Three facts follow the genial giant Reese Hoffa around the world. The first is that he burned down his house at the age of four. The second is that his mother put him into care soon after the fire and he did not see her again for nineteen years. The third, and not entirely unconnected, is that Hoffa can solve the Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute.
If the first two of these three things had never happened, then Reese Hoffa would be known as Maurice Chism, and he very probably wouldn’t be heaving a lump of iron out of circle for a living. Instead, the unexpected course of his life has brought him to the shot put, an event that his innate star quality is pulling out of the shadows.
Hoffa’s mother, Diana Chism, was still a teenager when Reese, copying his older brother Lamont, held a lighter to some curtains at their home and started a fire that destroyed the house. Weeks later, Diana took Reese and Lamont to the St Thomas-St Vincent Orphanagein Louisville, Kentucky and drove away.
‘Deep down I thought ‘maybe she’ll be back tomorrow’,’ says Hoffa. ‘But it never happened’. Instead, he was adopted by Stephen and Cathy Hoffa, something that brought more separation, this time from Lamont. ‘That was the hardest part,’ he says.
He was a shy and introverted child who resolved to please his adopted family. As he grew and grew and became an outstanding high school athlete, he tried to solve the mystery of his past, checking through phone books in towns where he competed, looking for his mother and his brother. ‘It was like looking for a needle in a haystack’.
Finally, when he was a senior at the University of Georgia, he stumbled across a message from someone who sounded like his mother posted on the internet. He was in a coffee shop in Atlanta when she rang to answer his email. The first thing he said was, ‘I’m so sorry about the fire’.
If the Reese Hoffa story ended there, with what became a happy reconciliation, it would be remarkable enough. But by the time Reese and Diana were reunited, he was already a commanding shot putter.
‘During that time when I first found her, she didn’t believe that I did athletics, much less got a full scholarship to go to college,’ Hoffa says. ‘She keeps track of every single thing I do and for me it adds to the amount of people that I’m essentially throwing for.’
Reconciling his past helped in other ways, too: ‘It took away the burden of the guilt I had of burning down my house when I was four years old.’
Yet all of that guilt and uncertainty also formed part of his character. Hoffa is driven by his desire to make his family, coaches and friends proud. His self-reliance manifests itself in the way he studied the Rubik’s Cube until he could solve it, and in the way he immerses himself in the technicalities of the shot put.
‘It’s the ultimate goal, figuring out how to get into that state of mind and get your body in that sort of shape to be ready to do something spectacular,’ he says.
He has accomplished the state often. He is the current World Champion, and headed for Beijing, the leading thrower in the world this year. Gold in China would add to his burgeoning fame: Hoffa’s face is becoming a familiar one. His love of pursuits like video games and the Rubik’s Cube, and his easy manner make him the most likeable and interesting