Rodgers running for respect

[Jangle]

Wed Jun 24, 2009 By Joe Battaglia / Universal Sports
addthis_pub = 'jtv'; callRatings('article', '3755248', 'jtvs_23000', '', ''); Loading...
Related


Spotlight: Mike Rodgers

Photos of U.S. sprinter Mike Rodgers.


T&F: Rodgers shines in Pre 100m

May 13, 2009: Mike Rodgers joined the sub-10 second club in his 100m...


T&F: Men's 100-meter sprint in New York

May 30, 2009: Michael Rodgers wins versus an impressive field. [650k]


Inside Track: USA Outdoor Championship preview formchart

All of the top track and field athletes in America will descend upon...



1 of 4



/* idPrefix, currentItemId for display */var relContentStepper=new SimpleStepper('relatedContentItem','rcCurrentItem' );relContentStepper.maxItems = 4;EUGENE, ORE. – Two years ago, Mike Rodgers was unsure that he belonged competing against the best sprinters in the country, let alone the world.

He had just run 10.40 in his semifinal heat of the 100m at the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships in Indianapolis. Finishing fifth in a heat was a long way from qualifying for the World Championships in Osaka. And besides, when was the last time anyone heard of a runner from an obscure college like Oklahoma Baptist making it on the big stage?

With no shoe deal and seemingly light years away from a breakthrough, Rodgers was resigned to giving up on his dream for blue-collar life as a 9-to-5 employee.

“I was at USAs two years ago and I was going to quit track,” Rodgers said. “There wasn’t anybody trying to talk to me or to give me a chance. I was pretty content with everything. I had a pretty good job. I was the manager at a Champs Sports. I was getting paid pretty good. I had a place to stay, food on the table, clothes on my back. I had no worries in the world.”

A chance meeting changed everything.

While waiting online at the hot dog stand in Indianapolis, Rodgers bumped into former Jackson State coach Darren Woodson, who asked him how things were going. When Rodgers said he was planning to quit running, Woodson offered him an opportunity to train with his group in Austin, Texas.

“Darren came along and he said, ‘Do you want to give it another shot?’” Rodgers said. “I thought about it a lot and I said, ‘I’ve come this far, I can try it for one more year.’ One more year was the timetable I gave myself. I can tell you that I never thought I would come up fast in one year.”

Rodgers is proving to be quite fast.

The relatively unknown sprinter has overcome improbable odds to become the leading U.S. sprinter in 2009. With impressive victories over star-studded 100-meter fields at the Reebok Grand Prix and the Prefontaine Classic, the latter coming in a 9.94-second clocking superseded by only Jamaican world record holder Usain Bolt this season, Rodgers will enter the USA Outdoor Championships Thursday among the favorites to earn a spot on the national team for the World Championships.

“I’m just trying to stay focused and humble and to make the team to go to Berlin,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers’ professional career stemmed from humble beginnings.

As a high school senior, he won the 100m, 200m, 400m, and ran on the winning 4x100m relay at the Missouri state meet but did not garner much attention from the traditional collegiate track powers. He attended Lindenwood University in Missouri briefly before transferring to Oklahoma Baptist, where his achievements included an NAIA record of 6.696 seconds in the 60m. Even though he had a respectable PR of 10.10 in the 100m during his senior year in 2007, it wasn’t enough to grab anyone’s attention.

“It’s very hard because a lot of people don’t follow NAIA track,” Rodgers said. “Basically you have to get on the scene where all the NCAA athletes are and all the good JUCOs are. You have to go to some of those meets and perform better than they do when you get there. That’s when you start to turn heads and people are like, ‘Who is this guy?’But only when you start beating them consistently can you make it.”

Rodgers still wasn’t sure he would make it when he committed to giving professional running a second chance, joining Woodson’s camp last year.

“I ate nasty food every day and trained for the 400 by running 500s outside on the grass, not doing too much speed work,” Rodgers said in describing his collegiate background. “When I came down here, the workouts were really hard. I couldn’t finish workouts.”

But Rodgers did not give up and continued to toil. Determined to gain sponsorship and a foothold in the sport, he poured everything into the 2008 indoor season. His breakthrough came in Boston at the USA Indoor Championships, where he won the 60m in 6.54 seconds and qualified for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia.

“It was like, ‘Look at this guy. He doesn’t even have a shoe contract and he’s beating all of our paid athletes. We need to look at this guy and see what’s happening with him,’” Rodgers said. “There was some negotiating and stuff like that. Finally something came up that I wanted to sign for and Nike was the lucky company. I ended up signing a deal last May.”

But the pursuit of that deal forced Rodgers to race heavily during the indoor season, something that eventually took a physical toll. By the time Rodgers reached the U.S. Olympic Trials here last June, he had raced 30 times. Rodgers reached the 100m final but finished seventh in 10.01.

“I was burned out,” Rodgers said. “I ran in 45 races by the end of last year and I was running on fumes. I was just happy to make the final at Trials.”

Rodgers held out hope that he would land in the Olympic relay pool, especially after he was tabbed to run on several U.S. relays on the European circuit. But when he was not picked for the Beijing squad, Rodgers was left with a feeling of disappointment.

“I was kind of upset about that,” Rodgers said. “But it was motivational. I said, ‘Well, I’m not getting left home this year because I’m not finishing in the bottom half of the 100m.’ I’m not leaving that decision to anyone else. I want to put it in my own hands.”

Rodgers’ sole focus this season has been making the Berlin squad, and he has taken extraordinary measures to try and get there.

With his financial situation secure, Rodgers was able to run an abbreviated four-race indoor season. In February, he began two-a-day practice sessions for the first time in his career. He increased the amount of weight training in his regimen and added pool workouts to his base training.

“I went back to training for the longer distances, like the 200,” Rodgers said. “Last year, I only trained for the 60 and the 100 and the strength wasn’t there at the end of my race. When I was in college and when I was in high school, I did 400-meter base-training. I’m not running the 400 but I am running the 200 so I did 200-meter base-training this year. It’s made me a lot stronger and a lot more fit.”

Rodgers showcased that fitness at the Reebok Grand Prix on May 30. Running in lane one, he stunned a field that included former world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica and Beijing Olympic medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago, winning in a wind-aided 9.93 seconds.

“That Reebok meet was a turning point for the year,” Rodgers said. “All of the hype was on Asafa (Powell) and the other athletes, and they didn’t mention me once.”

Almost immediately after the race, the validity of Rodgers’ performance was diminished in the eyes of some by the hefty wind reading (3.1 meters per second) and the sub-standard health of both Powell and Thompson. But there was no second-guessing his effort at the Prefontaine Classic, where he clocked a wind-legal 9.94 seconds and beat Olympians Walter Dix and Travis Padgett of the U.S., Powell and Michael Frater of Jamaica, Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles and Thompson and Marc Burns of Trinidad & Tobago.

“People can say whatever they want about Reebok because I came back and backed it up again the next week, running out of lane two,” Rodgers said. “This year, I knew that if I could put together the end of my race, it was going to be trouble for a lot of people in the world,” Rodgers said. “I knew this year that I had worked harder and trained differently. Now that everybody knows I’m going to be a contender, they have to respect me a little bit.”

Rodgers knows better than most that respect must be earned. A top three finish in the 100m this weekend will garner boatloads of it. He figures to put himself in that position, he will need to run in the low 9.9s at the worst, and more like 9.8 to be in contention to win the race.

But with fresh legs – this will only be his seventh race of the year – soaring confidence and a yeoman’s work ethic, Rodgers seems to have what it takes to take the next step toward validation.

“Right now, I still don’t think I have respect because I don’t have any Olympic medals or world championships or anything like that,” he said. “I need to keep progressing and doing what I have to do to get to the top. I’m very fit right now, probably in the best shape of my life. After practicing this week and looking at the times that my coach broke down, I can tell you that it’s going to be an exciting Trials. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”