Matt Hughes - Experience
"But two that really sucked were calf injury 6 weeks before the Olympics in 2016 and a knee injury in the spring of 2017..."
Matt Hughes has been a professional runner for over a decade with Nike and multiple different training groups, gaining valuable experience. Hughes has gained not only professional experience but amateur experience while he competed in high school and college. Gaining this wealth of knowledge has led him to success at the highest level by qualifying for the Olympics multiple times. The experience and knowledge Matt Hughes has gained, comes at the sacrifice of losing opportunities at times but opening others.
Having gained experience over time, a person must realize what they have gone through and who they have met. Matt Hughes at a young age was put in a good situation to have success when he competed and trained for his high school track and field team. Over his four years, “I was fortunate to have a very good coach in High School, Kevin Dillon (went to Villanova in the late 70s early 80s) who in instilled in me a hard work ethic and to never be satisfied.” This work ethic he gained through Coach Dillon would follow Hughes through out his long career but would not be the only reason for his development in high school. With a strong group of runners to compete against, Hughes says, “As well my age group and the year above me was very talented with many guys going onto the NCAAs, so I was in a lot of very competitive racing throughout high school.” This competitiveness that Hughes gained while racing high school track would help him create that work ethic Kevin Dillon was trying to instill. With these two strong driving forces, Matt Hughes today says, “I think both, combined with my love for the sport created an environment in which fuelled me to have to work hard and always bring my best if I was ever going to thrive or have success.” Having a strong work ethic developed from a young age with the help of other people, Hughes started to harness his potential.
After a strong four years of high school running, Matt Hughes would go on to run for the University of Louisville where he would gain valuable experiences and lessons. At Louisville, Hughes would run all three seasons, cross country (XC), indoor track, and outdoor track but would see limited results in the first two. Reflecting on his time in college, Hughes says, “I never had a XC or indoor season in University that I was ever happy with, mostly from my own doing. I never did the type of training I needed to during the summer or the winter break that would have given me the base I needed to, to have success. Which I always feel motivated me to always get ready for the track season.” Not being prepared to run in cross country and indoor track would be the motivation Hughes needed to run well in the outdoor season. These moments were good lessons, especially to reflect on later in Matt Hughes career. The story of only meeting expectations in outdoor track continues, he says, “… I always had very long track seasons that seemed to always push into the late summer, So I always felt that I needed a break after that, which meant I could never do the training during the summer that I need to, to have success in the XC season. And thus I was always playing catch up throughout the year and wouldn’t get into competitive shape until the track season I guess, creating a cycle of never being fit enough for Cross or indoor, but always finding that fitness for Outdoor Track.” Creating a cycle built around outdoor track would benefit Matt Hughes after collegiate running, but in the moment it was not what he or the team wanted. With this focus on outdoor track Hughes would go on to win the NCAA steeplechase title before his time at college was done and signing with Nike.
Having a career that spans over a decade long and still on going in any sport takes determination and a strong work ethic which is evident in Matt Hughes. Being able to excel at the highest level in track and field for over ten years, Hughes says, “I’ve been lucky enough to have a pretty long career, which means I’ve been able to stay mostly injury free, or maybe never have a major injury.” Having stayed relatively healthy, Hughes has been able to experience a long tenured career. In his time running professionally, he has faced a few injuries, saying, “ But, two that really sucked were calf injury 6 weeks before the Olympics in 2016 and a knee injury in the spring of 2017, both playing a factor into my eventually performance at the major games those years, but I was still able to make those teams and make it to the final, but in my eyes I never reached the goal that I had set for myself those years, which for an athlete is always disappointing.” Going through these injuries is apart of sport but is always devastating to an athlete, especially when they get in the way of one’s goals. Hughes had to recoup from these injuries to maintain his place on the world stage when the when the next global championship would be. Even though his main focus is on outdoor track, Hughes ran the Olympic standard in the 5000 metres this past winter, leaving him with options of running multiple events. With a few choices to pick from, Hughes says, “The Steeple will by the event I focus on most when it comes to the Major championships, but having run 13:13 this winter it definitely opens up other possibilities, like potentially doubling, but we’ll see.” Late into Matt Hughes’ running career, he is creating even more opportunities then he had at a younger age.
With a long tenured running career, Matt Hughes has watched a numerous amount of runners come and go. Hughes has learned from his own and others experiences in the sport over the years and being a Canadian he takes pride in representing and helping Canadians. Having seen the development of Canadian running, Hughes says, “I think we are doing pretty well, its great to see so many young kids pushing it to a new level.” With that said, he continues, “I do however think we lose a lot of talent from college to post collegiate running. Whether they stop because there is no funding or because they or their coach refuse to believe they need to move up to a longer distance. I think in Canada far too many kids try to hang on to the 1500m for too long and miss the important years and training it takes to develop into a good 5000m or 10,000m runner.” His advice is useful to all athletes who are trying to make that jump from either high school to college or college to post-collegiate track and field. With Hughes’ background of having people instill a strong work ethic, he says, ““There is not substitute for hard work, but saying that, its important for athletes to know when to run hard and when to run easy. You’d be shocked to know how slow some of the best runners in the world run on their easy days.” Having the ability to separate hard work and running hard is crucial to the success of many elite runners and can help youth runners develop.
With the help of a long and continuing career, Matt Hughes has been able to gain experience through the situations he has been put in. Hughes has also gained experience by watching the development of other Canadian runners that have come before and after him. His time as a runner has instilled a work ethic that will last a lifetime.
Direct quotes via email, Matt Hughes to Evan Smith by email (May 2020).
Photos via Getty Images.
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