Athletes at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships this week in Eugene, Ore., will be hoping to earn spots in this summer’s biennial world championships by finishing among the top three in their events. David Oliver doesn’t have to worry about that.
The Denver East High School graduate gets a free pass to the world championships, which will be held Aug. 22-30 on the track in Beijing where he in the 110-meter hurdles. He is going by virtue of being the .
The U.S. championships remain serious business for him, though.
“Having the bye, that’s cool, but I’m still going to the U.S. championships with the mind-set I always have — I’m trying to go there and win it and have a great performance,” Oliver said. “It’s an excellent opportunity to run three aggressive rounds and get yourself in the mind-set of a championship environment and not just (dismiss) the opportunity because you have a bye.
“Every opportunity to compete is a chance for you go to out and possibly set a personal best. I don’t take those opportunities for granted. I’m still attacking the U.S. championships like I have everything to prove.”
Oliver, 33, has proved a lot since winning his Olympic medal in his fourth season as a professional. In 2010 he tied and then broke the American record, finished the season undefeated and was named the outstanding U.S. male athlete by USATF. His American record (12.89 seconds) was broken two years later when Aries Merritt set the world record (12.80), but Oliver remains No. 4 on the all-time world list.
“Having the season I had in 2010, being able to get the American record a couple times and going undefeated and being athlete of the year just shows, ‘Oh, I see, it’s always more,’ ” Oliver said. “I just have the insatiable appetite when it comes to my career. There’s always more to get out of it.
“Then being able to finally win an international gold medal in 2013, that felt like validation or icing on the cake. But that’s still not enough.”
This season he has won in Beijing, Shanghai and New York, and he has the third-fastest time in the world (13.14) behind Pascal Martinot-LaGarde of France (13.06) and Merritt (13.12). That was their order of finish at the Prefontaine Classic May 30. Oliver had a bad start there.
“I’m clearly on track,” Oliver said, “better than I was in 2012, 2013 and 2014 at this point in the season.”
Oliver was a rising star going into the Beijing Olympics with legitimate hopes of claiming the gold medal. There he finished 0.25 of a second behind then-world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba. Oliver lost a fraction of a second when he and Ladji Doucoure of France brushed each other at the seventh hurdle.
“The year before (Beijing), I made my first U.S. team,” Oliver said. “That was like a steppingstone. Then to make it to the Olympic Games and win an Olympic medal is an all-time achievement. If I would have never run again after 2008, it would have been like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe what I was able to accomplish.’ I had no clue when I started running at Denver East High School that I would be in the Olympics, standing on the podium seeing the flag being raised at the Olympic Games, the pinnacle of the sport, in honor of my achievement.”
Oliver recently fired his coach, Brooks Johnson, after the cantankerous 81-year-old track legend took issue with Oliver for attending his best friend’s wedding a week before the Prefontaine, an important meet. and Oliver countered with an e-mail that became public.
“I had to let Brooks go,” Oliver said. “It was time for a change. He sent a nasty text message out to the media, and I just had enough. He didn’t want to talk about it face to face, so I had to e-mail him my feelings on things and how this just wasn’t going to work anymore.”
Oliver after injuring his calf warming up for the final round of his event at the Olympic trials that year. He left the track that day limping and grimacing.
But if he continues to run as he has so far this year, he should be a strong contender to make the 2016 Olympic team. He remains driven to excel.
“When you feel like you’ve accomplished everything there is to accomplish, it’s pretty much time to hang up the spikes and retire,” Oliver said. “I guess it’s just that undying will that I have and the fire on the inside. Nothing was given to me, when it comes to competing in this sport. Being a top-level athlete is not my birthright. I take it very serious.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
