Warner hits the road on his quest for gold
Damian Warner is known for his loyalty, for his love of London, Ont., and the people who live there. Most big-name Canadian Summer Olympians train for at least part of the year in the United States. Very few stick with the coaches they worked with as teenagers.
A world championship silver medallist in the decathlon, Warner opted to stay in his hometown in the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Games. He trained under Western University’s Vickie Croley and Dave Collins along with his high school basketball coaches Gar Leyshon and Dennis Nielsen.
A favourite for silver in Rio, Warner claimed bronze. And after taking some time to decompress from his Brazilian adventure, Warner drove across the country from London to Calgary earlier this month to officially start training full time with his new coach Les Gramantik.
At 27, Warner is entering the prime of his athletic career. He badly wants to upgrade that Olympic bronze to gold at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Next up, though, is the prestigious Hypo Meeting in May in Gotzis, Austria, followed by the 2017 world track and field championships in August in London, England.
“Damian is already an accomplished, well-established athlete,” Gramantik says. “It’s not like a brand-new project. He has exceptional abilities athletically and otherwise.
“We just need some refinements here and there and some additional stuff that I can bring into his program.”
Gramantik, a former coach of the Canadian track and field team, is a combined-events expert who worked extensively with heptathlete Jessica Zelinka and decathlete Michael Smith.
“Damian has benefited from some great coaching in the past,” Gramantik says. “The only problem was there were too many of them. In a sport like decathlon, you need one voice. You can’t have too many people talking to you all the time. Then you never know which way to turn your head.”
In Rio, Warner could not get accreditation for all his coaches — leaving Leyshon and Nielsen sitting in the stands with his family.
Speed is Warner’s greatest asset. In fact, he ran the fastest 100 metres in the history of the decathlon this year in 10.15 seconds. Pole vault has proven his nemesis in the past and he has room for improvement in discus.
Two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton of the United States is not expected to compete in the decathlon at the 2020 Summer Games, leaving Warner as one of the early favourites for gold.
“People say, ‘Oh good, Ashton won’t be around in four more years,’” Gramantik says. “But we’re not planning around who is going to be around and who is not going to be around. It’s a sport where you compete against yourself and try to improve every time you compete.”