Olympic Q & A: Reese Hoffa – US Track & Field – NEWS – 2007 World Outdoor and 2006 World Indoor shot put champion Reese Hoffa is in Dalian, China

2007 World Outdoor and 2006 World Indoor shot put champion Reese Hoffa is in Dalian, China for Team USA training camp as he prepares to compete at the Olympic Games. The 2008 Olympic Trials champion, Hoffa recently spoke to the media. Below are excerpts of the conversation. For a full bio of Hoffa and all Team USA track & field athletes, visit https://www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicGames/roster.asp.

    Q: From the fun side and the serious side, what do the Olympics mean to you?

    A: I look at the Olympics as I want a validation of all the hard work that I have put in, year after year. I realize that this is probably going to be one of the funnest events that you are ever going to get to do in you're entire career. I've won World Championships, Indoors and Out, and I've been world number one but to win the Olympics, there is nothing that is held higher in society than that. I was a 2004 Olympian, and you become an instant role model. It doesn't matter what you do in your career and in life, everyone is going to remember that you are an Olympic champion.

    Q: You've done great things in the sport and you've done them clean. Do you take a lot of pride in that?

    A: I do. I guess it kind of starts with John Godina, setting the precedence. Going out there and showing younger guys that you can be a multiple world champion, multiple world number one and make an incredible career out of throwing. I think Adam Nelson, myself and Christian Cantwell are setting the tone for the athletes that come behind us. You can be very successful in the shot put and you can do it clean and all that it requires of you is to work your butt off and just throw.

    Q: How realistic is it that the U.S. men sweep the shot put?

    A: I really think it's very realistic. It's going to come down to the kind of shape Adam and Christian are in when they get here. Adam is a wily old veteran so he probably won't have any problems. I will be intrigued to see what Christian does; he could be the guy that wins the Olympics no problem because he's so powerful. I give it a fifty-fifty chance. I wouldn't want to go too much higher than that.

    Q: Does the pressure of being an athletics celebrity change the way you prepare?

    A: I don't really look at myself as a celebrity. I realize that I'm very good at throwing and I've been good for a while. I'm in the fortunate or unfortunate position of wining the World Championship heading into an Olympic year so the eye of the world is kind of on me to continue that success. I definitely feel the pressure but when I step in the ring that's my office and I can just go there and take care of business.

    Q: Everyone thinks the Americans are the best. And Coach Thornton said the shot putters are what is going to set the tone at these Olympics. Do you agree?

    A: I definitely think we set the tone for how the team does. It goes back to the pressure. Everyone goes out there and expects great things from us, they're expecting us to sweep. It's tough, I would love to be the class of Olympic athletes to sweep but everything has to go right. We have to go out there and earn it. If we don't go out there and hit the marks that we're supposed to hit then we don't dominate because there are a lot of quality European athletes out there. I'd like to sweep and I'm sure Adam and Christian would too.

    Q: What is your relationship with Adam Nelson?

    A: Well the relationship I have with Adam is more of from when he was at the University of Georgia, he was like my mentor. He was the athlete that I looked up to and wanted to model my career after and for the most part I have been able to do that. I modeled the way I do everything after what he has done in his career and what he has done as a professional athlete. I think we still keep that kind of relationship. We're always talking about ways that we can be better. I always talk about my wife and his business and how we're going to move past being just throwers and into "real" life.

    Q: The four top Americans are almost thought of collectively as a group. Is that a correct assessment?

    A: It is. I love that. For me, I want to progress the sport so that we have a lot of throwers out there. I want to see some of younger guys, Noah Bryant, Russ Winger, those guys that are turning pro this year, have an opportunity much like myself to get into the bigger meets in Europe and the U.S. but the problem is that they really only want us four. We're kind of that package deal. It's good on our part because we put out that consistent product every time we throw. There's always going to be somebody who throws over 70 (feet), if it's a great meet we will have three guys over 70 feet and it's going to make every competition look good on paper.

    The perception in Europe is if there aren't three or four Americans in the field, then the world is not going to look at it as a quality field because they know how good we are and how many medals we have on these teams. You know, Christian Cantwell has two World Championship medals, I have two World Championship medals, Adam has boatloads of medals behind his name. If you don't have these athletes in your field, then you're saying "well, we just want to have kind of an all right meet" but if you get all three of us then everyone is going to want to see it. It's going to be televised because everyone wants to see what we're going to do because we always do well.

    Q: What are the types of different things that you've done in competition?

    A: I've done the "unknown thrower". That was primarily to get into one of the Golden Spike Tour events. I was only a 67 foot shot putter and they weren't going to let me in. At the time they had Adam (Nelson), John (Godina), they had CJ (Hunter) and Kevin Toth. And some other guys were in there too. You know, I'm on the east coast, I had to pay a lot of money not throwing 70 feet. So they approached me and said would you mind doing this to promote this meet in California and I said absolutely. I got a little money and they flew me out there. I put a mask on, had blue tights on as the unknown thrower trying to make like no one knew who I was. It was great. There were two articles in the newspapers talking about the "unknown thrower" coming, who is this guy kind of deal. It was great for me. I went from 67 to almost 69 feet.

    The turkey leg thing started at Drake Relays my sophomore year after winning the first year. I wanted to mix it up in terms of victory laps and stuff like that. I was like hey, give me a turkey leg because it's more synonymous with big throwers. People are going to look at you and say oh, wow that's great. I did it again at the U.S. Nationals in 2007. I did a little bit of posing and just had a lot of fun with it.

 Vicky Oddi
Communications Coordinator

Vicky.Oddi@usatf.org