O’Hare set to graduate from Harvard school of excellence
THE rarefied air of Harvard University breeds the over-achievers of tomorrow. Chris O’Hare is happy to deeply inhale. It is seven years since the Scot displaced himself Stateside in the cause of self-betterment. Boston, and the athletics arena of the Ivy League’s alpha institution, has become the latest home from home.
The picturesque Cambridge district, where its campus is based, is straight out of the Gant catalogue. Prepped to the max. They play sports here, like at any American college, but few of their recruits are shooting for the NFL or NBA. Academics, and a pass into the elitist conclaves of society, are the accepted goals.
“It’s kind of a weird feeling,” O’Hare declares. “They’re Harvard kids and all the stereotypes about the Harvard kids are pretty much true. They’re all driving round in their very expensive cars that Mummy and Daddy have bought for them.
“Sometimes, I’ll drive through campus and think ‘these guys have no idea.’ Then you realise they do. They’re incredibly smart people. It’s just a different world they live in.”
Back in the UK to compete in the historic Emsley Carr Mile at the Anniversary Games in London tomorrow night, O’Hare has taken a little of Harvard’s ethos along for the ride. Less than four weeks away from his start of his 1500 metres campaign at the Olympic Games, he will owe some of his returns there to the assist provided by the university competitors who have become his training partners within the hub established by his coach Terrence Mahon.
Brawn feeds the brain. “You see the Harvard kids at the track. We help them out, they help us out. It’s great to be around a college team and it brings back the rawness of what we’re doing. Because you get caught up – when you’re doing Diamond Leagues or such events – in the slightly more glamorous side of track and field and forget about the raw hard work that needs to be done outside of it.”
Newly returned from altitude training in southern France, O’Hare’s due diligence ahead of Rio is near-complete. Four laps of the Olympic Stadium – against a field that also includes Kenyan tyros James Magut and Vincent Kibet as well as fellow Scot Jake Wightman – then energies will be preserved for what he hopes will be a fruitful Games debut. “There’s no pressure this time to run a time. So we’ll be in the same boat as everyone else so we can focus on running as well as possible.”
Back in Boston, the extended Team O’Hare will cheer him onward. His crew at Harvard. And his wife who has become accustomed to long spells apart during the track season.
Meredith, who he met while at university in Oklahoma, will not join him in Rio.
She has another future achiever to nurture. “I think everybody knows by now,” he smiles.
“We’re expecting a boy on November 26. It’s going to be tough but I’m sure we’ll love every minute of it.”