Florida Gators In the Olympics: Track and Field Coach, Mike Holloway
Mike Holloway has only ever wanted to coach Olympians.
It was his dream as he worked at Krystal’s and managed another fast food joint called Taco Nacho.
It was his goal as he coached at Buchholz High School and Gainesville High School.
It was his motivation as he was hired at the University of Florida as an assistant more than two decades ago and it’s become the marker for a storied career.
Now, the Florida Gators men’s and women’s Track and Field coach will achieve his dream at the ultimate level, as head coach for Team USA Track and Field in the 2020 (2021) Tokyo Summer Olympics.
“I'll be honest with you,” begins Holloway, meeting with local media this week ahead of traveling to Japan, “I’ve never thought about being the head Olympic coach. I always wanted to be a coach of Olympians and when I got the call and it was official, [I was] going to be the head coach, I mean it's very humbling to be honest with you. When you're asked to lead the best team on the planet, you know that's it's an incredible honor. So, yeah, we get a little goosebumps when you think about stuff like that.”
Holloway—or “Mouse” as he’s known around campus and the track and field world—has been with the Gators since 1996 when he joined the staff as an assistant coach. He’s in his 19th season as the men’s head coach and 14th as the women’s head coach as well. Holloway is one of five coaches in Division I history to win at least eight men’s team NCAA Championships, one of three to win at least six since 1980, and is one of three in history (along with Ted Banks and John McDonnell) to win at least four titles both indoors and outdoors.
But perhaps the most impressive part of Holloway’s resume are the names that will join him in Tokyo this summer, donning the red, white and blue instead of the orange and blue.
One of those athletes will be Taylor Manson. The 4x400 relay runner struggled at the latest NCAA Indoor Championships. But she and her coach believed in each other and now they’ll get to experience the Olympics together.
“I mean I am extremely excited for Spider,” bragged Holloway of Manson. “Indoors didn't go quite the way she wanted, and we had a talk afterwards and she said, you know she's always told me she wanted to be an Olympian. I said just remember there are no indoor Olympics so your goal of being an Olympian is still out there. And the great thing about her was she trusted me, I trusted her, we trusted her training and she was right when she needed to be and she's now an Olympian so I'm extremely excited to see her compete here in a few weeks.”
Of course all eyes though will be on Florida Gator great and World Record holder, Grant Holloway. The 110m hurdler is poised to take gold and set a new record in the process. For the man that has been with him for years and continues to train the Olympian, it will be a special time…but he’ll have to think about that later, because for Grant’s sake, Holloway is employing the tried and true coaching tactic of keeping things light.
“We believe that if Grant executes at a high level, he'll be hard to beat. I'll just leave it at that. Grant is a phenomenal athlete, we all know that. I don't put pressure on my athletes to perform at, you know, at a certain level and run a certain time.
“My total goal with Grant is to make sure that he executes at a high level. If Grant goes out there and does his best and someone beats him then, they were just better than us that day, But my goal is to make sure that Grant is at his best for three more flights of hurdles.”
Whether coaching his former Gators or some of the others that make up the best athletes in the world, Holloway will leave Gainesville next week and head to Tokyo with one goal in mind. Do his best for his charges. That’s his only focus and if he does that, the medals will come.
“As long as I go out there every day and do my best, I can walk away with my head held high. So, it's not about medals. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we go out there perform well, we’re gonna have a lot of great performances with this team. It's a young team that's phenomenally talented and I think the big thing for us is to be there for them and help them get to where they need to be, when they need to be there. We do that, we'll have a great games.”
That being said, Team USA Track and Field could come home with plenty of medals. From Grant Holloway to Allyson Felix, this roster is stacked. And Mike Holloway just has to remember, this is everything he’s trained for, everything he’s dreamed of and everything he’s been meant to do—coach Olympians.
Getting to this point though is more than just Mike Holloway’s dream; it’s the dream of every little kid who ever took up the sport. And as he spends the next few weeks leading this team through the Summer Olympics, he can look around and see a few faces there and humbly admit he’s a large reason they’re achieving their goals, thanks in large part to their time together as Florida Gators.
“It's a wonderful thing to watch,” says Holloway. "We talk about these things in a recruiting process. We kind of have what we call a pathway to success; we talk about them during the recruiting process.
“We talked about being on this [Olympic] team and people realize that, it's been a lot of fun to watch them. I mean, once you’re a Gator, you're part of this family forever. There's no such thing as a former Gator, you’re a Gator great and the fact that we are able to watch these young people continue to pursue their dreams is awesome. It really is.”
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