Former Jayhawk going for gold at Paris Olympics
Bryce Hoppel, of the United States smiles after a men’s 800 meter semifinal at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – After claiming the indoor 800-meter world title, Kansas alumni Bryce Hoppel has again outdone himself.
The Midland, Texas native finished with a gold medal at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials, setting a new personal best and breaking a 32-year-old meet record.
“It’s definitely an honor to be up there with some of the all-time best times, so it’s fun,” said Hoppel.
With his stunning performance, Hoppel earned himself a bid to his second-straight Olympic Games.
“I think a large part of it was going in confident and knowing what needed to be done. I’ve been at that stage before, and it’s really just a culmination of a lot of things and feeling great and really just ready for this Olympic year,” he explained.
Michael Whittlesey, Hoppel’s coach, explains he wasn’t surprised the young athlete was able to rise to the occasion.
“What I’ve loved always about Bryce’s mentality is when he sees a competitor run really fast at another meet, he just kind of gets really excited because when he goes up against them, it just means they’re going to run fast,” Whittlesey said.
The two have worked together for the last seven seasons since Hoppel was a freshman at KU. However, this year, training looked different. Hoppel moved from Lawrence to Flagstaff, Arizona.
“I’m living here with Hobbs Kessler, and we’ve trained together, and everything has been going really well. Like I think the culture that we have here and how well we train together has been definitely propelling me to the next stage. And I’m excited to see how much further it takes this for sure,” said Hoppel.
His practices are different, but the goals remain the same.
The thing about Bryce is we don’t really have to talk about those things because every race he wants to go in and try and win. It doesn’t matter who he’s going against,” said Whittlesey.
In 2020, Hoppel fished as a semifinalist at the Tokyo Olympics. This time around, his goal is to place on the podium.
“I had big goals going into that, too, but we fell short. But now that I’ve had a lot of experience on the world stage, and this will be the second time going around. I think we know what to expect, and I definitely position myself well in the world,” said Hoppel. “And I guess, I mean, again, I’m going in with high expectations, and I’ll be a little disappointed if I come home with anything less than some hardware.”
