Grant Holloway of the US celebrates after winning gold medal.
Grant Holloway was a player in College Football but his thirst to become an Olympic star was always there.
Then came a time, when Holloway had to leave one of his passions to pick the other one - and he preferred to pursue his obsession with track and field, and become an Olympian.
The American choose the hurdles and made significant progress, becoming a US Collegiate champion, before dethroning Jamaica’s Omar McLeod to win 110m hurdles gold at the IAAF World Athletics Championships 2019.
“My parents asked me ‘do you want to be an NFL player or an Olympian?’ My heart was to be an Olympian,” recalled Holloway, who clocked 13.10 to win the title on Wednesday night.
“I wanted to do both when I got to the college level. My coach told me you wanna be the best on the track then stick with me and I promise you by the next Olympics you are going to be ready. He is a man of his word and me and coach Mike Holloway make an awesome team.
“Football is very unforgiving on your body. The question is do you wanna walk in your 30s or you wanna be in a wheelchair at your 35. I take my chances and choose the hurdles,” he said.
The decision paid off as hurdles gave him the gold medal in Doha.
“I’ve dreamed of carrying the American flag. It’s my first ever time holding the American flag. When I was young, I always missed out the junior team by one spot. If you wanna do something you take your heart out until you achieve it,” said the 21-year-old before adding that becoming a world champion was always his goal.
“I think it’s always been a goal. When we started it was on the back of my coach’s mind that I would make it to October. Blood sweat and tears. It’s been a long ride but this is what you work for in a Worlds year. You gotta go to Doha, everybody has to compete at the end of October,” he said.
Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov, who clinched a silver medal, said he was happy with his feat after a difficult year.
“This year has been difficult for me. A real challenge. Everybody remember my fall in Rabat when McLeod fell over me. At first it was nothing serious, but then it took a lot of time and effort me to recover and here after the final the first thing that emerged to my head was that it is finally over.
“I looked around and said I was second. Of course I was competing for the gold like every athlete does but I am really happy with the outcome,” he said.
Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagrad hoped the bronze medal will help him in Olympics.
“I will go to the Olympics with more confidence, although it will be different.
“In France we have an Olympic medal, Guy Drut in 1976 and Ladji Doucoure, a world champion in 2005. We have to follow the way, we are proud to be part of this French team. There is a French school in the hurdles, because it is great in France more than any other event. It is difficult to be a French champion. I’m not the French champion. I hope we will be good at the Olympics next year,” he said.
