LAWRENCE — Bryce Hoppel has competed in the Olympics before.
Hoppel, a former KU track and field star, was at the Tokyo Olympics. He’s been in an Olympic village around the other athletes. When he competes in the upcoming 2024 Paris games, which has its opening ceremonies Friday, there’ll be some level of comfort in that.
But Hoppel explained recently that it never truly sets in that he has this opportunity. Hoppel, who qualified by winning the 800-meter run at the U.S. Olympic trials, noted there’s a different dynamic that comes with the Olympics. He knows he’s not guaranteed another chance, and this time he wants to earn a medal.
Of course, Hoppel won’t be the only one also representing the Kansas Jayhawks — Alexandra Emilianov (Moldova, women’s discuss throw) and Hussain Al-Hizam (Saudi Arabia, men’s pole vault) are competing for their home countries. Hoppel is also coached by KU distance/middle distance coach Michael Whittlesey. And KU head coach Stanley Redwine is Team USA’s men’s coach for the Olympics, too.
Before the Olympics begin, Hoppel spoke with the Topeka Capital-Journal for this Q&A:
*This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Question: What led you to gravitate toward track and field? Was there a moment where you ever realized, ‘OK, I actually have a future in this,’ to the extent that you have it now?
Answer: Hoppel said it’s interesting, because he grew up in a sports family. He explained his dad has worked in minor league baseball for decades. He grew up in the ballpark, and always had a love for soccer, baseball and football.
“It’s interesting how I just found myself in track,” Hoppel said. “I think I was just going through high school — I kind of switched to it halfway. I had a great group of friends that got me kind of just doing it with them over the summer and kind of just — it’s one of the things I kind of just fell into. I mean, at this point I would probably say I was a pretty mediocre soccer player and I was just loving the sport. And then did cross country. I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m pretty good at this.’ And then it convinced me to go out to the summer USATF, like, junior Olympics stuff, and ended up making it to nationals and stuff in that.”
Hoppel said he thinks it was his junior year, that he decided to dedicate himself to track and field and try to earn a scholarship. Success followed, and the momentum led him to KU. It’s there, where he feels he developed into the athlete he is.
Q: So, why did you pick Kansas? Were you ever close to picking anywhere else?
A: Hoppel said it’s easy to say with hindsight, but Whittlesey was definitely the most significant part because of the way he approached things. And an official visit Hoppel took also played a key role.
“I went for my visit to Lawrence and after coming back I was like, ‘Something about it.’” Hoppel said. “I was just, like, sleeping at home, and I think it was like pretty late at night, probably like 11:30, almost midnight. And, like, I go into my parents room. I’m like, ‘I’m going to Kansas.’ ... ‘This is where want to go.’ ... ‘I think I’m going to make the decision.’”
Hoppel further explained he just felt drawn to KU. Although there was pressure to go to a school in Texas, where he’s from, he didn’t have much loyalty to any of them. He noted his mother is from Arizona and his dad is from Montana.
Q: Is there something that you can point to that spending your time with (Whittlesey), at that university, helped unlock in your talents?
A: Hoppel couldn’t pinpoint one thing.
“I mean, I know the training now, and I know what works, and I know what needs to be done,” Hoppel said. “But I’ve always kind of said, coach (Whittlesey)’s like the mastermind behind it. He obviously has his Ph.D. and knows the science behind it, and he knows what he’s doing. So, I’ve always kind of had that blind faith of, like, ‘Man, like, this guy’s special and he’s going to do what needs to be done to get me where I’m going.’ And, yeah, I mean now I’ve been coached by him for going on eight years now.”
Q: Going back to Tokyo, is there a moment in those games where it hit you that you were in the Olympics, you were competing for Team USA?
A: “Yeah, I mean, the Olympic trials is definitely a special moment for track and field,” Hoppel said. “Just because, I mean they do an incredible job there, setting it up in Eugene, (Oregon).”
Hoppel continued: “I think at that time I had, like, 25 of my close family and friends out there in the stands supporting me with, like, their ‘Team Hoppel’ shirts on. And coming across that line, like that’s definitely when it hits you and you just, like, feel this wave of emotions. It’s pretty overwhelming. So, it’s like, ‘Man, I get to be an Olympian.’”
Hoppel highlighted being around the other athletes in their Olympic village as being surreal. He also felt an outpouring of love and support from his hometown, where he volunteered a viewing party got set up. It’s hard for him to comprehend moments like that.
Q: What does it mean to you to be able to reunite with (Redwine and Whittlesey) and share that experience with them out there in France?
A: For Hoppel, it’s a testament to how great those two are as coaches. And it’s not just being at the competition with them that stands out to him. He pointed back to Tokyo, and the getaway from the village Team USA set up for training.
“Some of my, like, best memories from Tokyo was me, coach (Whittlesey) and Redwine kind of just like going out there and sitting in the quiet and getting away from the noise of it all and just having dinner out there — which is, like, special,” Hoppel said. “You get to share those moments together and those stages of being at the Olympics is the culmination. Like, we get to put all of our hard work into performance. And, yeah, that’s definitely special to have them there.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
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