That flash of Kentucky blue across the television screen three weeks ago, the same one who jumped 7-foot-5 on his first attempt, knew what he was doing all along.
Grant Lindsey, the NCAA runner-up in the high jump with the sixth-best jump in the U.S. this year, called his shot last August.
The 19-year-old isn’t the reserved type in that respect. He’ll slap his hands together if he misses a height or, as was the case at the NCAA championships, leap off the mat with a yell when on a make. Was there any question he’d be the competitor with the scruffy mohawk haircut?
“I had a goal-setting period with my coach at the very beginning of the year and he said, ‘What do you want to jump this year?’ and I said ‘I want to jump 7-5,’” Lindsey, a sophomore-to-be, said. “He said it’s good you’re ambitious, but the point of this is to set a real logical goal,” Lindsey said, laughing.
“I just said, ‘Write 2.26 (meters) down on the paper.’”
That was in August, when the track meets were over and the pressure was off.
It took Lindsey the whole year, but his jump at the NCAA championships got him the Olympic Trials ‘A’ standard he’s wanted since 2005, when Eugene received its fourth bid for the Trials. It’s because the first Lindsey high jumper from Mansfield, Texas, to become a high-school All-American – Grant’s oldest brother, Jeff – jumped for Oregon from 2002-2006.
“Man, I wouldn’t have the Trials anywhere else,” he said. “Track Town, USA, is the place to be.”
His brother, a senior in high school when Grant was a seventh grader, continues to be the reason he high jumps. A soccer player at heart, Grant tried out the event in which his brother became a high school All-American. The Lindsey brothers combined for eight of the last nine district titles in Mansfield.
“Jeff’s always been my hero, and him excelling at something made me want to do it,” Lindsey said.
Despite what former high jump world-record holder Dwight Stones called an “out of the blue” performance at the NCAAs, Lindsey made a name for himself before June.
In high school, he jumped 6-6 as a freshman to start a career that would be capped by taking first at the 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals and a personal best of 7-3, an inch above his brother’s high school best.
“A family friend,” third-ranked American Jesse Williams, has watched Lindsey’s progress with interest. When Grant visited his brother in Eugene, the two trained with Williams at Hayward as often as possible. He even helped bump Lindsey into the elite section of the Drake Relays high jump.
“He said, ‘Dude, man, I really wanted to be in the elite section,’ and I was like, ‘No problem, I’ll get you in,’” Williams said.
“I walked up to the meet director and said, ‘This is Grant Lindsey, one of the top collegians in the nation.’ I ended up getting him in there and he did pretty darn well.”
His competition was limited to three meets during the indoor season, something he contributes to his “sleeper” tag, although he points out he jumped 7-3.25 to win the Jesse Owens Invitational in early May.
He went on to win Southeastern Conference and East Regional titles.
At nationals, instead of running from an approach 68 to 70 feet away from the mat, Kentucky jumps coach James Thomas moved Lindsey’s approach back to 74 feet to accommodate for extra adrenaline and speed he carried into the bar. Unlike the majority of high jumpers, Lindsey doesn’t raise his arms during his jumps for upward momentum, relying on speed for lift.
Stones compared the form to its inventor, Dick Fosbury. While Lindsey is proud to be mentioned with Fosbury, it doesn’t mean he thinks Stones is right.
“I’ve seen Dick Fosbury jump and I don’t think it’s like it,” he said.
Lindsey’s unorthodox form came from being self-taught, watching high jump videos and his brother’s form. Thomas is Lindsey’s first coach since he started jumping in seventh grade.
“I have a lot of faith in him,” Lindsey said.
And some in himself, too.
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