Trey Hardee: from basketball hopeful to decathlon world champ
World Decathlon champion Trey Hardee chats to spikesmag.com about his far from smooth rise to the top…
Like many youngsters growing up in the USA,
it was James Edward 'Trey' Hardee III’s dream to star as an NBA player.
Born into a sports-crazy family, Trey was fortunate enough to be born with his parents’ genetic gifts and he quickly started to excel.
"All my siblings and cousins did sport, but I'm the tallest person in my family," explains the 6ft 5ins Hardee to spikesmag.com.
"My dad was a long-torsoed swimmer and my mother was a long-legged runner. I got the long torso and legs."
He tried his hand at a range of sports, such as baseball, soccer and tennis but he believed his abilities were best suited to life on the basketball court.
Trey had been a key member of the basketball team throughout middle school and as a freshman and sophomore at high school.
He regularly made All-Star teams and
many predicted a bright future for the utility player. That was until his world received a shuddering halt as he entered his junior year at Vestavia Hills High School in Alabama
when he was unexpectedly cut from the team and was told to pursue pole vault instead.
It was, he recalls, a devastating blow.
"It was probably the worst thing to happen to me, and looking back
I was not ready for that," says Hardee. "I didn't handle it very well at all. I don't think I went to school the next day. I think my mum, and the whole town, couldn't believe it. I was always on the team and I even got a whole bunch of letters from people in the community offering their support."
Yet pole vault offered an escape route and a means of venting his frustration. Trey had some pole vault experience and the discipline appealed to him. The event, he says "was a whole bunch of fun" and he took on the new challenge with gusto.
"Nobody is naturally gifted at the pole vault," he explains. "It’s something you have to work on. It was not really an addiction, but sometimes it felt like it at High School."
He earned some encouraging results and was later accepted for Mississippi State University. It was here
he was persuaded by his coach to branch out and try the decathlon. He reluctantly agreed, but quickly realised he could run a useful 100m dash and had a natural ability in the high jump.
"Pole vaulters are often the ones who turn to the decathlon,” says Hardee. “It was like, okay, let's train for the decathlon and go from there.'"
However, his multi-event debut, an indoor pentathlon, does not hold too many fond memories.
"I did horribly," he recalls. "I was down in 13th or 14th and not having fun. I jumped 5.10m in the pole vault the next morning and I said, 'okay, I can pole vault so that's what I'll be doing (in future).'”
But
three weeks later he was persuaded to compete in his first decathlon and he acquitted himself much better to the ten-discipline event,
which gave him more scope to showcase his speed than in the pentathlon.
He racked up a score of 7156pts and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Suddenly, the US athlete was far more than just a pole vaulter he was now a decathlete – a journey which six years later would lead him to the very top of the world.
However, he insists this journey would not have been possible without his background in several other sports. In fact,
the Texas-based athlete is adamant for any track and field athlete, a broad background of sports is crucial.
"I played every sport under the sun while I was growing up," he explains. "My day care was going to football camps and playing soccer with my mates. I didn’t try track and field, at least competitively, until I was 16 or 17 years old but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
I got to try every sport and found out what I enjoyed. I got to grow into things, especially team sports. You learn about sportsmanship and learn what sport is all about. Track and field is more about testing yourself and learning about yourself and life," he says.
Such are Hardee's all around sporting attributes he could probably have excelled in several areas, but
spikesmag.com cheekily asks if is there one sport he is not so hot at.
"Water sports," he answers without hesitation. "I could be a decent swimmer but I struggle with anything that is being pulled by a boat. I can't wake board or (water) ski to save my life."
Thankfully, water skiing is not within the ten-discipline decathlon and does not blunt his current status as
the world's greatest all around athlete – a standing he might never have achieved had it not been for the, er, foresight of a High School basketball coach.
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