He has four NCAA multi-event individual titles, two in the indoor heptathlon and two in the decathlon, and he’s poised to add a fifth by the end of the week. He has a lucrative professional track career waiting for him the moment he loses college eligibility. He is considered a medal contender for the 2012 Olympics in London, and Oregon assistant athletic director Vin Lananna says that anyone who disagrees “should have their head examined.”
Ashton Eaton is held in even higher esteem as a person.
“He’s got all the things. He’s a cool competitor. He’s a great team leader. He’s humble,” Lananna said. “He gets it. He has things in perspective. He’s an extraordinary kid. In many ways, really too good to be true.”
It might surprise some to learn that the senior from Bend is not perfect: for instance, his teammates.
“He’s a god,” said fellow senior Andrew Wheating. “A king. A pharaoh. Whatever you want to call it … he just gives off such a positive vibe. He’s a true leader and an inspiration to a lot of kids on our team.”
It might surprise his teammates, then, to learn that Eaton was spanked as a small child. Once. His mother, Roslyn, cannot remember what it was for.
Eaton was also grounded. Once. “For like five minutes,” he said. Again, Roslyn Eaton cannot recall why.
“Raising Ashton, we didn’t negotiate very much. I was the queen,” she said with a laugh.
His initial career plans haven’t worked out entirely as hoped. Though “Donatello was his favorite guy,” according to Roslyn, Ashton has yet to become a Ninja Turtle.
Nonetheless, seven years of martial arts classes, three nights a week, shaped him into a taekwondo black belt.
Even in his chosen event, the ride has not been smooth. Ashton had never competed in the pole vault before college. Or the shot put. Or the discus. Or, really, the complete decathlon.
“Ashton as a freshman didn’t have any idea what kind of future he had in track and field,” said Dan Steele, Oregon’s former director of track and field operations and the current program director at Northern Iowa. “He’s very, very young in his event.”
In competition, lack of success would frustrate Eaton. Once. That anybody can recall.
“I saw him flustered when he took two throws in the shot put at the 2008 indoor nationals. He fouled the first one. On the second one, he fell out of the ring,” Lananna said with a chuckle. “But he came back and did a good job.”
Eaton is also on his third multi-events coach. Oregon heptathlon legend Kelly Blair LaBounty was the first, working with him for a season. Steele coached Eaton for two
seasons before leaving for Cedar Falls, Iowa; Harry Marra was hired this year. Of course, none of this is a problem: “Ashton,” Lananna said, “is able to adapt.”
In the fall of 2007, Eaton’s sophomore year, Steele had an epiphany: “This guy could be one of the greatest decathletes who ever lived.”
“You kind of say it in hushed tones to people close to you,” Steele said. “Anything that I would teach him, he would be able to do almost right away. His improvement curve was something I’ve never seen before. He’s somebody who wasn’t just good; he was going to change Oregon track and field.”
Eaton’s successes, on and off the track, can be traced back to Roslyn.
“She’s somebody who you just can’t give enough credit for the life she was able to give to her son,” Steele said. “She gave him strong male role models in his life. You can’t put a price on what that did for him.”
“He has just been an exemplary child. He’s always willing to learn; he’s like a sponge,” Roslyn Eaton said.
Roslyn, a single parent, raised Ashton, an only child, by herself, with the help of family members and family friends.
“It might appear that I did something amazing to save him from being a statistic,” she said.
“Being Ashton Eaton’s mom saved me. In that way, we saved each other. He’s my greatest accomplishment. I’m so proud of him.”
Tate Metcalf , Eaton’s track and field coach at Mountain View High School in Bend, steered the Ducks’ attention toward Eaton and surprised him at the 2008 NCAA outdoor championships, making the trip to Des Moines in Roslyn Eaton’s stead to cheer him on. Two sets of grandparents — Jim and Jane Eaton from Santa Cruz, Calif., and Tommy and Carolyn Wallace from La Pine, Ore. — make trips to see their grandson compete as often as possible.
That support structure has sculpted Eaton into what he is today.
“Basically everything I’ve learned, I’ve gotten from my mom,” Eaton said. “She taught me how to keep things — I guess you could say general, but she had to do that because
I didn’t have a dad around. So, when you start something, finish it. She taught me how to
be polite and be gracious to everyone. I can’t really be specific. The way I am is a reflection of the way she taught me.”
This marks an important week for the Eaton family. Ashton, a psychology major, has to finish up final exams. Roslyn, a criminal justice student at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, completed three final exams yesterday as she prepared to see her son compete at Hayward Field for the last time.
“It should be an exciting time,” she said. “I can’t wait.”
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