Spikes19 Oct 2015


A Decade in the Making

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Tianna Bartoletta then and now

A decade stands between Tianna Bartoletta's twin world long jump crowns. From teenage upstart to experienced pro, the American talks us through what has changed between then and now.

1. Happy traveller

The year was 2005. London was selected as host of the 2012 Olympics, the Harry Potter movie franchise was flying high with the Goblet of Fire, Benedict XVI (remember him?) replaced John Paul II as Pope and Tianna Bartoletta (née Madison) made her debut as a member of the US senior team at the Helsinki world champs.

The University of Tennessee athlete had landed the NCAA title and leapt 6.70m to finish second on countback at the US Championships behind Grace Upshaw to qualify for the world champs. Before that summer, Bartoletta had only travelled overseas once before for the Pan American Junior Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados. She had competed in her first ever European competition in Stockholm just two weeks out from Helsinki.

“I remember being so excited going on the long flight,” she recalls. “But one of my biggest concerns was I did not want to wear my Tennessee uniform because it basically said ‘look at me, I'm just a kid’.

“I remember there was a lot of back and forth about what I could wear that wouldn't get me into trouble but also would give me more confidence at the meet. I remember [two-time Olympic 4x400m gold medallist] DeeDee Trotter gave me some of her training gear to wear and I was very happy about that.”

The 29-year-old Bartoletta (she has since turned 30) who lined up in the Bird's Nest Stadium earlier this year was a very different woman. She has gone through two fully stamped passports on her travels through more than 40 countries. Her current passport has more than 52 pages “twice the size of the standard”.

“Travel has taught me patience and how to be a more open person. It has also shown me people are more alike than you think.”

2. Mindset

Bartoletta recalls wiling away the time before her event playing ping-pong and video games in the athletes' lounge in the days leading  up to her major champs debut.

“Back then I didn't know the importance or gravity of a world championships,” she says. “I had zero expectation to win.”

With the pressure off, she sprung a major shock by taking gold with a PB 6.89m in the final.

It was quite different in Beijing.

“If I hadn't won there, the discussion would have been that I had choked because I had been so dominant throughout the year [winning three Diamond League meets and the US title]. The expectation from outside was so much greater.”

To unleash her best jump when it mattered, she worked on her execution with the help of a “check list”.

“In this way, the outside pressure melted away because all I needed to do was focus on each jump,” she says. Staying calm, she was able to jump a stunning world leading 7.14m with her sixth round effort in Beijing to strike gold.

 
Tianna Bartoletta

Bartoletta says in 2005 she was “not mentally ready” for everything that went with winning her first world title

3. Mentality

Winning gold does not bring years of guaranteed success. Her Helsinki triumph triggered a brutally tough seven-year tailspin in performance for Bartoletta.

“In 2005 I was perfectly equipped to compete and jump PBs, but I was not mentally ready for all that would bring,” she explains candidly. “In the months that followed I faced questions of ‘do I stay at school or sign a pro contract?’

“I was also no longer at the same level as my college team-mates because in a strange way I already conquered the professional level. There was also the matter of not finding the NCAA Championships exciting anymore. I'd lined up in international fields in Stockholm and Helsinki and I had lost that desire to compete in domestic competitions.”

It was not until 2012 that Bartoletta returned to the big time – this time as a sprinter. A mentally more attuned athlete, she ran a blistering 10.85 for the 100m and struck gold as part of the USA's world record breaking 4x100m quartet at the London Olympics.

With more medals and maturity, in 2015 Bartoletta was quite a different athlete to her earlier self.

“In 2005 I wanted to win because no-one else thought I could. In 2015 I wanted to because I believed I could, and so did my husband and my team. It is a totally different mind-set to know you can win. For me it is a more healthy attitude.”

4. Training

Bartoletta’s training under her current coach Loren Seagrave is not so different to her college years. The Ohio-born athlete had a big hand in writing her own programmes this summer, which were “fundamentally” the same as it was in the countdown to Helsinki.

The big difference has been in her sprinting mechanics, which were “completely re-wired” by her former coach Rana Reider.

“My running form is now so different, and this has really impacted on how far I jump,” she says.

 
Tianna Bartoletta

Versatile Bartoletta has also won world indoor long jump gold ('06), Olympic 4x100m gold ('12) and two world indoor 60m bronze medals ('12 and '14)

5. Nutrition

The 7.14m long jumper says her college diet was “horrible”. Nutrition consisted of snacking, noodles and whatever she could find to slam into the microwave.

Three years ago Bartoletta underwent a revolution in her refuelling techniques. She says she now eats every three hours, is rarely hungry and even sets her alarm to remind her to take on board food.

“I'm now fuelling up because my body needs it rather than because I am hungry or to eat just to enjoy the experience. This is hard for me because I really enjoy my food and I love to cook and bake.”

So do we. But staying disciplined to her new approach and has paid dividends. Still, some things haven't changed: she celebrated her 2005 world title with McDonald's chicken nuggets and fries, while in Beijing her celebrtatory meal consisted of her “first cheeseburger and French fries in months. Worth waiting for!

6. Sleep

As a student athlete, Bartoletta used to “sleep like a champion”, although she admits that wasn’t necessarily necessary: “I probably didn't need all that sleep because I was younger and didn't need the recovery time.”

Today the American adopts a deliberate approach to rest and relaxation.

“People laugh but I try to get to bed by 8.30 at night,” she says. “I may not sleep at the time but I start to dial down at that time.” She usually wakes at 5am.

 
Tianna Bartoletta

Happy, professional, fierce

7. New me

Finally, the Tianna Bartoletta of 2015 is simply much more comfortable in her own skin than the teenager of 2005.

“I am more self-aware and I'm happier,” she says. “In a lot of ways I'm radically different. I'm married now, and I went from being an athlete who did what she was told to understanding what has to happen.

“I feel more of a business woman and I bring a professional air towards my training and a more fierce attitude to my competitions.”

It showed in Beijing.