Aug. 21, 2004

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Starting Monday, Tiger sophomore Hans Uldal will start competition in the decathlon at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Uldal, the only current Tiger in the Olympic Games, will represent his home country of Norway in the two day competition. Former Tiger Derrick Peterson starts competition with the opening round of the 800-meter run on Wednesday. It is the first time more than one Tiger will take part in the Olympics since 1992. Hans Uldal found out on August 6th that he would represent Norway in Olympics as a decathlete. Norway selected Uldal, who scored a new school record of 7,733 points at the Norwegian Championships two weeks earlier, earning the Olympic "B" qualifying standard. Uldal also this year finished fifth at the NCAA Championships and second at the Big 12 Championships. The story of Uldal's season is not as storybook as it seems. Uldal red-shirted the indoor season to recover from surgery to repair an artery wrapped around his kidney and started slowly in the outdoor season. His first decathlon was at the College Station Multis where he began with a decent first day, but was plagued with minor injuries and only completed two events on day two. The next decathlon Uldal would complete was at the Big 12 Championships. Uldal was runner-up in the conference, finishing with 7,329 points after earning a personal best in the pole vault. "I'm kind of glad it worked out that I didn't have an indoor season," Uldal said. "It would be hard to maintain a good shape for eight or nine months to prepare yourself for this long of a season." A true testament to what Uldal is capable of came at the NCAA Championships. After the first day, Uldal stood in 16th even after scoring personal bests in the 100-meter dash and the shot put. Uldal led off day two with three personal bests in the 110-meter hurdles, discus, and pole vault, setting up a special circumstance. For the final event, the 1500-meter run, Uldal could have scored his goal of 7,820 points, and earned an Olympic qualifying mark, if he had just ran at his personal best in the event. After setting a great pace that set him up for the PR for the first three laps, a combination of the heat and humidity coupled with the grueling nature of the decathlon came to the forefront in homestretch. With about 50 meters to go, Uldal hit the preverbal wall, falling to the ground. After once getting up and falling again, Uldal picked himself up and dragged across the finish line. Uldal still scored an impressive 7,661 points despite the set back and placed fifth in the nation, earning the first All-American honor for a Tiger decathlete. After the NCAA Championships, Uldal had to refocus and recover, still trying to qualify for the Olympics. Uldal then traveled to the European Cup in early July in Latvia. "I was on a 7,700 to 7,800 pace after the first three or four events in the E-Cup," Uldal said. "But, I had to drop out because of a sore Achilles. After that I wasn't too optimistic about my chances." At the Norwegian Championships, Uldal led off the competition with his best 100-meter dash and long jump of his career, spurring him on to his personal-best, school-record score of 7,733 points to get the Olympic qualifying mark. Now, the Norwegian Committee had to choose between Uldal and Benjamin Jansen. "Once I had those two events to kick off the competition, I believed I could do it," Uldal said. "Once I got the mark I knew my chance of getting in the Olympics were 50/50. The Olympic Committee had to decide and compare marks and differences between competitions, etc." Uldal may have been a good choice for the committee because of his age. Uldal is 21-years old compared to Jansen inching toward his 30s. Uldal thought that may be a factor and added that gaining experience in these games could make a difference in 2008. "I feel no pressure going into these games at all," Uldal said. "If I give a 100% effort in each event, it's hard to say what could happen. I feel like I'm in good shape and healthy. I think I could push at my PR and then take it from there." Since most decathletes don't peak until their mid-20s, Uldal is going to enjoy his time in Athens and do his best, but the 2008 Beijing Games could be huge spotlight on his career. So, stay tuned. "Being there in the stadium and competing against the best 30 athletes in the world on the biggest stage in the world is going to be something awesome," said Uldal. The competition gets underway Monday at 1:00 a.m., central. According to their listings, NBC will be the only network airing the decathlon starting Monday at 12:30pm, central. Most of the decathlon will be shown during primetime on Monday and Tuesday on a tape-delay basis. Tomorrow, we will profile Derrick Peterson, who starts competition in the 800-meter run on Wednesday. For more on the Olympics and the Tiger athletes, visit mutigers.com.