Florida Gators In the Olympics: Grant Holloway, Track and Field
The 2020 (2021) Olympic Games in Tokyo will begin on Friday July 23. As always, the Florida Gators will be well represented. GatorBait will spend the next couple of weeks introducing you to some of the biggest Gator names to watch for on the world stage.
The University of Florida and Florida Gators athletics program has been blessed with Olympic talent. For decades now, the Gators and the Olympics have been synonymous with each other. There is a laundry list of names; names that are known for gold medals and world records and legacies that can be traced back to Gainesville.
But few have been as successful as Grant Holloway.
The Track and Field star was special from the jump, tearing up the SEC and NCAA while in the Orange and Blue for Florida. He broke his own records and made Gator track events, must see TV. By the time Holloway graduated, he had helped bring three championships to Florida: the 2017 NCAA Division I Championship, 2018 NCAA Division I Indoor Championship and the 2019 NCAA Division I Indoor Championship.
Now a part of Team USA, Holloway is the reigning world champion in the 110 meter hurdles and current world record holder in the indoor 60 meter hurdles. While at the U.S. Olympic Trials last week—running in blazing, record setting heat in the Pacific Northwest—Holloway continued to make history.
The former Gator ran away with the 110 meter hurdles, leaving the man in second place in his dust. The spectacular run clocked in at 12.81 seconds. The time was 1/100th off of the world record. For the man who has made a habit of tearing up the world stage, it was just all in a days work.
“No emotions at all,” Holloway told USA Track and Field. “That’s what happens when you execute at a very high level. The main goal was to set myself up and to let everybody know that I'm here to win.
“I didn't come to this party to sit on the wall, I came here to dance. I’m very happy with what's going on and also with what's to come.”
Still, does he feel he could break that elusive world record?
“We’ll find out. I just think at this point it's definitely possible. A lot of people said I could never run 12.9 again.”
While Holloway was always destined to be special, there is still one man—and one program—that he credits with much of his success; Florida Track and Field Head Coach, Mike Holloway.
“Coach Holloway, from when he started recruiting me in 2015, he promised me that I was going to be an amazing man and also an amazing hurdler. As the years go on, he’s stayed true to his word. I don’t see myself leaving coach Holloway anytime soon,” says Grant Holloway.
Coach Holloway will still be with Grant this summer, albeit in red, white and blue as opposed to blue and orange. Holloway—who is in his 19th season as coach at Florida—was named the Team USA coach back in October 2019, when the Olympics were still scheduled to be held in the summer of 2020. That means he’s had to wait two and a half years to fulfill the dream.
“Being named the Olympic head coach is an incredible honor,” Holloway said at the time. “It's honestly something I never thought about. People mentioned it to me over the last few years. But, for me, I always wanted to be a coach of Olympic athletes, to have an athlete at the Olympics.
“This is something I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
For Grant Holloway, he’s just cherishing being with his Florida coach yet again, stepping onto the worldwide stage to do what they’ve always done.
"Me and Coach Holloway know what’s at hand. Everyday I tell the man that I love him, I tell him that I appreciate everything he’s done for me on and off the track. Like I said, me and him both have big plans.”
Do those plans include a gold medal? For Grant Holloway, there is no other option.
“If I don't say I want to win a gold medal, I don't think I should be going to Tokyo.”
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