BACK ON TRACK
Jarrin Solomon tries to make it to Rio to win another medal for Trinidad and Tobago n another continent, he’s a star. In his hometown, he’s usually just plain Jarrin.
UNM grad out to win another Olympic medal
OThere are certainly times when Albuquerque’s Jarrin Solomon feels as though he lives in two different worlds. And he really enjoys both of them. “It’s a lot of fun to get so much attention when I’m competing in a meet,” said Solomon, a 4x400 relay bronze medal winner for Trinidad and Tobago in the 2012 London Olympics, and a solid bet to make the Rio de Janeiro Games in August.
“But I also enjoy just being able to go to a restaurant where nobody knows me or explaining to people what I do for a living. Most people in the United States don’t really understand it. They’re like: ‘So, what’s your real job?’ I like to educate them.”
Solomon is really good at his job, that being a professional track and field athlete.
In many countries, especially in Trinidad and across Europe, that entails superstar athlete treatment. Media snatch him for interviews. Fans flock to him for autographs and photographs.
But in his own country — even in his hometown — Solomon is seldom recognized.
“In Europe, track and field is huge,” he said. “But they don’t have American basketball. They don’t have Major League Baseball. They don’t have football. In Europe, it’s basically track and field, soccer, rugby and cricket. You could pretty much go to a track meet every day in Europe.”
Today, Solomon — a 2004 graduate of La Cueva High and 2008 graduate of the University of New Mexico — is competing in a meet in Brazil. Later this week,
he leaves for Port of Spain, Trinidad, for the Olympic Trials that begin Friday.
“He’s very focused,” said Mark Henry, Solomon’s personal coach. “He’s one of those guys I have to pull back all the time. He will overwork sometimes.
“I know he’ll make the relay team. He’ll have to run very well to make the open 400 team, because Trinidad has six 400-meter guys who are exceptional. But we both think he will make that, too.”
Solomon’s father, Mike Solomon, was a two-time Olympian for his native Trinidad, making Jarrin eligible for dual citizenship. Mike was also a UNM track star.
In 2012, Jarrin missed qualifying for the individual 400 meters by 0.01 of a second.
“It’s the Olympics,” he said. “Your heart beats a little faster. Your nerves feel different. You get more butterflies. I’ve never felt like that while running before.”
Or after — although Solomon has been doing plenty of running since.
And yes, he makes a nice living doing it. Albeit, not as much money in this country.
“That’s why we’re on our circuit in Europe much of the time,” he said. “They have big meets everywhere there — Germany, Switzerland, London.
“Most people in America don’t understand track and field as a sport and how people make money, and what it is. There are only three or four televised track and field meets in the U.S. in a nonOlympic year.”
Solomon, 30, said there are various ways he makes money, including sponsorships, prize money at meets and being paid by Trinidad to represent the nation.
He said winning the bronze in 2012 was probably worth about $100,000, with everything included, the next year. “But it tailed off each year after. Then you need to win another medal.”
Would it be worth more to win a bronze in the same event for the USA?
“Probably a little more in terms of local stuff, but probably not much overall,” he said. “We’re really well known in Trinidad. But in terms of the USA, there are guys I run faster than but they have bigger sponsorship contracts because they’re seen by 300 million people here. It’s kind of tricky to determine.
“The countries where it is really worth a lot are Qatar and some of the other oil countries. I have friends who won medals in Qatar, and they’ll get a $1 million bonus or $500,000 bonus from the country.”
Solomon said the only sponsored attire athletes are allowed to wear at the Olympics are shoes. Individually, he is sponsored by adidas but so is the Trinidad and Tobago team, so that is the brand he will wear at the games.
Businessman
While Solomon travels the world for his occupation, he’s still headquartered here in Albuquerque with his wife of two years, Debra, née Freeland.
It’s where his parents live; where his sister, Britton Solomon, lives; where he trains; and where he and Debra opened a business — Excel Cryotherapy — about a year ago.
Cryotherapy uses cold, dry air that runs over the surface of the skin. The body’s natural response is to start pulling blood from peripheral tissues and joint spaces and bring it to the core.
The idea is that toxins get filtered out and new oxygen, enzymes and nutrients are put back in the blood. The goal is to decrease inflammation, pain and spasms by constricting blood vessels.
The business, at 7600 Jefferson NE (excelcryotherapy.com), “is going really well,” said Jarrin. “We’ve grown really fast. We’re helping bring something to the Albuquerque community to help people, so they don’t have to take a bunch of pills to make them feel better.”
Jarrin and Debra met about seven years ago in Dallas. He trained there for about six months because his agent wanted him to work with a specific coach in Dallas. She had just relocated there from Atlanta as an insurance claims adjuster.
Jarrin and Debra lived in the same apartment complex.
But it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.
“The real story?” Debra said with a laugh. “Before we met, he had parked in my parking spot, and I wrote a nasty note and left it on his car. We would both walk our dogs outside, and eventually he came over and said, ‘Sorry I parked in your spot.’ I said, ‘Well, sorry I left such a nasty note.’
“We realized we were both there in Dallas and didn’t know anybody. We just kind of started hanging out as friends, but here we are many years later.”
Solomon said he discovered cryotherapy while in Dallas and that it worked well for him.
After a few years, he persuaded Debra that they should open a business in Albuquerque. She left her insurance job and went all-in with the idea.
“He has some really big goals and big dreams,” she said. “He always thinks about how to help other people first, and that’s one of the reasons he was so passionate about the business. He said we can very easily and efficiently reach a lot of people and impact a lot of people’s lives. It’s a natural therapy. It’s three minutes, so people have time for it.”
Jarrin said that Debra “is the boss.” But she said: “He’s more of the boss than he likes to pretend. For him, the Olympics are the main thing this year. But he’s totally, 100 percent committed to the business.”
Running roots
Given his bloodlines, it isn’t surprising that Solomon is an outstanding runner. However, it wasn’t his passion as a youth.
“He was very active in just about every sport — ice hockey, basketball, gymnastics. His teams won some regional awards, and he was a fearless snowboarder,” said mother Susie Solomon. “But soccer was his first love. He also did track in high school, but he didn’t really work at it.
“He got offered a college scholarship for soccer (at Gardner-Webb and was also recruited by Duke).”
Jarrin, however, wanted to stay close to home. So he talked to then-UNM track coaches Matt and Mark Henry. Matt was on the same Lobo team as Mike Solomon in the 1970s.
“Mike never pushed Jarrin to compete in track,” said Susie, a nurse at Presbyterian Hospital. “He let him do whatever sports he wanted. Once he got into track, Mike didn’t push him.
“After Jarrin’s sophomore year in college, he realized he had good potential and really started training hard and going after it.”
Solomon received a degree in criminology from UNM in 2008, but still had a year of eligibility left and made the most of it.
In 2009, he set UNM records in the 400 (46.33) and 600 (1:19.18) meters that still stand. He was the Mountain West Conference indoor champion in the 400 that same year and was outdoor conference champion in the event in 2007 and 2009.
He was an All-American in 2009, when he finished fifth in the NCAA Championships.
Solomon has continued to excel as a pro, and said he is proud to have done so without cheating — unlike many in his sport. On Friday, the IAAF upheld its ban on Russia’s track and field federation from competing in this year’s Olympics because of systematic doping.
“The way that we see it, the Kenyans aren’t the only ones doping,” he said. “There are Russians doping. Americans doping. There’s a lot of doping going on in the sport. The problem is the testing. They say it’s very strict, but it’s not.”
Still, he said he has never been tempted to beat the system.
“For me, it’s about competing and trying to set the times and the records without it,” he said. “I’d rather get those with my God-given talent and hard work instead of a pill or an injection.
“As you get older, how do you tell your kid to be an outstanding person when you’re doing things like that? If I finish behind someone in the Olympics who I know is cheating, that’s OK because I’ve done the best I could with my God-given ability and training.”
Debra said Jarrin drives that point home to kids, as well as encouraging them in the sport and other sports.
“He’s a very grounded, humble guy who just puts other people first,” she said. “When we’re driving around and he sees someone, he doesn’t just pass them by; he thinks about that person. He has this genuine curiosity about people.
“When he sees kids running, playing basketball or other sports, he loves to get out and talk to them. He’s just a really sincere person. He’s definitely opened my eyes a lot.”
Jarrin Solomon could open the eyes of a few million more folks around the globe in a couple of months.
Especially in his hometown. At least for a while. “It’s kind of funny,” he said. “After the Olympics last time, people kind of recognized me. I’d be driving, and people would wave. But then it wears out and people forget about you.
“But that’s OK, too. I really do like it both ways.”