He's like the guy that, you know, people love to love
and people love to hate.
And the people that hate him, hate him because they wanna
be him or wanna be like him and anybody takes time
to get Grant Holloway will find something
very special about him.
A lot of setbacks, a lot of people, you know,
telling me I can't do something or I'm not good enough
to do this or that.
Kind of fueled me.
Ultimately, you want to figure out what was better
for yourself versus what everybody else were saying.
He is Grant Holloway. They should know
he's a phenomenal human being, a very caring human being.
And one of the fierce competitors I've been around
in my life.
My hometown is very-- it's quiet.
Dad was 24 years in military, retired now,
and my mom's a schoolteacher.
So, it was very disciplined and very time oriented.
My dreams and my goals were so much bigger than
you know, staying local.
I wanna go global.
GAINESVILLE FLORIDA, USA
I ended up here at the University of Florida
with Coach Holloway.
Need a hurdle?
You know, he offered me a full scholarship
for track and field,
probably one of the best decisions I've made.
In the first day of practice, watching him move,
watching him do things, I knew he was special.
How'd that feel, Grant?
The sports that I liked the most when I was younger
was definitely track and football.
It just came a point where I knew I was gonna score
whenever I touched the ball.
I was committed to University of Georgia
and I really didn't know if I wanted to play football.
I wasn't the best of team players at the time.
And I know that by myself I'm fully capable
of telling anybody and everybody that.
If you know your true intentions are-- is not to be
a team player and you know you have some bitterness
towards, you know, team sports, you have to be real with
yourself and be like, "Hey, you probably need
to go do individual sport."
And that's exactly what I did.
So Grant, see the red line right there?
Where the pink is?
-Yeah. -Okay.
He called me on the phone and he said to me,
"I think my passion is track and field.
I don't think my heart's in football
the way it should be."
And he said, "You know, I wanna be the best
high hurdler ever and I wanna know
if you'd help me be there." And I said, "Let's do it."
Track and field at the beginning
was a bit of a struggle.
I wasn't the best...
still don't think I am the best.
Grant played a weight of 208 pounds
so he was great football weight but not such great
track weight so he had a hard time carrying
that around the track.
For me, losing weight was kind of hard
because my body has been trained for four years
of putting on weight, putting on weight,
putting on weight.
You know, it's always weight, weight, weight.
You wanna big for football.
I had to discipline myself of, you know,
the late night eating
and cutting out fast food, cutting out sodas.
And it was just one of those things that was like,
"All right, now that I'm doing all this,
I can see the results.
I'm running faster and I'm injury-free."
I think the problem is when you get an athlete
that talented,
everybody's in a hurry.
And so, the challenge for me was to be patient with Grant.
I mean, where he is now, I could see that,
but the challenge wasn't me-- for not to be greedy
and try to get him to do that two years ago,
the challenge for me was to be patient
and let him grow into that, to the person he is today.
He saw the finish product.
We just had to make the finished product.
It's like putting together like a dresser or a table.
Like you see the finished product on the piece of paper.
All right, how are we gonna get there? All right,
we gotta add the nuts and the bolts,
and got to turn this, turn that.
I can remember the first day we was trying to work on his
approach to the first hurdle because he took eight steps
to the first hurdle in high school
so it is switching to seven.
And he was very impatient and I looked at him,
I said, "You have two choices: either you can trust me
and do as I ask or you keep it eight steps,"
and he goes, "Say less. I'm gonna trust you."
I try to help out anybody or everybody that I see.
I know I can't get to everybody but, you know, the goal is,
of course, to help out everybody.
That's the person I am.
Grant Holloway is, as we like to say around here,
special in many ways.
I actually took the time to volunteer
at an elementary school.
Yeah, I'm back.
Another time.
Every Wednesday, the kids look forward
to Mr.-- Mr. Grant coming in.
And, you know, figuring out, you know, Math, English,
History, Science, and, you know,
figuring out all those things.
That something that is a-- it's a breath of fresh air.
What actually should we be doing?
Mine.
Grant keeps me on my toes.
He loves having fun.
I think the biggest asset of having a Grant Holloway
is his influence.
If Grant texts people and said, "Hey, we're going
to do this community service event or we're going to--
we took a student athlete going--
we're going bowling tonight,"
that his influence
would bring the right people together.
I don't think my journey and my mission
is to run over sticks and jump in dirt,
no, I absolutely do not agree with that statement at all.
I think the reason why I am here is to bless other people
and make sure everybody's smiling.
Regardless if you're with me for two hours, two weeks,
a day, a month, a year,
regardless of when I'm with you,
I want you to smile and forget about
everything that's going on.
The excitement for me with Grant is he's 21 years old
and the future is very bright
because we're just getting started.
To end off my collegiate career,
just the quick stats,
American record indoors and collegiate record,
I had 7:35, broke a 40-year old outdoor collegiate record.
He's the greatest collegiate hurdler in history.
He's a professional, which is what he wanted.
And he's got a chance to do some very special things
as a-- as an Olympian if he'll just stay focused on it,
which I think he will.
Ever since I started track and field,
I always thought about like I can't wait to be
in Olympics, I can't wait to be in Olympics.
It's now 2020. The Olympics.
Here in Tokyo, we're gonna put USA hurdling back on the map.
I'mma hurdle my butt off for ten hurdles,
run through that line, regardless, win, lose, or draw,
Let's bring home the medal for USA
and let's stand on the podium.
This is just the beginning.