-round sportsman, it was just one of the many activities the energetic youngster devoted his time to, and he recalls several “cool” experiences of running at Hayward Field prior to his Prefontaine Classic enlightenment.

He remembers his trips to Deb’s pancake diner with particular clarity, where he would feast on strawberry pancakes with whipped cream to alleviate any nerves.

Taking track more seriously as he developed through high school, Eaton won state high school titles in the 400m and long jump.

Several colleges were keen to recruit the all-round athletic talent, who at this time was also a taekwondo black belt and a promising footballer.

For Eaton, there was no choice to be made. Encouraged to try multi-events, his heart was set on furthering his career at the University of Oregon.

“Of all the places I visited, I knew Oregon was the best place for me. It wasn’t just because I was from Oregon, I knew the university understood track in the way I wanted to understand track,” he says. “So while my degree says Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, I really majored in track and fi eld.”

Initially under the coaching of Dan Steele, in only his sixth ever decathlon, aged 20, he cracked the 8000pts barrier: something achieved by only the top 30 or

18 ASHTON EATON

so decathletes a year. In 2008, he won the NCAA (national collegiate) title, and found his true calling. Just two years later, he announced himself on the world stage by smashing the heptathlon world record at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships. That same weekend, 2008 Olympic champion Bryan Clay took the world indoor title with a score some 300pts inferior to Eaton.

While in his fi rst year at the University of Oregon, Eaton had a 15-minute chat with a talented young Canadian athlete who was touring the campus as a prospective student. That girl is now called Brianne Theisen-Eaton, and the pair got married in Eugene last summer: close to where they live and train (pictured below).

Guided by Harry Marra, coach to 1996 Olympic decathlon champ and former world record holder Dan O’Brien, Eaton fi nished second to Trey Hardee at the Daegu 2011 World Championships, and has proved invincible ever since. He

has won every single multi-event competition he has subsequently completed. Eaton’s haul includes world indoor heptathlon golds at Istanbul 2012 and Sopot 2014, and Olympic decathlon gold in 2012, followed by the world title in Moscow last year. Multi-event wife Brianne won world silver in both Moscow and Sopot, too.

Eaton’s fi nest moment was reserved for Hayward Field, when at the 2012 US Olympic trials, he became only the second man in history to break through the 9000pts barrier, adding 13pts on to Roman Sebrle’s 11-year-old world record. Eaton’s 9039pts WR makes him the best all-round athlete, ever.

Surprisingly, Eaton’s most cherished memory of Hayward Field was not that world record, or his 2010 NCAA and 2011 national titles there. His favourite TrackTown moment came when fi nishing fi fth at the 2008 Olympic trials.

“I remember, I was vaulting in front of the east grandstand and everyone was going nuts. They were rhythmically clapping me, making an unbelievable noise every time I went over the bar,” recalls Eaton, who set a PR of 5.10m that day.

“I later remember warming up

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 19

for the 1500m under the west grandstand, and the men’s 800m fi nal started. Everyone was yelling. I went out to have a look at what was going on, and Nick Symmonds was leading home an Oregon 1-2-3. The whole day was so awesome.”

At 26, Eaton can’t compete in the latest chapter of TrackTown’s rich history, as Hayward Field welcomes the world’s best under-20 athletes for the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships from July 22-27. But he can attest to Eugene’s special appeal as a host city.

“Athletics is front page news here, and Hayward Field is the best fi rst impression to have of a track meet,” says an enthusiastic Eaton.

“There are banners and posters all over the town to say that Eugene is a town with a running community. Runners are all over the town. In fact, if you were an alien and came to Eugene, you would think the only thing that people did was go for a run.”

Ashton Eaton’s guide to Eugene

EAT LIKE AN EATON“Eugene is a great college town, with a strong food culture. I would recommend Cafe Soriah. The chef there catered at our wedding and the Mediterranean food is amazing. If you want authentic Italian, La Perla would be the place to go. The Humble Bagel has a lemon poppyseed muffi n that will knock your socks off . If you are after a delicious but reasonably priced breakfast I’d say Glenwood.”

CLIMB THE BUTTE“There are plenty of other places to explore in Eugene and one place I’d recommend would be a hill called Spencer’s Butte. It is quite a climb [a little over 2000ft] but to reach the top is very fulfi lling, because you have a great view of the city. It makes me feel like I’m on top of the world.”

GO FOR A RUN“I’d absolutely recommend Pre’s Trail. I still train there a lot during the fall. It is a bark chip trail which runs along some stunning sections. If you

are lucky, there is always a good chance you might see a world-

class runner on the trail.”

Ag

E“EwreththIf

HOW TO…INSTA ST“This was taken with my Canon at a training camp in Portugal. I just like the feeling of it. When I take photos of children I try to make the pictures interesting without showing their faces.”

“My spring-colored nails. I had these way before my famous rainbow nails…”

“A pair of new ASICS shoes. I like taking photos with a more creative and personal look.”

instagram.com/

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W TTHOW THOW TTTTTss on Instais taking beautiful photographs for her 12,312 follower agram.sHOW HOW S

She picks her favorite snaps for SPIKES

AAAAINSTAINSTAAA SSAA

“This is taken in the training arena in Oslo on the day before the Bislett Games Diamond League. I like to discover things or angles that are not expected.”

“We arranged a high jump meet last winter in Gothenburg [with 2009 world champ Blanka Vlasic], and this was the poster.”

“I like the fact that there is a twist in this picture [of the men’s high jump at the Sopot 2014 world indoors]. I think it’s pretty boring to take a ‘normal’ photo of sports. I like pictures that are more interesting, so I try to do something unexpected.”

“This was also taken with my Canon. My friend and I had just found a pair of sunglasses on the beach!”

20 INSTAGRAM LIKE A PRO

“I love to discover and share the small things and moments in my life”

1. If you fi nd something you want to share, take several pictures of the same thing, with different focus of the light and angles. Then you can choose the best one.

Style guide

… BE AN TAR

1emmagreen Log in

5. “I try to take photos that give a sense of who I am, and show what I discover in my everyday life, however big or small.”

1. “If you fi nd something that you want to share, take several pictures of it with different lighting and angles. Then you can choose which one is best.”

4. “I try to be selective about my photos, and if I’m not satisfi ed with the picture, I don’t share it.”

2. “I almost always change the colors. I use Snapseed [a free app], but there are a lot of different apps for that. I like my pictures to be a bit lighter and not too colorful, so I often change the brightness levels too.”

3. “I almost always crop the picture – that can sometimes make a big difference. You can easily choose what you want or don’t want to show in a picture by cropping it. Sometimes the whole picture is too wide or high for Instagram, then I use another app called #NoCrop. Sometimes you can make the feeling of the picture much better by cropping into it.”

“Taking pictures and

playing with their feeling

is a really simple and creative

thing that I love doing”

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 21

n

22 MEET THE TEAM

Kendall Baisden

Olivia BakerKeturah Orji

Kendell Williams

Go

Kendall BaisdenAge: 19200m and 400m

“Medley relay silver medalist at the world youth championships in 2011 and 2012 world junior 4x400m gold medalist, she is a force to be reckoned with. From Detroit, but now based out of the University of Texas, she has run 50.46 for the 400m and is also an accomplished 200m runner. She’s tall and thin but runs like a stallion. A tough ‘get-it-done’ kind of girl.”

Olivia BakerAge: 18400m and 800m

“Based out of New Jersey, Olivia won a silver medal over 400m at the 2013 world youth championships, and recently showed her versatility with a 2:02 800m. In her fi nal year at high school, she’s a bright, humble kid who wants to attend medical school and be a neurosurgeon. I also have a vested interest in Olivia, as I coach her!”

Alexa EfraimsonAge: 171500m and 3000m

“A high school phenom, Alexa ran brilliantly and showed no fear of mixing it with the Africans when winning 1500m bronze at the 2013 world youth championships. Since that run, the Washington State athlete has gone from strength to strength, running an indoor 1500m of 4:15 and a 9:00 3000m. Still only 17, I’m looking forward to seeing what the latest emerging US middle-distance runner can do on the international stage.”

Keturah OrjiAge: 18Long and triple jump

“A rising star of the horizontal jumps, she landed long jump silver [6.39m] and triple jump bronze [13.69m] at last year’s world youth championships in Ukraine. Another athlete to come out of New Jersey, that Mecca for track and fi eld, she is powerful, with an incredible set of triple jump phases. She’s the most promising jumper we’ve had in quite some time and is destined for greatness.”

Devin KingAge: 18Pole vault

“The man I call ‘Devin The Dude’ is another star in the making. Based out of Louisiana and coached by Beijing Olympian Erica Bartolina, he fi nished joint sixth at the world youth championships in Ukraine. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, setting a national high school indoor record with 5.44m.”

Trayvon BromellAge: 19 on July 10100m (see p40)

“He’s already run 9.77 (with a 4.0m/s tailwind), so Usain Bolt had better watch out! He’s strong, powerful, and already among the very fi nest collegiate sprinters we’ve ever seen. Out of Baylor University in Texas, he’s defi nitely a future superstar. With that trademark headband he’s a bit of a showman, and earlier this year set a new world junior record with a 9.97 100m run.”

Kendell WilliamsAge: 19 Heptathlon and 100m hurdles

“A freshman at the University of Georgia, she announced herself as a future superstar by adding 100pts to Carolina Kluft’s world junior indoor record for the pentathlon at the NCAAs in March. A great hurdler, jumper and thrower – her only weak event is the 800m. Kendell has scored more than 6000pts in the heptathlon, and those are big numbers.”Kendell will only compete in the 100m hurdles in Eugene.

23SPIKES.IAAF.ORG

o Team USAeam Ue host nation will compete at the SSuucchh iiss tth h of US track and fi eld, the hhe strengtheaea

nships more in expectation than hope. OOrreeggoonn 2 World Junior Championshon 2014 IAAF WCCooaaccach LLLLiiiissssaaaa Morgan n multi-talented teens to watch out for...tells us about seven m

24 #RUN #JUMP #FOLD

MAKE YOUR OWN SPIKES

There are 22 different athletics events on show at the Oregon 2014 WorldJunior Championships, and origami is not one of them. In a bid to remedythat, here’s your very own DIY spike. Send your creation to @spikesmag

cut out fold and stick stick

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#SHOWUSYOURSPIKES

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Cut-out spike designed by Philipp Stollenmayer. Visit kamibox.de

The best young athletes from nearly 200 countries are coming to TrackTown! Here are 10 awesome talents with the world at their spikes

Jaheel Hyde, Jamaica

Remembermy name

Blitzed to a championship record 13.13 en route to world youth 110m hurdles gold last summer, and in March set a national junior record of 49.49 in the 400m hurdles. This result ranked him world number one (for a week).

A pole vaulting super talent, Peinado spent last summer beating 17-year-olds to win world youth gold – aged just 15! With a best of 4.40m, she’s one to watch both in Eugene in July and at the Youth Olympics in August.

Robeilys Peinado, Venezuela

The 18-year-old favorite for 800m gold became her country’s fi rst ever world champion at the world youths last July, and was fourth at the world juniors two years ago.

Still only 16, the teen TJ sensation won world youth gold last year and has already leapt a monster 17.24m this season. Only Christian Taylor and Will Claye could beat him at the Rome Diamond League.

26 TEENS GOT TALENT

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Lazaro Martinez, Cuba

Anita Hinriksdottir, Iceland

Just like her compatriot Cristine Spataru 10 years earlier, Marincu won world youth gold in the long AND triple jump in Donetsk last summer. Her season’s TJ best of 13.81m made her the top ranked under-20 athlete of 2013.

More than 100,000 people have watched the YouTube clip of Kiryu, in pink shorts, clocking 10.01 in the 100m last April. Now 18, he could become the fi rst man of Asian descent to go sub-10. Also a 60m world indoor semi-fi nalist in March.

Yoshihide Kiryu, Japan

The teenage high jumper cleared a PR 2.20m on his way to the world youth title last year, and added another centimeter to his record during the indoor season. Turned 18 in April.

Sanghyeok Woo, Korea

The multi-talented thrower won discus gold and hammer bronze at the Donetsk 2013 World Youth Championships, and he will be in action in both at Hayward Field.

He won the 1500m emphatically at

the world youths by more than fi ve

seconds. Now 18, the future star ran a PR

1:44.69 for 800m glory at the Shanghai

Diamond League.

Last year, the Pakistan-born sprinter broke the Swedish indoor 200m world record, and then took world youth gold in a PR and championship record 22.92. She only turned 17 in March.

Robert Kiptoo Biwott, Kenya

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 27

Irene Ekelund, Sweden

Florentina Marincu, Romania

Matt Denny, Australia

After victory in theory iin thhee ett 5000m, he wenttt into the crowd anddd

emerged wearing aaa shirt emblazoneddd

with STOP PREE,, before tearing offff

on a pumped-upp p

victory lapppp

“The best pace is a suicide pace and today is a good day to die”

Steve Prefontaine was an unusual character. Heroes very often are. This one was brash, funny, arrogant, a clean freak, and as tough as old boots.

At grade school, Pre was bullied for being German. His mother Elfriede was from a village outside Berlin, and just as tough. In the home movie footage used in the 1997 fi lm Prefontaine, you can see her doing push-ups along with Steve and his sister Linda, at their home in Coos Bay.

Tom Jordan, biographer and Director of the annual Pre Classic, attributes Pre’s mental toughness to two things: Elfriede and his home town.

Coos Bay is a city built on lumber and shipping, on Oregon’s south-west coast. It’s also a two-hour drive from Hayward Field in Eugene.

Pre was brought up in close proximity to the beating heart of working-class industry and the track capital of the United States. A potent combination.

“The town and the man fi nd themselves similarly described: blunt, energetic, tough and aggressive,” wrote Kenny Moore, US Olympic marathoner and Eugene native. These are characteristics that endeared him to anyone who watched him race.

They still do. That buccaneering style endeared him to an

adoring public. In the stands at Hayward Field, ‘Pre’s People’ wore GO PRE t-shirts. In an even greater testament to the cult of his character, others had STOP PRE tees.

For all his blood and thunder on the track, Pre was good fun, too. After US two-mile record holder George Young had pulled out of a race against him in early 1972, Pre said:

“He’s super intelligent. And very good-looking. And has a great family. And I hope he remembers all these nice things I’m saying when we do race.”

They raced over 5000m at that summer’s US

28 GO, PRE!

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 29

30 GO, PRE!

Images supplied by @Matt_Crehan, who is creating The Art of Running comic. Visit mattcrehancomic.com for more info or get involved here: kickstarter.com/projects/1020805753/the-art-of-running-the-steve-prefontaine-story/posts/594024

Matt Crehan who is creatingImages supplied by @M The Art of Running

“There may be men out there

who can beat me, gggg but they’re going

to have to bleed to do it”

31SPIKES.IAAF.ORG

Olympic trials, at Hayward Field. It’s the last place you would want to take on Pre – he fi nished his career with a 35-3 record there.

For 15 minutes before the race and 15 minutes after, the packed grandstand reverberated with the sound of his name.

Pre won in style to book his place at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games. And after 12-and-a-half circuits of the track, he went into the crowd and emerged wearing a shirt emblazoned with STOP PRE, before tearing off for a pumped-up victory lap.

This wasn’t just a guy who was trying to qualify for the Olympics. This was sports entertainment at its passionate best. In his own words: “I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.”

Pre was not lithe like the long distance runners of 2014. He was two inches shorter and 20 pounds heavier than Oregon’s modern day hero and 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Galen Rupp.

Watching Pre bounce on to the track was like watching a prize-fi ghter enter the ring. This raging bull could pump his fi sts without looking daft.

In a bid to capture his essence to a British audience in the 1970s, venerated BBC announcer David Coleman described him as a “chunky American” and “a kind of athletic Beatle”.

But for all the ability and spirit that commanded such attention, Pre’s truly remarkable quality was something very diff erent. Integrity.

A rebel with a cause, his outbursts and cocky claims were often rooted in a Corinthian spirit.

Shortly before his death, he was heavily critical of an Amateur Athletics Union policy that forced US runners to race against athletes from Africa and Eastern Europe, or face suspension.

“Where are the best runners?” he raged, before reeling off a list of his most talented contemporaries.

“Emiel Puttemans is Belgian. Brendan Foster is English. Rod Dixon is a Kiwi. Knut and Arne Kvalheim are Norwegians. Lasse Viren is from Finland.

“Does the AAU have any of them on their wonderful televised schedule? Hell, no. For me, running against the Poles and Czechs would be like running against high school kids.”

He’d rather lose a great race than lead a coronation – a trait that played out in one of the Olympics’ most gripping races.

Before the 5000m at Munich 1972, Pre boldly predicted that he would run the fi nal mile in under four minutes.

“There may be men out there who can beat me, but they’re going to have to bleed to do it,” he warned.

As promised, Pre surged to the front with four laps to go, before dropping back to fourth on the penultimate lap. He somehow regained the lead, but trailed Lasse Viren at the bell.

He then ran most of the last lap in lane two, wrestling for the lead with Viren and Morrocco’s tactically astute veteran Mohamed Gammoudi. When Viren kicked, Pre had nothing left.

Utterly exhausted, he dipped for the line with 10 meters to go, and was beaten to bronze by Ian Stewart of Great Britain.

For gold and an Olympic record, Viren ran the fi nal mile in 4:01.2.

In Pre’s eulogy, his high school coach Walt McClure off ered this insight to his race mentality. “Man imposes his own limitations, but limitation was not in Steve’s frame of reference.”

Pre was one of a kind, bridging the gap between fans and athletes in the way perhaps only Usain Bolt has done since.

Off the track, he volunteered his time as a coach and mentor at Roosevelt Junior High School and Oregon State Penitentiary, where he set up a running club and wrote to inmates.

Although he lived on food stamps for much of his career, Pre turned down $200,000 (equivalent to $1m today) to join a professional track circuit that would have made him ineligible for Olympic competition.

He died on May 30, 1975, aged just 24, as an American record holder in every distance from 2000m to 10,000m.

Pre is immortalised in two statues, one at Nike HQ in Beavertown, the other in Oregon’s largest city of Portland; a jogging route called Pre’s Trail; a memorial and permanent exhibition in Coos Bay; the world-class international athletics meeting that bears his name (The Pre Classic); and Pre’s Rock – a shrine bedecked with sneakers and running mementos, located at the spot where he fatally crashed his car.

When he was alive, he made people happy. In death, he still does.

the number

of times that

the world

juniors have

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148medals to be handed out to beaming junior athletes

17world record holders who have competed at the world juniors since 1986

32 OREGON 2014 IN NUMBERS

7seconds taken by 18-year-old Trayvon Bromell to win the NCAA 100m title at Hayward Field in June and join the sub-10 club

US juniors who won NCAA titles in TrackTown this year: Trayvon Bromell 100m Shamier Little 400m hurdlesKendall Baisden 4x400m relay Kendell Williams heptathlon

medal ceremonies to be performed during the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships

187medals won by Team USA at the world juniors 83 gold 58 silver 46 bronze

120SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 33

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS

Find out more about Oregon 2014 online

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student ambassadors at the University of Oregon who will be assigned to national federations for the duration of the champs

110m

Nosejump

Last year, Jacko Gill launched his shot a record 23m,roughly the same distance as golfer Paula Creamer’s

miracle putt to win an LPGA play-off in Singapore

Say what?

George Washington’s nose on Mount Rushmore is 21 feet long. Snot a problem for Heike Drechsler, who long jumped a couple of feet further for a world junior record 7.14m in 1983

34 WORLD JUNIOR RECORDS

Mykyta Nesterenko’s world junior record discus throw of 70.13mis the same length as a Boeing 747

Last year, Jacko Gill launched his shot a record 23m,

r record discus throw of 70.13m747

m❱❱

It would have taken 110m hurdles world junior

record holder Liu Xiang just 13.12 seconds to

run from one end of the Hollywood sign to the

other, even with 10 obstacles in his way

In 2008, Raphael Holzdeppe set a junior pole vault record of 5.80m, high enough to clear (almost) TWO football crossbars

If you popped Avatar on at the start of Zhang Yingying’s record marathon in 2008, the end credits would roll as she crossed the line in 2:22.38

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 35

Mary Cain does not queue for yellow

taxis in her native NYC. With her one-mile record 4:24.11, Cain could run the

1.13 miles across Brooklyn Bridge in about fi ve minutes

5 minutes

gh to high enoi hh enough t TWOclear (almost)ost) T

football crossbarssba

record marathon in 2008, theend credits would roll as she crossed the line in 2:22.38

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KNOW YOUR IMPLEMENTS36

GAME OF THROWS

gets up close and personal with the hammer, discus, javelin and shot

HAMMER

FOR WOMEN AND MENEssentially a shot (see across) attached to a metal wire and handle.

DID YOU KNOW?The fi rst hammer was thrown more than 4000 years ago in Ireland.

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DISCUS

FOR WOMENLike a 7-inch frisbee that weighs as much as two iPads (2.2lbs).

FOR MENAn inch and a half bigger, the 4lbs men's discus feels more like a lightweight laptop.

DID YOU KNOW?A discus world record has never been set at an Olympics or world champs.

JAVELIN

FOR WOMENThe spear weighs 1.3lbs (about the same as an iPad) and is 7ft 2ins long.

FOR MENWeighs 1.8lbs, and at 8ft 7ins, is about the same length as a golf buggy.

DID YOU KNOW?The javelin has origins as a weapon used in hunting and warfare.

SHOT

FOR WOMENThe shot weighs nearly 9lbs, the same as a 4-liter bottle of water.

FOR MENTheir slightly heavier 13lbs metal ball is roughly the weight of a track bike.

DID YOU KNOW?At the Paris 1900 Olympics, US shot putters Josiah McCracken and Robert Garrett qualifi ed for the fi nal but refused to take part because it was held on a Sunday.

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SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 37

DID YOU KNOW?

bout thet 2ins long.

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DID YOU KNOW?At the Paris 1900 Olympics, US shot putters Josiah McCracken and Robert Garrett qualifi ed for the fi nal but refused to take part because it was held on a Sunday

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DID YOU KNOW?The javelin has origins as aused in hunting and warfa

set at an Olympics or world champs.

JAVELIN

DISCUS

FOR WOWOMEMENNLike a 7-inch frisbee that weighsas much as two iPads (2.2lbs).

FOFORR MENAn inch and a half bigger, the 4lbs men's discus feels more like aightweight laptop.

DID YOU KNOW?A discus world record has never been set at an Olympics or world champs

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USA / 2004

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USA / 2011

Jamaica / 2012

South Africa / 2014

Cuba / 1977

Nigeria / 1994

USA / 1998

GBR / 2001

Portugal / 2004

USA / 2007

USA / 2009

Jamaica / 2011

USA / 2013

Jamaica / 2014

USA / 1983

Nigeria / 1994

Barbados / 1998

USA / 2001

Ghana / 2005

USA / 2008

USA / 2010

Norway / 2011

Zimbabwe /2013

USA / 1984

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Nigeria / 1998

USA / 2002

Trinidad and Tobago / 2005

USA / 2008

USA / 2010

France / 2011

USA / 2013

USA / 1991

Namibia / 1996

Ghana / 1999

USA / 2002

Trinidad and Tobago / 2005

USA / 2008

Jamaica / 2010

Trinidad and Tobago / 2011

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Including Jim Hines in 1968, just 94 men have

4Now meet the newest recruit... DID YOU KNOW? NINE OF THE SUB-10 CLUB HAVE SET THEIR

PR IN EUGENE. THAT’S MORE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 39

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9.84

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Canada / 1996

USA / 1999

Australia / 2003

France / 2005

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USA / 2010

USA / 2011

GBR / 2013

Jamaica / 1991

USA / 1997

GBR / 1999

USA / 2003

Nigeria / 2006

Jamaica /2008

Jamaica / 2010

Trinidad and Tobago / 2012

France / 2013

USA / 1992

Cayman Islands / 1997

USA / 1999

Nigeria / 2003

USA / 2006

Antigua & Barbuda / 2009

Jamaica / 2011

Cayman Islands / 2012

USA / 2013

GBR / 1993

USA / 1997

Canada / 1999

Nigeria / 2003

USA / 2006

USA / 2009

USA / 2011

USA / 2012

Jamaica / 2013

USA / 1993

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GBR / 1999

USA / 2004

Qatar / 2007

Jamaica /2009

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gone sub-10 in the 100m dash. Check out every name, every face, and every PR

always interested in fi nding out about how fast the body can move,” says Bromell, whose mother Shri is a former high school sprinter and father, Cashmere, is a former Canadian Football League player.

His teenage years read like a slapstick episode of the TV show ER. He broke his left knee attempting a backfl ip on the street, broke a forearm and his right knee playing basketball, and fractured a hip while sprinting. Those injuries eff ectively enforced a three-year break from the sport, from eighth grade through to tenth grade.

Weaker men might have lost confi dence after a triple injury blow. Not Bromell. “I used the injuries as fuel to the fi re, and in my senior year [2013], I had a blast.”

That blast included winning the US national junior title in a then- lifetime best of 10.27, and another eye-catching wind-aided run of 9.99 at high altitude in Albuquerque.

This season has coincided with his fi rst year studying communications at Baylor University, the alma mater of 12-time world and Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson. Bromell is based in Waco, TX, under the coaching of Michael Ford. A self-confessed “track rat” he watches

always interested in fi ndinabout how fast the bodsays Bromell, whoseformer high schCashmereF

40 TRAYVON BROMELL

9.9797999 997999 9Tr 9797999999 99hi 9797999999 9999A to Boldon knows his track. The four-time Olympic sprint medalist and respected broadcaster has urged caution when assessing

the potential of Trayvon Bromell, pointing out that many teenage sprint prodigies simply “don’t pan out.”

We’re sorry, Ato, but SPIKES is going to have to ignore you on this one. A ripple of excitement tore through the world of track and fi eld last month when Bromell 18, blitzed a new world junior record of 9.97 en route to the NCAA 100m title at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

The fi rst junior (under-20) athlete to crack the sub-10 barrier, Bromell is quicker than Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Maurice Greene or Usain Bolt were as junior athletes. Not just impressive, also inevitable. He tied the previous world junior record 10.01 in March, and even clocked a staggering wind-aided 100m time of 9.77 in May.

Raised by his mum and dad between the cities of St Petersburg, FL and Bridgeport, CT, it was during a street race with other kids that his uncle Terrell spotted Bromell’s gift for running fast – and urged him to join a track club.

On his competitive debut, aged 10, he won the 100m dash at a Hershey Track and Field meet in Pennsylvania. He hasn’t stopped winning since. “I always liked to run fast, and I was

videos daily in an eff ort to improve as an athlete. “I’ve always taken track seriously, and worked hard in practise. I never let people tell me what I can’t do, and I feel like nothing is impossible in this world. I want to push the boundaries of how fast the human body can run.”

His talent isn’t confi ned to the short sprint, either. “I have run a windy 20.23 and a legal PR of 20.59, pulling up in the last 10 metres, so I can run the 200m,” says Bromell, who off the track loves making short fi lms. He also owns more than 50 pairs of sneakers.

The Baylor Bear describes his fi rst legal sub-10 second performance as “a great feeling” but believes there is more to come, in terms of improving both his strength and technique.

His immediate focus is to perform with panache over 100m at the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, and lead the USA’s medal charge on home soil.

“I’m very excited to have that crowd support, and there’ll be a lot of love shown from the Oregon community,” he says. “They love their track and fi eld, and it is a real privilege to be there.”

Much like Ato Boldon, Bromell, who turned 19 on July 10, is reassuringly reluctant to make any rash predictions about what he can achieve over the course of his career.

“I just hope to be the best that I can be. I don’t look too far into the future, I just focus on the present. It is not about the money with me, it is about wanting to run fast.”

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG 41

SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS

Meet the new heroes of track and fi eld

<

7

It’s wet. It’s wild. And it’s easy to lose your head. US steeplechase champion Evan Jager tells SPIKES why his event requires a full complement of track skills and a whole lot of heart

 With 28 fi xed wooden barriers and seven fearsome water jumps to negotiate over seven-and-a-half laps, the 3000m

steeplechase can be the harshest event in track and fi eld.

Austria’s Gunther Weidlinger found that out when he slammed face-fi rst into a barrier and knocked himself unconscious at the Osaka 2007 World Championships. And at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics, Ioran Etchechury from Brazil (half-pictured below) dived head-fi rst into the not-so-clear blue waters of the steeplechase pit.

No other single event on the athletics program demands such a contradictory skillset. Oregon-based US record holder Evan Jager reckons that a top quality steeplechaser needs “the strength of a 5km runner, coupled with the elasticity of a hurdler.

“Athletes who run close to 100 miles a week in a straight line often lose a lot of agility and responsiveness,” says Jager, who placed fi fth at the 2012 Olympics and sixth at last year’s world champs.

“If you were to line up 10 distance runners, I would say most of them couldn’t slam dunk, but I can easily

THRILL OF THE CHASETHRILL OF THE CHASE

42 EVAN JAGER

Tidying up his water jump technique saved Evan Jager eight or 10 seconds a race. Do try this at home.

The approach“I start to think about the jump as I come off the previous barrier. Then, as I approach the water jump, I try to gauge which of my feet is going to be my plant foot, and which foot I’ll be placing on top of the barrier.”

The clearance“I’ll then aim to place the middle of my foot on top of the barrier, so that my spike is either gripping the top, or just over the far edge for maximum traction. I’ll then drive my arms and try to get a good push from the barrier.”

The landing“I aim to land as smoothly as possible on the same foot I’ve planted from. It should be a very fl uid motion. I’ll aim to land within about a foot of the end of the water pit.”

GET THE MOVES LIKE JAGER

jump to the rim. So I’m maybe a little more explosive, and perhaps one of the more athletic guys out there.”

In addition to the power and agility needed to get over the hurdles, steeplechasers need to be brilliant long distance runners. But even then, there’s no guarantee of success.

“You can’t just put a great 5km runner in the steeple and assume he will be successful,” says Jager. “It is hard to tell whether an athlete has the ability to steeplechase or not. There’s defi nitely an X factor.”

Another punishing aspect of the event is fatigue. The jarring sensation of jumping over 35 barriers can dramatically sap your muscles.

Jager likens it to running through quicksand...

“The fatigue can come on very quickly. Running over those

36-inch high barriers brings a totally diff erent level of pain and exhaustion. Until you’ve run in a

steeplechase, you can’t comprehend it.”

There’s more. To perform at the absolute pinnacle of the sport, you need a skill that few possess: top-end raw speed.

When Jager ran his PR of 8:06.81, he did so at a lightning pace of

4:21 minutes per mile. And he’s not even the quickest.

“I’ve realised the way Ezekiel Kemboi [Olympic and world champion] and Conseslus Kipruto [world silver medalist] run the last 300 meters is not a continuous build-up,” says Jager.

“They put in hard surges between the barriers, almost three or four sprints on that fi nal lap.”

So, to recap: these athletes must have iron man endurance; slick hurdling; a scary ability to soak up pain; nerves of steel; and blistering speed on the fi nal lap. It makes you wonder why anyone would bother. For Jager, it represents an irresistible challenge.

“It is completely diff erent from other distance events,” he says. “I get to concentrate on form and technique – and I also have to try and avoid taking a dive in the water pit. It is a lot of fun.”

Do try this at home.

HOW TO CLEAR THE DEADLY WATERS IN THREE EASY STEPS

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THIS IS ATHLETICS

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Jenny Simpson › EquestrianThe 2011 world 1500m champion spent many hours in the saddle before excelling as a middle-distance maestro. Competing in a range of Olympic disciplines like show jumping and dressage, Simpson learned to appreciate what was outside of her control. “I’ve found that’s a good lesson to remember if things have not gone so well in running,” she says. “There is always an element of the unexpected, so when the pressure is on, it’s important to stay calm.”

Mary Cain › SwimmingCould the secret to being a teenage middle-distance phenom be in the pool? Mary Cain was a competitive breast-stroke swimmer, which allowed her to build up endurance without pounding her legs. “I watched the Athens and Beijing Olympics thinking that maybe one day I’d make it to the Olympics as a swimmer,” Cain told SPIKES last year. And upon fi rst working with her, coach Alberto Salazar noted that “the muscles of her chest and shoulders were disproportionately developed.” Maybe that’s why, at Moscow 2013, Cain became the youngest ever member of a US world team, aged 17 and 1/4.

n

Track and othersportsThese US athletes can dunk like

LeBron, pass like Peyton and bend it like Beckham. SPIKES fi nds out how it helped their track careers

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THE ROOT OF ALL SPORTS

Brittney Reese › BasketballWe know the Olympic and world long jump champion as the world’s best forward jumper, but in her younger days she used her superpowers to soar upwards to the rim. Reese starred for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College as a talented shooting guard before her mom encouraged her to concentrate on athletics. That basketball apprenticeship served Reese well. “When you drive your knee forward for a lay-up, it’s the same as on take-off ,” she told SPIKES.

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Track and othersports

Alysia Montano › SoccerThe multiple US outdoor 800m champ fi rst honed her running ability on the soccer pitch. Playing in midfi eld and as a striker, the world and Olympic fi nalist says it made a positive impact on her running. “In a game I could cover six miles, which was great for endurance. But the short, sharp bursts of speed also helped my track.” Montano still plays in the fall and winter to help her conditioning.

Will Claye › FootballThe horizontal jumps hero starred as a promising high school running back, quarterback and wide receiver. Some say that in his younger days he was like a (much nicer) Michael Vick of New York Jets fame. Claye was off ered a college

scholarship to play football, but opted for track because “I was too small at

135lbs. If I’d taken a hit, it would have

been all over.” He says the experience of playing football made him tougher.

Ashton Eaton TaekwondoLong before he set the decathlon world record, Eaton was spin kicking his way to a black belt in taekwondo. Inspired by the Power Rangers, it proved a useful grounding for track and fi eld. “I basically started practising my hand-eye-and-foot co-ordination, balance,

strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness, three days a week from the age of seven until I was about 15.”

Jesse Williams › WrestlingNot an immediately obvious fi t with high jump, the USA’s 2011 world champion was good enough to make the high school state semi-fi nals in wrestling, and he relished his time on the mat. “I like wrestling because it is a very manly sport,” he told SPIKES. “I love working hard, and it is a sport where you can work really hard. On the track, I get very fi red up and I’m very competitive. I enjoyed wrestling for the same reason”.

Reese Hoffa › (not just) BaseballHe wrestled, played football, soccer, basketball, and also featured as a baseball catcher. Speedy glove work helped fi ne-tune Hoff a’s hand to eye co-ordination, which helped him to win the world title in 2007 and Olympic bronze in 2012. SPIKES also likes the fact that he can juggle, and he can complete the Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.

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