Читать книгу Indiana University Olympians. From Leroy Samse to Lilly King онлайн

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Neville’s gold medal was years in the making. On enrolling at Indiana, he was ineligible for college competition in his first year. He had adequate grades and test scores, but the NCAA did not count an eleventh-grade English course as part of core curriculum. So he trained alone after the Hoosiers’ practices ended, doing workouts timed by a friend. He took classes in hapkido, a Korean martial art.

So his father continued to coach him and travel with his son to meets. At the 2003 Pan American Junior Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados, Neville won a silver medal in the 200 in 20.63. The gold medalist was a sixteen-year-old Jamaican who also made it to Beijing: Usain Bolt.

By 2004, Neville appeared to be accelerating the timetable toward an Olympics. He won the 200 and 400 at the Big Ten meet—the times of 20.39 and 45.05 were both the fastest ever by a graduate of an Indiana high school—and was seventh in the 400 at the NCAA Championships. His 45.05 was among the top ten times in the world, and six would be chosen for the 4×400 relay pool from the Olympic Trials. Yet it was perhaps a case of too much too soon, because Neville was eliminated in his first-round heat at the trials. He would not be going to Athens.