FAIRFAX, Va. -- Twenty minutes before he was supposed to begin the second day of the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America decathlon, junior T.J. Redmon ran into a problem. Actually, he ran into a hurdle.
As Redmon was warming up for the 110-meter hurdles on Friday morning, he landed on a hurdle and felt severe pain in his ankle.
"I really thought he was probably done for the meet," assistant coach Jan Ogilvie said. "We brought him into the training room, and they looked at it and said he had sprained his ankle. But he insisted, in his own stubborn way, that he wanted to continue. So we quickly taped him up."
Less than an hour after spraining his ankle, Redmon ran a personal-best time of 16.18 seconds in the hurdles. Then he turned in his best-ever performance in the discus. And the pole vault. And the javelin. And the 1,500-meter run.
By the end of the day, Redmon had placed eighth in the IC4A decathlon, earning a point for Duke in the meet and garnering All-East honors. He scored 6,516 points, nearly 300 more than his previous personal best. And over two days, Redmon--who beat Atlantic Coast Conference decathlon champion John Anderson of Virginia--set personal records in eight of the 10 events.
Redmon scored over 700 points in four events. But his biggest triumph and his highest point total (775) came in the discus throw. Redmon hurled the discus 45.40 meters on his first throw, barely missing the meet record for a decathlon. Feeling the pressure to set a new IC4A mark, Redmon was unable to match his first throw on his next two attempts, but his 45.40 mark was more than three meters farther than any other decathlete could muster on Friday.
Redmon said that he was pleased with his performance in the IC4A meet at George Mason. But success in the decathlon is nothing new for him.
"At my first meet in high school, my track coach said I was a jack of all trades and master of none, so he put me in a decathlon," Redmon said.
Redmon did well in that meet, and he went on to compete for the national title in the high school decathlon. When he came to Duke, Redmon anticipated continuing his career as a decathlete--he even had his eyes set on the 1996 Olympic Trials.
But Redmon--who came to Duke on a football scholarship--ran into an obstacle (not literally this time). The Blue Devil football program was struggling to win games, and then-head coach Barry Wilson was leery of allowing his players to run track in the spring, fearing that one of them could sustain a serious injury.
"When our record wasn't as good, the coaching staff didn't think that me running track would benefit our football program," Redmon said. "It's actually helped me [as a football player]. It's enhanced my performance cardiovascularly and in mental toughness."
While Redmon's track and field exploits have helped him get in shape for football, his gridiron experiences have also made him a better decathlete. This was evident on Friday.
"There's no telling how important his football training was to endure that real bad ankle," head track coach Al Buehler said. "Most guys would just say, `I can't do it,' but he continued, and he endured the whole second day with that."
Redmon dreams of playing professional football after he graduates from Duke next spring. But if he doesn't make it in the National Football League, Redmon should have little trouble finding work. He changed his major from sociology to public policy last year so that he would be better suited to pursue a career in the business world.
Becoming a professional decathlete is also a realistic possibility for Redmon. But in order to earn a sponsorship and perhaps qualify for the 2000 Olympic Trials, Redmon would need to add 500 to 1,000 points to his IC4A score. This is certainly possible, since he has improved by 1,000 points since spring break. Yet it would require more track practice than his academics and football schedule have allowed in recent years.
"I haven't really had a chance to train as much as I've really needed to," Redmon said. "When I was competing nationally, we practiced five days a week, eight hours a day, with no lunch break. At the end of every practice, we ran a mile in under six minutes. To be a good decathlete at the collegiate level, you really have to put in a good four hours a day."
Redmon may have the time to put in those hours next spring. By then, his Duke football career will be over, so he won't have to participate in spring practices. This will allow him to concentrate on improving in track and field events, which could help him continue to improve his decathlon scores.
"He has lofty goals of earning enough points to go to the NCAA championships next year," Ogilvie said. "That would require an awful lot of work, but at T.J.'s pace, I just don't know where he's going to stop."
Track gurus claim that the decathlon is the best test of overall athletic skills, since it requires competitors to have speed, strength, endurance and agility. But perhaps the most important quality for a decathlete is mental toughness, which is one of Redmon's greatest assets.
"Competing in the decathlon is like giving birth to a Cadillac sideways," Redmon said. "And I'm not even a female, so I don't know how it feels to give birth. It's grueling both mentally and physically, because if you don't do well in one event, you get down on yourself. But you have to just forget about it because the next event can be much better, and you can make up just as many points.
"I liken it to life's experience because sometimes you are going to stumble and fall, but you just have to pick yourself up and keep on striving to do whatever it is you want to do."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.