University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Kendell Williams
August 02, 2021 | Track & Field, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Kendell Williams is one of those people that seems to be good at everything. She is, unequivocally, an extraordinary athlete. She was always a great student during her Georgia track and field career and is set to begin graduate school in the fall. And last month, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, she placed second in the heptathlon to earn her spot on the U.S. squad at the Tokyo Olympics.
During her legendary Georgia track and field career (2014-17), Williams won four NCAA indoor pentathlon titles — the first to ever do that — and three more in the outdoor heptathlon, while also setting NCAA records in the process. She also, following her junior year, competed for the United States in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Williams is also, as it turns out, more than capable of planning a dear friend's wedding. When another Georgia legend, triple jumper Keturah Orji, got engaged, Williams and another friend, former Georgia distance runner Sarah Gardner, were tasked with planning the wedding, which was held in Athens last fall.
During a Quick Chat before Williams headed to Tokyo — she begins competing on Wednesday — I asked her about planning the wedding and much, much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: How did it feel to make the Olympic team this time versus in 2016? You were still competing for Georgia when you went to Rio but now you've been a professional for a number of years, so did that make this one feel different?
Williams: I'm still excited but this time around I was a little bit more calm going in. I knew that my body was fresh and we were training to peak at the Trials versus 2016 when I was a junior in college and had done the whole indoor and outdoor seasons. The Olympic Trials were just kind of a bonus at that point. This time around, it's my job and it's my focus.
Making the team was more important this time around, I think, and this time around I have a better shot at getting to the podium, versus 2016, when I was one of the youngest in the field, and I was kind of just happy to be there. This time it's more like, how close can I get to the podium?
It was very important this time to make the team, so there was almost a sense of relief and excitement. In 2016, it was pure excitement and disbelief. It's slightly different but still exciting.
Frierson: In what way are you most improved from the athlete and competitor that you were in Rio?
Williams: A lot of my marks are more consistent, though I'm consistently long jumping way farther than I was in 2016. I'm also consistently putting together farther throws in both events (javelin and shot put), actually. I'm just able to duplicate those competitively high scores more often. In 2016, I'd have some meets where I'd put it all together and it was great, and other meets where something really hit the fan and the score was completely botched.
Now that I'm some years older, I've been able to make those high-level performances more consistent.
Frierson: What did you do to fill the time at this point a year ago when the Olympics had been postponed?
Williams: I got a dog and I was thinking that I'd teach her the basics before the track season starts. When the track season shut down, I had so much time to spend with my new puppy, and I was determined to teach her how to roll over. We worked on a bunch of tricks in quarantine and now she can do a whole bunch of stuff.
And aside from that, I planed Keturah's wedding and bachelorette party, and that was fun. I was like, I could wedding plan again! [Laughs] I loved it and it was great.
Frierson: I have many follow-up questions. It's one thing to plan a bachelorette party, it seems quite another to plan her wedding. In what way were you qualified to plan her wedding? And how did it go?
Williams: [Laughs] I wasn't qualified at all. She knows that I'm very creative and she knows that I'm such a hopeless romantic, so the two of those combined [laughs], I guess that's why she felt like I could pull something off. Her wedding plans had been completely derailed by COVID and everything, so she wasn't really going to do anything. And that was like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.
I was like, "You cannot do nothing for your wedding!" I told her I was going to plan her bachelorette and it was going to be fun, so we went down to Orlando and had our closest group of friends come down. We just hung out in the house and played games.
The wedding, it wasn't just me, it was also our friend Sarah Gardner — she and I put our heads together and figured out the best way. We got their budget and figured out how to make it happen. We made it happen so far under her budget. It was a good wedding, just a small ceremony, and she's going to do a bigger something later this year. It was just a ceremony at our church that we've gone to since we stepped foot on UGA's campus.
Sarah's mom did a lot of the decor and Mackenzie Engram (the former UGA women's basketball player) was the photographer. It was a group effort, a team effort, and we pulled it together. I can add wedding planner to my resume now.
Frierson: Which is more nerve-wracking, planning a dear friend's wedding or competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials? There's a lot of pressure on you in both.
Williams: [Laughs] Both have a lot of pressure but both are fun. I'd have to say the Trials were more stressful, just because with the heptathlon there are seven events and I have to make sure each one is firing the day I need it to fire. The wedding, I had a month or two to piece it together with Sarah, and I'm a planner. I have A, B, C, D, E, F and G at all times, so I was confident that there wasn't going to be a detail that fell through the cracks.
If it was up to me, it would have been this huge, extravagant thing, but that's obviously not Keturah at all. I was confident that I would have every piece of the wedding together, so the Trials were more stressful because there were a lot more unknowns.
Frierson: Do you ever stop to think about the fact that you're now a two-time Olympian that's achieved all of the things that you have?
Williams: I think about it all the time. I'm like, how did I end up here? To me, I'm just a normal, clumsy, awkward person — I have no idea how I've stumbled into so much success [laughs].
I had success in high school but it was like, OK, cool, but college is going to be a whole new avenue. I couldn't believe I won one national championship; I had no plan on winning seven. I thought that I was going to win my first national championship maybe my junior or senior year. I had every intention of coming in third place, third or fourth, at NCAAs my freshman year.
Everything thing in college, every single year, I was surpassing my expectations. Every year in college, my mind was blown. In the Olympics, [laughs] how am I here? And it just keeps going.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Kendell Williams is one of those people that seems to be good at everything. She is, unequivocally, an extraordinary athlete. She was always a great student during her Georgia track and field career and is set to begin graduate school in the fall. And last month, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, she placed second in the heptathlon to earn her spot on the U.S. squad at the Tokyo Olympics.
During her legendary Georgia track and field career (2014-17), Williams won four NCAA indoor pentathlon titles — the first to ever do that — and three more in the outdoor heptathlon, while also setting NCAA records in the process. She also, following her junior year, competed for the United States in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Williams is also, as it turns out, more than capable of planning a dear friend's wedding. When another Georgia legend, triple jumper Keturah Orji, got engaged, Williams and another friend, former Georgia distance runner Sarah Gardner, were tasked with planning the wedding, which was held in Athens last fall.
During a Quick Chat before Williams headed to Tokyo — she begins competing on Wednesday — I asked her about planning the wedding and much, much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: How did it feel to make the Olympic team this time versus in 2016? You were still competing for Georgia when you went to Rio but now you've been a professional for a number of years, so did that make this one feel different?
Williams: I'm still excited but this time around I was a little bit more calm going in. I knew that my body was fresh and we were training to peak at the Trials versus 2016 when I was a junior in college and had done the whole indoor and outdoor seasons. The Olympic Trials were just kind of a bonus at that point. This time around, it's my job and it's my focus.
Making the team was more important this time around, I think, and this time around I have a better shot at getting to the podium, versus 2016, when I was one of the youngest in the field, and I was kind of just happy to be there. This time it's more like, how close can I get to the podium?
It was very important this time to make the team, so there was almost a sense of relief and excitement. In 2016, it was pure excitement and disbelief. It's slightly different but still exciting.
Frierson: In what way are you most improved from the athlete and competitor that you were in Rio?
Williams: A lot of my marks are more consistent, though I'm consistently long jumping way farther than I was in 2016. I'm also consistently putting together farther throws in both events (javelin and shot put), actually. I'm just able to duplicate those competitively high scores more often. In 2016, I'd have some meets where I'd put it all together and it was great, and other meets where something really hit the fan and the score was completely botched.
Now that I'm some years older, I've been able to make those high-level performances more consistent.
Frierson: What did you do to fill the time at this point a year ago when the Olympics had been postponed?
Williams: I got a dog and I was thinking that I'd teach her the basics before the track season starts. When the track season shut down, I had so much time to spend with my new puppy, and I was determined to teach her how to roll over. We worked on a bunch of tricks in quarantine and now she can do a whole bunch of stuff.
And aside from that, I planed Keturah's wedding and bachelorette party, and that was fun. I was like, I could wedding plan again! [Laughs] I loved it and it was great.
Frierson: I have many follow-up questions. It's one thing to plan a bachelorette party, it seems quite another to plan her wedding. In what way were you qualified to plan her wedding? And how did it go?
Williams: [Laughs] I wasn't qualified at all. She knows that I'm very creative and she knows that I'm such a hopeless romantic, so the two of those combined [laughs], I guess that's why she felt like I could pull something off. Her wedding plans had been completely derailed by COVID and everything, so she wasn't really going to do anything. And that was like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.
I was like, "You cannot do nothing for your wedding!" I told her I was going to plan her bachelorette and it was going to be fun, so we went down to Orlando and had our closest group of friends come down. We just hung out in the house and played games.
The wedding, it wasn't just me, it was also our friend Sarah Gardner — she and I put our heads together and figured out the best way. We got their budget and figured out how to make it happen. We made it happen so far under her budget. It was a good wedding, just a small ceremony, and she's going to do a bigger something later this year. It was just a ceremony at our church that we've gone to since we stepped foot on UGA's campus.
Sarah's mom did a lot of the decor and Mackenzie Engram (the former UGA women's basketball player) was the photographer. It was a group effort, a team effort, and we pulled it together. I can add wedding planner to my resume now.
Frierson: Which is more nerve-wracking, planning a dear friend's wedding or competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials? There's a lot of pressure on you in both.
Williams: [Laughs] Both have a lot of pressure but both are fun. I'd have to say the Trials were more stressful, just because with the heptathlon there are seven events and I have to make sure each one is firing the day I need it to fire. The wedding, I had a month or two to piece it together with Sarah, and I'm a planner. I have A, B, C, D, E, F and G at all times, so I was confident that there wasn't going to be a detail that fell through the cracks.
If it was up to me, it would have been this huge, extravagant thing, but that's obviously not Keturah at all. I was confident that I would have every piece of the wedding together, so the Trials were more stressful because there were a lot more unknowns.
Frierson: Do you ever stop to think about the fact that you're now a two-time Olympian that's achieved all of the things that you have?
Williams: I think about it all the time. I'm like, how did I end up here? To me, I'm just a normal, clumsy, awkward person — I have no idea how I've stumbled into so much success [laughs].
I had success in high school but it was like, OK, cool, but college is going to be a whole new avenue. I couldn't believe I won one national championship; I had no plan on winning seven. I thought that I was going to win my first national championship maybe my junior or senior year. I had every intention of coming in third place, third or fourth, at NCAAs my freshman year.
Everything thing in college, every single year, I was surpassing my expectations. Every year in college, my mind was blown. In the Olympics, [laughs] how am I here? And it just keeps going.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
Georgia Track & Field Outdoor National Championships Video Recap
Monday, June 16
Georgia Track & Field Outdoor NCAAs Day 2 Recap
Friday, June 13
Georgia Track & Field Feature: Throwers Profile
Monday, June 09
Georgia Track & Field Outdoor SEC Championships Day 3 Video Recap
Monday, May 19