Chantae grew up in Tennessee, Texas and Missouri because both of her parents were in the Army for 20 years each. Her coach was in Ohio and that’s where she trains. “My parents were really fortunate because they didn’t have to move a lot. The first eight years of my life we stayed in Tennessee Fort Campbell, then two years in Texas and Missouri for five years and then I went to college. I didn’t have to move a lot, but my mom did have to leave me to go to Korea for one year so that I could stay in the same high school for four years.” Most athletes just like doing one thing and becoming good at it. It takes a special athlete to take on a series of skills and participate in various events to become excellent at all of them. It also means more time practicing to perfect each skill. What type of person would put themselves through the strenuous exercises to become a heptathlete? “I had a really bad triple jump injury coming out of high school”, remembers Chantae. “So I didn’t want to triple jump anymore ever again and that left me with doing the long jump, but then seven events just sounded very intriguing for some reason and I wanted a challenge so I asked if I could switch over to that and that’s what I did.” Wow, training for seven events must mean her social life is really down the drain, but she disagreed and said, “No, actually I just spoke about that to my sports psychologist. I was wondering if having too many friends was a distraction and she said, ‘No’, she thinks that it’s good for me to grow as a whole person because as I walk on the track, its not just Chantae the track athlete, it’s Chantae and every other aspect of my life walking on the track.” Having friends to give you a mental break from always thinking about competing is a good thing. However, in any phase of life you will have to choose what types of friends to have around you. The best ones are the friends who have the same interests. In this way they will understand your busy training schedule that could put a strain on any relationship.
Caution Magazine ISSUE 3
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