Carson, Calif. – High jumper Matt Hemingway came home from the Athens Olympics with a silver medal, but he says his career is still on the upswing.
The former Buena Vista athlete has targeted the American record, along with winning a gold medal at the world championships in August. To get there, he must finish in the top three at the U.S. championships Sunday.
Charles Austin’s 12-year-old American record is 7 feet, 10 1/2 inches.
“I would love to jump that,” said Hemingway, whose personal-best is 7-9 3/4. “I think it would be great to do it at the world championships. Or the U.S. championships – I’m not greedy.”
Apparently he’s not being unrealistic, either.
“His training has gone extremely well, and his last couple of jump sessions have been as good as I’ve ever seen – from anybody,” said Hemingway’s coach, Cliff Rovelto. “He looks very good.”
Hemingway, a longtime Denver-area resident, relocated this year to Manhattan, Kan., to train full-time with Rovelto, a highly successful jumping coach who is the head track coach at Kansas State.
“I’m learning a lot about the event, which is kind of crazy – you’re 32 and you’re learning a lot,” Hemingway said. “It’s been a good fit. There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know. I was doing things like playing basketball and different drills that just kind of felt right to me. He’s got a system in how we do certain things and work on certain things.”
Moving to Kansas has required an adjustment.
“My commute to practice is four to five minutes, instead of 45 minutes,” Hemingway said. “As far as me putting down roots in Manhattan, Kansas, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think I’d go crazy if I was here full-time and didn’t go anywhere, but I travel enough to keep it sane.”
Hemingway said the biggest difference in his life since claiming his Olympic medal with a leap of 7-8 has been financial.
“I can afford to train,” Hemingway said. “Adidas really stepped up to the plate as far as giving me a contract I could live with. I could go all the way to 2008 (the Beijing Olympics) on that. The fact that I’m training full-time, not trying to squeeze in a workout here and there, is a huge change.”
Another huge change is on the way. Hemingway and his wife, Kate, are adopting a girl from China. They hope to bring her to Beijing to watch him perform in the Olympics.
In the past Hemingway, who is 6-feet-7, was notorious for using noon-hour pickup basketball for high jump training – he can dunk from the foul line – but he has given up his hoops habit.
“I gave Cliff the keys to my career – to the end,” Hemingway said. “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to stick to the program and see what happens.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
