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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > August > 13 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USAt 29, Atlantan Taylor still has his hurdles to clear
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beijing — The alarm would go off at 4. The work would start at 5. The alarm used to trigger the athlete’s training day. Now it was talking to an electrician: “Get up. You need the money. You lost your Nike deal. Get up. Now.”
“I did mostly low-voltage stuff,” said Angelo Taylor. “Up and down the ladder. We did the new dorms at Georgia Tech.”
Did they know him? How often would somebody walk by at Tech, a school Taylor once attended, and never realize the guy on the ladder doing the low-voltage work used to be a world-class athlete?
How many times did somebody walk by the parked Honda in a track stadium behind Turner Field in the early afternoon and see a man asleep in the car? A coach would arrive at 2 p.m. and bang on the window so the man would wake up. Another alarm. “Get up. You’re not that fast any more. You’re not that young any more. Do you really want to go back to the Olympics? Get up. Now.”
The alarm went off in Angelo Taylor’s head.
He is up now. Against a backdrop of physical, emotional and legal problems, the two-time gold-medalist from Southwest DeKalb High made his third Olympic team in the 400-meter hurdles.
He is 29 years old. Of the other 25 athletes in the 400, 21 are younger than Taylor.
It wasn’t that long ago when he was the young one — 21 and four years out of high school, he won two gold medals in Sydney. He won the 400 hurdles and ran a prelim for the 4x400 relay team. U.S. track officials named him winner of the Jesse Owens Award as its athlete.
Taylor made the Olympic team again in 2004. But soon after, his career deteriorated and his life went with it. Hurdles, the literal and figurative kind, nearly destroyed him. He had stress fractures in his shins. Doctors suggested surgery but Taylor passed, opting to take a year off.
Other damage was self-inflicted. In 2005, Taylor was arrested for having sex with a minor. He eventually pled guilty in 2006 to contributing to the delinquency of two underage girls and was sentenced to three years probation and fined.
“Sometimes in life you have your ups and downs,” Taylor said. “In my life, I’ve always had to go down that rocky road. But I’ve tried to stay positive.”
At some point, he realized he needed to grow up. He felt he needed to be a better example for his twin sons, Xavier and Isaiah, now 3. He knew he wanted to get back to the Olympics. He met with a coach, former Nigerian sprinter Innocent Egbunike. The two formed a partnership. Taylor became more spiritual. He worked in the morning and trained in the afternoon.
But these things never start out well.
“He was out of shape,” Egbunike said. “To be honest, he would throw up a lot and lie flat on the ground. But when I would say, ‘Let’s stop right here,’ he would say, ‘No, I’m going to continue.’ And he would still be throwing up. He struggled, but he did it. He had a vision.”
Taylor was asked what he considered the low moment. Easy answer.
“It would be [getting up at] 4 in the morning and going to work,” he said. “I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ But I kept praying, asking the Lord to please just give me another chance. I never thought I would make it this far.”
It took a while. Promoters wouldn’t let him into meets, mostly because he hadn’t been competing. The sport seemed to turn its back on him.
“It embarrassed me at first,” Taylor said.
He left the electricians job in early 2007 to devote more time to track. His times dropped. Remarkably, he finished third in the trials with a time of 48.42 to make the team.
Don’t trust the time? Taylor wears a bracelet that reads, “Test me. I’m clean.” He’s an advocate of cleaning up the sport. Unfortunately, it’s too late to save one of his golds. Antonio Pettigrew, a teammate in the Sydney relay, admitted using EPO and HGH. The IOC has stripped the team.
“I was on the relay team with someone who was dirty,” Taylor said. “That’s just the way it is.”
There are no relay teammates to worry about this time. Taylor made it here on his own. If it doesn’t work out, there’s a ladder and an alarm clock waiting for him.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Beijing Olympics
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Comments
By JSS
August 14, 2008 2:52 AM | Link to this
Tony Pettigrew is an Assistant Coach at the University of North Carolina and he’s not ducking anyone. So instead of taking backhanded and low shots at him, try contacting him: apettigrew@uncaa.unc.edu
Once again, you had a chance to act like a “real journalist,” but instead you choose the low “Extra” style of shoddy coverage.
You’re a SAD MAN!!!
By JC
August 14, 2008 4:04 AM | Link to this
Pettigrew is guilty. Just the facts.
By GT Grad & Female Fan
August 14, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
JSS - The man was only stating the facts. In addition, he didn’t do it in a negative manner. Relax a little. It’s great Pettigrew has changed his life.
By Brian
August 14, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
No doubt. Why can’t someone mention that Antonio Pettigrew confessed. He deserves credit for it, yes, but it isn’t the focus of this story. Chill dude.
By Peter
August 14, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this
It doesn’t matter if he confessed or not he’s still guilty. In addition he took the honest work of three teammates and flushed it because of his cheating.
Somebody help me with the “backhanded and low shots at him” I don’t see it.
By Track Shark Fan
August 16, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
I dont see any backhanded shots at Antonio, I see a statement of fact that explains why Angelo Taylor lost his gold medal, along with 3 other teammates. But the focus of the article is on Angelo Taylor’s struggles to get back to the Olympics so let our comments focus on that topic.
By Kyle
August 18, 2008 11:45 AM | Link to this
Gold in Beijing!!!!
Wow, congrats to AT, this has got to be one of the story’s of the games. This guy basically spent 8 years in the woods (so to speak) and he comes out of nowhere to win Olympic gold.
What a comeback.
Congrats!!
:)
By Sylvia
August 18, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this
Very proud of Angelo, his parents whom I went to college with, and his coach who is my co-worker with Dekalb County Parks and Recreation. God gave Angelo a second chance and he took that chance and ran with it. May God continue to bless him and his family in everything.
By stillluvtrack
August 18, 2008 6:33 PM | Link to this
What an humbling experience. Congrats Angelo, Karron and Bershawn. Awesome job on the clean sweep in the 400 hurdles America!
By rmetoyer
August 18, 2008 11:34 PM | Link to this
The story of Angelo’s rise from the ashes is even more touching after his amazing Gold Medal win in 2008; leading an American clean sweep. This is a story about redemption and getting a second chance. He made the most of it and I see a made for TV movie coming. Congratulations to Jeff Schultz for helping us to feel how low Angelo must have felt when he hit rock bottom. It isn’t about the past; it’s about the miracle of today. This is a powerful story that is even made better by the happy ending in Beijing. We should all feel that there is nothing that we can’t do, if we just give ourselves a chance! GO ANGELO!