# One of my former Track athletes competes in the Olympic trials this week. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 7, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271 "2016-07-07T00:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/1 "2016-07-07T00:32:46Z")
I’ve rarely been prouder, even though my involvement ended a couple years ago. I have coached Middle School track for 6 years and in that time, I have watched many athletes continue on into High School and succeed. I have a few State-level champions “under my belt” so to speak. One of them, once he was a junior and senior in high school, went to Michigan’s State Track meet and won the high jump event. He also set the State record. Anyway, what do you know? He has now qualified for the US Olympic trials in the high jump event. No, he won’t make it to the Olympics, but he did qualify and raised the money online to actually go and give it a shot. Something he’ll be proud of for years to come. And so will our school district. His name is Robert Atwater and he competes Friday in Eugene, Oregon. [Here he is in High School jumping at the state championships.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHcg5BAraO8) [Here is an article about him from the news.](http://www.mlive.com/sports/2016/07/svsu_high-jumper_robert_atwate.html) His personal best, according to my co-coach who has been following, is 7’2 or 7’3. The opening height is, I think, 7’0. He won’t qualify for the Olympics, but the whole experience is awesome. I’ll be streaming the trials on Friday around 4:00 from NBC’s web site. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/2 "2016-07-07T00:57:17Z")
Awesome video of his efforts that day. Congratulations to him, and to you of course. You have every right to be proud. That is great that he is going for it! ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/3 "2016-07-07T01:19:17Z")
That’s great! Congratulations! I hope he has a super experience. What an accomplishment to be at that level. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/4 "2016-07-07T02:49:43Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > That’s great! Congratulations! I hope he has a super experience. What an accomplishment to be at that level. He’s using it to get a free university education as well. It’s worked out really well for him. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/5 "2016-07-07T03:18:07Z")
That’s every coach’s dream(and nightmare) is to have a world-class potential athlete to work with. Closest I came was my high school track team. [Bill Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Green_%28sprinter%29) As a senior, he set a HS Nat’l record in the 400 (45.51) and as a college freshman, won the Olympic Trials 400. Unfortunately, that was the boycott year. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/6 "2016-07-07T04:06:27Z")
I think that’s great! Congratulations to both of you! I’m always happy to watch something when I’m rooting for one of the athletes, so this will be enjoyable. I hope he goes all the way. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/7 "2016-07-07T12:27:35Z")
Good high school friend (and teammate) got 12th or 13th in the trials 10,000m many years ago. Still keep in touch with him. He may still be my high school’s mile and 2 mile (or equivalent current metric distance) record holder. Also knew (and ran with) a number of people who ran in the marathon trials, but there is a much bigger field for that. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/8 "2016-07-07T20:58:42Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Anyway, what do you know? He has now qualified for the US Olympic trials in the high jump event. No, he won’t make it to the Olympics, but he did qualify and raised the money online to actually go and give it a shot. Something he’ll be proud of for years to come. And so will our school district. > > His name is Robert Atwater and he competes Friday in Eugene, Oregon. > His personal best, according to my co-coach who has been following, is 7’2 or 7’3. The opening height is, I think, 7’0. He won’t qualify for the Olympics, but the whole experience is awesome. > > I’ll be streaming the trials on Friday around 4:00 from NBC’s web site. It’s also on NBC Sports Network starting at 6:00 Eastern (the high jump starts at 7, although TV coverage usually cuts into and out of field events). Once they get down to 9 or so, the high jump finals are on Sunday. Here’s something that surprised me: the Olympic qualifying standard is 2.29m, or about 7’ 6 1/8" (although if there aren’t 32 men who jump this high, they can invite other jumpers). I remember when that was close to what the world record was. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/9 "2016-07-08T00:27:49Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > It’s also on NBC Sports Network starting at 6:00 Eastern (the high jump starts at 7, although TV coverage usually cuts into and out of field events). Once they get down to 9 or so, the high jump finals are on Sunday. > > Here’s something that surprised me: the Olympic qualifying standard is 2.29m, or about 7’ 6 1/8" (although if there aren’t 32 men who jump this high, they can invite other jumpers). I remember when that was close to what the world record was. The record is still 8 ft and a quarter inch. You know what else is 6 inches? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/10 "2016-07-09T03:38:02Z")
Update: He competed, but failed to clear the opening height in his 3 attempts. It was 7’0.25, actually. Still, very cool to reach the top level of the sport. He was up against the top 20-25 jumpers in the nation, which includes him. [Results have been posted here.](http://trialsresults.usatf.org/) ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/11 "2016-07-11T13:40:56Z")
That high jump was tough - only the winner managed to clear the Olympic qualifying standard height. I am still confused as to why NBC and whoever writes USA Track & Field’s press releases are under the impression that the three Olympic spots go to the top three finishers who have met the qualifying standard; that was true through 2012, but now there is a provision for inviting competitors who didn’t make the standard in order to fill out the field (32, for field events - NBC even mentioned this when they noted that no USA athlete has met the standard in (IIRC) the men’s hammer throw), and I have seen nothing that prevents IAAF from inviting USA athletes even though there are already three who made the qualifying standard - and USATF has a rule that says that an athlete that gets an invitation takes the place of an automatic qualifier if the invited athlete finished better at the trials. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/12 "2016-07-11T18:29:46Z")
Missed the edit window… Okay, they get a pass on the high jump, as, even after each country is limited to 3 athletes, there are more than 32 high jumpers that met the qualifying standard, so there almost certainly will not be any “invitations” (aka “wild cards”). It took me a while to find when Brad Atkins had a qualifying jump, until I remembered that indoor high jumping events can be used for qualifying jumps. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-of-my-former-track-athletes-competes-in-the-olympic-trials-this-week/759271/13 "2016-07-12T11:04:18Z")
You can’t even manage to go metric for athletics? Come on! Anyways, I’ve been thinking about this lately, when actors say “It’s an honour just to be nominated” and how true that is. In fact, I reckon getting to that level is a sign of respect from your peers, whereas winning is merely a bauble. Though it’s not quite the same for sporting events, I’m sure in a similar way it really is a great thrill just to qualify for trials. Good for him to get that far.