June 8, 2004
Published June 6, 2004 (free subscription)
COLUMBIA - Five years ago, Brett Halter thought Christian Cantwell was a myth.
Halter had heard tales of this hulking giant from down near the Lake of the Ozarks, this man-child who stood 6 feet 5 and who weighed more than 300 pounds, who could pick up a 16-pound shot put and throw it past a big tree that stood 50 feet away.
But Halter, an assistant coach at Missouri in charge of those who threw the shot and the discus or hammer, knew of only one person who matched that description. And that was Russ Bell, of Jefferson City High, whom Halter was already recruiting.
"Everybody was talking about this guy out of the lake area," Halter said. "But I thought, that's Russ Bell."
No, that was Christian Cantwell. Out of tiny Eldon, Mo., not Jefferson City. Another 20 miles closer to the Lake of the Ozarks in the Show-Me State's central core.
The same Christian Cantwell who on Saturday at the Oregon Classic heaved the shot put 73 feet, 11 ? inches, the longest toss in the world this year. The same Christian Cantwell who is suddenly now the gold-medal favorite for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
The same Christian Cantwell who now enjoys kidding Halter, MU head coach Rick McGuire and even friend and former MU teammate Bell about how they almost missed the man, the myth, and the growing legend that grew up in their own back yard.
"Just being so close to the university, you'd think that somebody would notice you," Cantwell said recently, trying his best to mount some wounded pride.
But then the big man laughed. He couldn't help himself.
"I was decent," Cantwell said of his final days at Eldon. "I wasn't great. My PR (personal record) in the shot was just over 60 feet."
***
Stories abound about Christian Cantwell.
One of his favorites is about older brother Chris and how his legacy at high school caused some confusion.
"When I was younger, someone would call you to come to the office," Christian said. "They'd go like, 'Chris Cantwell.' I was always telling them my name is Christian. He goes by Chris.
"All the teachers wanted to call me that, but I never would let them. That's my brother's name."
Blame Jackie Cantwell, Christian's mom, for the confusion.
"My mom just liked 'C' names," Christian said. "I get that question all the time."
Halter likes to tell the story of how, as a freshman at Missouri, Cantwell tried to quit after only his third meet. Halter told it again Wednesday, staring out of his office window at the Hearnes Center down onto the fieldhouse floor where Cantwell's depression hit rock bottom that first year.
"He broke 60 feet once in high school," Halter said.
He was struggling even to match that mark.
"After his third meet here in the fieldhouse, he sat in that corner," Halter said, pointing out through the glass, "and was going to quit track because he was so bad.
"Later that season he went on and threw 61 feet at the indoor national championships and was All-American. And later that season he went on to throw 64 feet (plus 6.5 inches) and set the Big 12 record."
A smile, a knowing smile, crossed Halter's face.
"I'll never forget it," Halter said, "and I'll never let Christian forget it."
But the best story about Christian Cantwell - better than anything about him going on to be a seven-time All-American, five-time Big 12 champ, 17-time All-Big 12 - is the story about how he almost didn't wind up at Missouri, a school that is at best a 45-minute drive north of his home.
***
McGuire contends that he and Halter first set eyes on Christian Cantwell while attending a high school basketball tournament in Versailles, Mo. A fan, recognizing McGuire in the hall, queried the two track coaches about why they were on hand.
The fan pointed out a tall kid, with the girth of a pro football player, at the other end of the hall. The fan didn't mention the kid's name, but did mention that Missouri was recruiting him for football and the fact that "he does track, too."
"Hope we see him," McGuire said, "and didn't think another thing of it."
But in March of 1999, two days before McGuire was getting ready to take his track and fielders on an annual spring competition trip, Halter received a telephone call.
"It was from a friend of the family out of Eldon," Halter said, remembering that the man asked why MU wasn't recruiting this big kid from the lake district, who had just nearly beaten Russ Bell in the shot put.
"I went, 'Well, I thought he was a rumor,' " Halter said, "that he was Russ Bell."
That was a Monday. On Tuesday, Halter drove down to Eldon and watched this kid - Christian Cantwell was his name - in a meet.
Saw how he really did have to avoid a tree planted 50 feet in the left-center of the shot put sector. Saw him throw that heavy ball some 59 feet, without benefit of a spin technique.
Two days later, Cantwell was in Columbia, talking to Halter and McGuire, with McGuire explaining that he had only 17 percent of a scholarship left to hand out, about $1,700.
Cantwell remembers what he told McGuire.
"I was offered a scholarship to play football at the University of Missouri and other places," Cantwell said. "I never really wanted to go anywhere else. I was born and raised just south of Columbia, about 45 minutes' drive.
"I grew up going to Missouri sporting events, and this is where I wanted to go."
Football, Cantwell suspected, wasn't going to get him to Columbia.
"I had a knee injury that I had to have surgery on my junior year. My senior year, I wasn't the same player. I knew coming into college that I wasn't ready to play football, mentally. I was still afraid of getting hurt again.
"I loved track. At the time I wasn't very good. But I knew that whatever I tried to be good at I usually became good at."
Cantwell was convinced, at that point, that he'd come for 17 percent of a full scholarship. Really, he was.
***
Christian Cantwell, these days, likes to talk about his arrival at the elite level of shot putting being inevitable.
"There really isn't any breakthrough," he said of the breakthrough of 2004. "We've done everything that we have the last couple of years. It's just the normal progression. We practice hard and lift hard all through the indoor season, never really peak for the indoor season, although I had a great indoor season. My best ever."
"Anybody who knows me, and sees me every day, knows that this isn't a big surprise."
McGuire nearly chokes on those words as he thinks back to the early days, the days that almost weren't.
"Nobody, and don't let anybody ever put the line out there, knew he was going to be this good," McGuire said. "There isn't any coach anywhere in the world that knows that."
But perhaps Christian Cantwell knew. Perhaps he really did.
He remembers the 2000 Olympic trials at which he felt he didn't belong with the likes of two-time Olympic medalist John Godina, and with Adam Nelson, the 2000 Olympic silver medalist. Cantwell finished fifth, but gained from the experience.
Cantwell has joined Godina and Nelson now. Before he pulled out of last Monday's Payton Jordan U.S. Open at Stanford because of a slightly tweaked back, Cantwell had won 11 straight shot titles, beating not only Godina but Nelson as well. He added his 12th straight title Saturday. The second- and third-place finishers? Nelson and Godina.
"Even though I beat them, I still feel I'm not as good as them," Cantwell said. "John's definitely someone I've looked up to for a long time. Having a chance to meet him and see him and to hang out with him, it's definitely been a treat. I see that he's not just a great athlete. He's a great person, too."
Nelson said he and Cantwell have become close friends since the last Olympic trials.
Nelson assessed Cantwell's status as the best in the world.
"He may be the one that puts the world record out a little bit farther," Nelson said, and then issued a warning.
"If I don't get there first."
Nelson contends that the old guard - Nelson and Godina - is just getting warmed up.
"In an Olympic year there is a particular phenomena that happens," Nelson said. "People that were hurt become healthy. People that aren't throwing well or weren't running particularly well, start running where they should be, or performing at the level they should be."
If that was a shot across Cantwell's bow, he doesn't seem particularly concerned.
"Coming from Adam, I don't see it that way," Cantwell said. "I see it as a reality. The veterans will get better. That's something that I and Reese (Hoffa) ... will have to get ready for. He's not lying.
"It's just him saying that things are going to get hotter and that he and John (Godina) are going to be a part of that."
***
It would be something if Christian Cantwell brought an Olympic gold medal, or even a silver or a bronze, home to Eldon, Mo.
"Eldon's not a very big place," Christian explained. "It's a little over 4,000 (population). But it's right down near the Lake of the Ozarks. So in the summer it gets pretty big with the tourists and stuff."
Christian Cantwell is big there, but just feels at home.
"I was there ... for Mother's Day," he said. "I don't know how big I am there. I just feel normal there. But my Mom, she says she can hardly go out to the store without people wanting to stop and talk for about 25 minutes.
"She just called me and told me they're going to have a Christian Cantwell Appreciation Day coming up pretty soon. I don't know if I want that to happen. But it's definitely an honor just to have somebody say that."
***
Christian Cantwell has come so far, a point not lost on the MU track coaches who didn't have to go so far to get him, and who continue to help guide his shooting star in the world of shot put.
"He came out of Eldon," Halter said, beginning to muse. "He was throwing in a shot put sector that just 50 feet left of center had a big tree in it. He was throwing trying to miss the tree. And if it rolled too far, it rolled out of the sector down a hill into the creek."
McGuire turned the view ahead, to the Fields of Olympia, where the original ancient Olympic Games were held, where the 2004 Olympic shot will again me heard around the world.
"Christian is thinking it's the coolest thing going," McGuire said.
And trying not to.
"You really can't let it consume you," Cantwell said. "The ring's still seven foot. The ball's still 16 pounds."
But then, Christian Cantwell added words that show just really how far he has come.
"I'm going there," Cantwell vowed, "to win."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cantwell's career highlights
* 2000: Won Big 12 outdoor meet, 64-6.5.
* 2001: Fifth at NCAA outdoors, 63.275; won Big 12 indoors, 63.75.
* 2002: Second at USA indoors, 68-6.25; third at NCAA indoors, 67-0.5; third at NCAA outdoors, 63.75; won Kansas Relays, 70-1.5; won Drake Relays, 69-1.25.
* 2003: First at World Athletics final, 68-8; second at NCAA outdoors, 70-9; third at NCAA indoors at 67-8.75; ranked No. 8 in the world, and fourth in the U.S. by Track & Field News.
* 2004: World indoor champion at 70-6.25; U.S. indoor champion at 69-9; first at Millrose Games, 69.975. Hit six throws of 70 feet-plus at the Home Depot Meet on May 22, including 73-4; ranked No. 1 in the world. Threw 73-11.50 on Saturday, the longest toss in the world this year.