For those of you that are critical of Huffins' "will", "arrogance", and
"choke artist" tendencies you obviously don't know anything about the
following...
1 The Decathlon.
2 Chris Huffins.
To make it to the Olympics in the Decathlon, you have to have more "will"
than want. Huffins just ran the fastest 1500M of his life...a PR by 13
seconds. How many athletes do you know that have PRed by 13 seconds in the
1500M? Albeit, his previous PR was slow, but it was still the fastest time
that he had ever been able to "will" himself to, in his life. Look at his
marks... 10.48 (100M), 25' 3 1/2" (LJ), 50' 3/4" (SP), 6'10 1/4" (HJ), 48.31
(400M), 13.91 (110HH), 162' 6" (DT), 15' 5" (PV), 185' 7" (JT), 4:38.71
(1500M). I don't care who you are...you cant make those marks in an Olympic
competition without the "will" to train and win. The places that I believe
he could have done better are the Shot Put and Javelin. But those are not
"will" events, they are technique events. I know Chris, and he has the
"will" or he would be doing something other than the Decathlon with his
life.
About Chris's lack of arrogance...again you don't even know him, and cant
make a judgment based on TV interviews. Actually one of Chris's early
downfalls was his arrogance. He used believe that he could beat you with 9
events, and therefore used to run a terrible 1500M. He used to piss off
allot of the VISA Decathlon Team members with his arrogance, but Chris has
matured a lot and now is confident with his abilities and doesn't need to
run his mouth. Now he can let his athletic ability do the talking, not just
spout some useless babble.
What is a "choke artist"? Is it someone that lets the pressure of big meets
get to them, and therefore they mess up? If that is the case then that is
not Chris Huffins. His problem in the past was that he often let other
people beat him, because of his lack of 1500M ability. I believe it was a
mental thing that he was going through, because he really believed he
couldn't run the 1500. And I believe that if you turned the events of the
Decathlon around and started with the 1500M and ended with the LJ and 100M,
then people would say that he was a great finisher, because he would gain
allot of points in those events. Therefore, you have to look at all ten
events, and people will have strengths and weaknesses, but you are not a
"choke artist" if you stink at the 1500m...you just stink at the 1500M, and
you better have a huge lead on people going into that event.
Now, as for his interview...I can tell by the emails expressing that he is a
nice guy and should have been mad about finishing with the bronze and not
elated and gracious like he was, that you people (writing those emails) have
never had the "will" or guts to attempt and/or finish a Decathlon. The
feeling that you get when you finish a Decathlon fills your entire body and
mind with a great sense of achievement and pride. And that is just a
backyard, no name meet Decathlon. Imagine that feeling times 1000. That is
what it feels like to finish the Olympic Decathlon. And imagine finishing
the Olympic Decathlon with a 13 second PR in the 1500M, then you can
multiply that feeling by 1500 times (instead of 1000). Now, my theory (and
I speak from experience) is that Chris will come down from the high of the
Olympic Decathlon competition, a 13 second PR in the 1500m, and an Olympic
Bronze medal and he will analyze the numbers and wish he could have just
thrown 52' 7 1/4" in the shot, or 195' 11" in the jav. Either of these,
which are easily within his everyday abilities, would have given him the
Gold medal. He will have these reflections, but not until the hoopla quiets
down.
I personally think that Chris was a class act during his interview and
believe that he has a lot to be proud of. I hope that he keeps on
competing, because my level of respect for him as a Decathlete just jumped
by leaps and bounds.
Just my 10 cents...
Rob Muzzio
5th place, 1992 Olympic Decathlon...no medal but proud to have the
opportunity to represent the U.S.A. in the Games of the XXV Olympiad!
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