OLYMPIC CHAMPION HURDLER GRANT HOLLOWAY MENTORS CHESAPEAKE STUDENTS.
By Butch Maier / Photo Above: Grant Holloway, a Grassfield High School graduate, won gold in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2024 Paris Olympics and admiration from the students he mentors in his hometown of Chesapeake.
Olympic champion Grant Holloway, a Chesapeake native and Grassfield High School graduate, has his eyes on winning back-to-back gold medals in the 110-meter hurdles. Following his victory at the 2024 Paris Olympics and before he gets to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Games, Holloway has been helping young people overcome life’s hurdles as a Classroom Champions mentor. According to classroomchampions.org, “Classroom Champions empowers children to thrive academically and emotionally. Through the mentorship and mindset of world-class athletes, we improve student engagement, build growth mindsets, and inspire positive classroom culture.” Holloway carved out time in between exercise workouts for a phone interview from Gainesville, Florida.
Coastal Virginia Magazine: Thinking back, what obstacles—or hurdles in life—did you struggle with when you were growing up?
Grant Holloway: “I don’t really think I had any obstacles or hurdles, really, growing up. I think I was just a kid. You know, I was a kid that wanted to do multiple sports. I was a kid that wanted to go out and hang out with his friends. I was a kid that made plenty of kid mistakes, you know. I think where most people fail is they always try to say, like, ‘I had to do this when I was growing up,’ and ‘my parents weren’t in my life,’ and ‘everything I got, I got on my own.’ I had everything given to me. Both my parents are happily married, almost 25 years. The greatest factor or greatest obstacle that I could say that I had was life just straining me out. You know? Life just being life. I didn’t really have any crazy obstacles or setbacks.”
CVM: What were the sports you played?
Holloway: “I played football and ran track, mostly. Doing AAU track all the way from the age of 8 all the way to up ’til high school, and then from high school—slowly but surely—got a scholarship to the University of Florida.”
CVM: Did you compete in multiple events in track?
Holloway: “Yeah. Growing up, I competed in multiple events. In high school, I was a high jumper, long jumper, hurdler, sprinter. As I got to college, I was just a long jumper, hurdler, and sprinter. And then as I turned professional, I’m just a hurdler. So, each year, I lightened the load a little bit. I’ve always just kinda found ways to better myself as an athlete. It always worked out the way that it was supposed to.”
CVM: What led you to shift your focus to hurdling?
Holloway: “I was just natural at it. I hate to say it was the easiest, but in everything I have done, it was the easiest [track event]. I did everything that I was supposed to do, committed to the University of Florida, and myself and Coach [Mike] Holloway, the head track and field coach here, we did what we had to do. And it was a great run.”
CVM: And is he related to you?
Holloway: “He’s a distant cousin.”
CVM: When you look back at the 2024 Olympics, what three moments will you remember most from your gold medal-winning performance?
Holloway: “Aw, man. More so, I think about just having my family there because at the first Olympics [Tokyo 2020, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic], when I got my silver [medal], I didn’t have anybody there. So, definitely having my family there, definitely having my fiancée and her family there. And then secondly, just looking up at the scoreboard and realizing I was a gold medalist. I think that was another huge moment. And then, thirdly, it was basically I was doing mixed zone media, talking, doing all this, doing all that, and at the end of it, I just have this picture of relief, like, ‘I finally did it.’ I think those three moments will stick with me forever.”
CVM: When I watched your Olympic win, you looked at the camera, pointed, and seemed to gesture a crying motion with your hands.
Holloway: (Laughs.)
CVM: What did that mean?
Holloway: “The world may never know.”
CVM: (Laughs.) “So, basically, that was for the haters?
Holloway: “Ahhhhhhh…”
CVM: You don’t wanna say.
Holloway: “I’m gonna use my [fifth] amendment.”
CVM: Fair enough. So, talk to me about how you got involved with Classroom Champions, how it works, and why you decided to be a mentor.
Holloway: “I have a big vision of inspiring the next generation because the generation that we are bringing up now is the generation that takes care of us as I get older. So, my main thing is making sure that I can instill information in them, as well as teach them the do’s and don’ts of life. So, that is just one of the big things for me, where I’ve always just wanted to be able to help out. And then from Classroom Champions, they open up an app, not just for me and my platform, but for everybody else and what they want to accomplish as well.”
CVM: Whom do you mentor?
Holloway: “I mentor two schools in my hometown: Cedar Road Elementary and Great Bridge Middle.”
CVM: And you are working with one of your old track coaches at Great Bridge.
Holloway: “Yeah, Brent Nieter. Brent has been a main source of helping [students] out, [getting them to do] things that they are supposed to do. So, it’s been really, really nice.”
CVM: How often do you get back to the 757?
Holloway: “Every four to six months.”
CVM: And in between, you get on Zoom calls with the kids?
Holloway: “Yeah. Mostly Zoom. They know they’ve got an outside factor that’s been supporting them—an outside factor that’s helping them out. It’s just one of those things where you know when you’ve got an outside factor, you can do a lot of things.”
CVM: You mentioned that you didn’t really have any hurdles, but I am guessing some of these kids have a lot of hurdles. What are some things where they need guidance or help?
Holloway: “With the Classroom Champions protocol, they want to equip them for the future. They want to start teaching them perseverance. They want to start teaching them teamwork. They want to start teaching them discipline. Attitude. Strategy. I’ve just always tried to instill that. As a young Black man, it’s just one of those things where, if you have all these tools in your toolbox at an early age, then you are able to help people with that. I’m always looking forward to just seeing what I can do to help them. And a lot of them are already above the curve. So, my job, at that point, is just to encourage. People who are nowhere near the curve, it is my job to lift them up.”
CVM: That’s great. So, what big track competitions do you have coming up? Or are you just training for L.A. in 2028?
Holloway: “Right now, I am just training, getting back healthy. I had a little injury back in January, so I’m just getting back healthy, trying to get strong. Biking a lot. Playing a lot of golf. I should be back on the track [for competitions] definitely by next year. That’s kind of my main goal, so I can take a gap year, do what I wanna do, have fun, and then hopefully next year we get back on the track.”
CVM: Can you say what the injury was?
Holloway: “I had a hamstring tear.”
CVM: I’m sorry about that. I know that’s brutally painful.
Holloway: “Yeah, man. It’s all good. We worked out well. I’ve got some of the best staff. Like I tell people at Classroom Champions: ‘You’ve gotta surround yourself with a good team.’ So, I surrounded myself with a great team. These are the same people that helped me get an Olympic gold, and these are the same people that helped me during my rise as Grant Holloway. I’m surrounded by the best of the best, and we’re just going to keep working and do what we do best.”
CVM: What are some of the things you miss about hanging out in Chesapeake?
Holloway: “I don’t miss Chesapeake at all, Mr. Butch.”
CVM: Is that on the record? You’re gonna say that?
Holloway: “Yeah, that is on the record. I don’t miss Chesapeake at all. It helped raise me as a young man, but I had to spread my wings and fly. I’ll always have love for Chesapeake, but me getting out of there was probably the best decision. Only because it just forced me to grow up. It forced me to mature.”
Butch Maier
