Scantling Worked His Way To Tokyo
August 04, 2021 | Track & Field, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Garrett Scantling moves with the incredible combination of ease and fluidity that so many exceptional athletes exhibit. Most of us aren't 28-year-old world-class decathletes, but even on our very best of days we never once looked so full of potential and kinetic energy.
Scantling, the former Georgia All-American who won the decathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June to qualify for his first Olympic Games, carries himself with a combination of grace, confidence and strength that seems to whisper: I can do anything.
"Garrett is the type of person, when he gets fired up, the sky's the limit," said Kendell Williams, a seven-time NCAA combined-events champion at Georgia and now a two-time Olympian. Both Scantling and Williams, in the women's heptathlon, began their competitions on Wednesday.
After the first day of decathlon, Scantling was in sixth place with 4,338 points. The Estonian trio, all current or former Bulldogs who have won NCAA decathlon titles, wasn't too far behind. Johannes Erm was in 14th, Maicel Uibo 18th, and Karel Tilga, who won the NCAA decathlon in June, in 21st, halfway through the competition. Williams was in ninth after four events of the heptathlon.
If you know Scantling at all, you know he's pretty much always fired up. He embraces life, relationships, each opportunity that comes along to grow and try new things. Failing usually isn't much fun, but it's also often what leads to tremendous growth.
In 2016, after finishing his Bulldog career, Scantling placed fourth in the decathlon at the Olympic Trials, which meant he finished one spot out of making the team. It was a crushing result, one that led Scantling to rethink what he wanted to do.
Giving up on track and field, Scantling turned to his first love. A very good football player back in high school in Jacksonville, Fla., Scantling, who's about 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, scored tryouts with the Atlanta Falcons and his hometown Jaguars. The tryouts didn't lead to an NFL career, but they weren't a waste of his time, either.
"I've always said since being cut from the Jaguars and the Falcons, if you don't go out there and put in the work, someone else is going to take your dream. I made it my mission that I put in so much work that no one else could take what I wanted. And so far it's worked perfectly.
"The trials and tribulations that I have been through, hard work has been the answer to all of the questions."
The football stretch in 2017 didn't lead him straight back to the decathlon. Thinking that his pro athlete days were behind him and it was time to join the proper work force, Scantling graduated from UGA with a degree in Financial Planning, and in 2017 he started working for the Principal Financial Group in Jacksonville.
It was a job he could do well — Scantling is smart and personable — but it wasn't where he belonged. There was unfinished business in the decathlon, untapped potential in Scantling's performances. So off came the dress clothes and back on went the track gear.
"I've actually had a lot of support from the people I worked with," Scantling said. "They called me, they sent me messages, they want to throw me a party when I come back to Jacksonville. They've been there with support the whole way even though it might seem like I quit on them. They didn't see it that way. They saw it as a young man chasing his dreams."
And chase them he did. Coming back to Athens and training with now-former Georgia coach Petros Kyprianou, Scantling soon found himself hitting personal bests in one event after another. In February 2020, right before the coronavirus pandemic shut down everything, Scantling won the heptathlon at the USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships.
After COVID forced the postponement of pretty much everything, including the 2020 Olympics, Scantling went ahead and had ankle surgery to repair a longstanding issue. Fully healed and back training as hard as possible by the fall of last year, Scantling had a "hold crap" moment as he saw how well he was doing training alongside Erm, Tilga and current Georgia All-American Kyle Garland, who placed sixth at the Olympic Trials.
"That second year back at it, of going into fall training and having my mind focused on what I need to do, I was on a different level," Scantling said.
Scantling proved to be on a different level at the Olympic Trials in June, winning with a personal-best score of 8,647, well ahead of runner-up Steven Bastien's 8.484. It was Father's Day when the decathlon wrapped up, when Scantling, who'd come so close in 2016, won the biggest event of his life and made his first Olympic team. The Scantling family was there in Eugene, Ore., for the Trials, and many tears were shed that day.
"Once I crossed the line (after the final event, the 1500-meter run), I looked up and saw my family," Scantling said. "You could see it on the video, I just started crying. It was just the culmination of everything that has happened to me in the last five years, from coming in fourth at the last Trials. It's been a lot and it's taught me a lot about who I am as a person. It's taught me about my resiliency, just knowing that I'm going to do whatever it takes to succeed.
"It was Father's Day and my dad was there, crying like a baby."
Life father, like son. It was a joyous and heart-warming day, and the culmination of an incredible amount of hard work getting Scantling not only competitive again after his multi-year break from the sport, but getting him better than ever.
"He's been waiting for this moment for so long and I'm so glad that his dream was finally realized," Williams said.
Scantling was thrilled to take the Olympic team, and he desperately wants to leave Tokyo having performed to the very best of his abilities, but these Olympics aren't the final step in this process. Really, Scantling is only just beginning. After the Olympics, there are the indoor and outdoor world championships in 2022, and the Paris Olympics in 2024 are not too far down the road.
Everything that happened before now has been a building block to getting Scantling to where he is and where he wants to go. As Williams said, the sky's the limit.
Staff Writer
Garrett Scantling moves with the incredible combination of ease and fluidity that so many exceptional athletes exhibit. Most of us aren't 28-year-old world-class decathletes, but even on our very best of days we never once looked so full of potential and kinetic energy.
Scantling, the former Georgia All-American who won the decathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June to qualify for his first Olympic Games, carries himself with a combination of grace, confidence and strength that seems to whisper: I can do anything.
"Garrett is the type of person, when he gets fired up, the sky's the limit," said Kendell Williams, a seven-time NCAA combined-events champion at Georgia and now a two-time Olympian. Both Scantling and Williams, in the women's heptathlon, began their competitions on Wednesday.
After the first day of decathlon, Scantling was in sixth place with 4,338 points. The Estonian trio, all current or former Bulldogs who have won NCAA decathlon titles, wasn't too far behind. Johannes Erm was in 14th, Maicel Uibo 18th, and Karel Tilga, who won the NCAA decathlon in June, in 21st, halfway through the competition. Williams was in ninth after four events of the heptathlon.
If you know Scantling at all, you know he's pretty much always fired up. He embraces life, relationships, each opportunity that comes along to grow and try new things. Failing usually isn't much fun, but it's also often what leads to tremendous growth.
In 2016, after finishing his Bulldog career, Scantling placed fourth in the decathlon at the Olympic Trials, which meant he finished one spot out of making the team. It was a crushing result, one that led Scantling to rethink what he wanted to do.
Giving up on track and field, Scantling turned to his first love. A very good football player back in high school in Jacksonville, Fla., Scantling, who's about 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, scored tryouts with the Atlanta Falcons and his hometown Jaguars. The tryouts didn't lead to an NFL career, but they weren't a waste of his time, either.
"I've always said since being cut from the Jaguars and the Falcons, if you don't go out there and put in the work, someone else is going to take your dream. I made it my mission that I put in so much work that no one else could take what I wanted. And so far it's worked perfectly.
"The trials and tribulations that I have been through, hard work has been the answer to all of the questions."
The football stretch in 2017 didn't lead him straight back to the decathlon. Thinking that his pro athlete days were behind him and it was time to join the proper work force, Scantling graduated from UGA with a degree in Financial Planning, and in 2017 he started working for the Principal Financial Group in Jacksonville.
It was a job he could do well — Scantling is smart and personable — but it wasn't where he belonged. There was unfinished business in the decathlon, untapped potential in Scantling's performances. So off came the dress clothes and back on went the track gear.
"I've actually had a lot of support from the people I worked with," Scantling said. "They called me, they sent me messages, they want to throw me a party when I come back to Jacksonville. They've been there with support the whole way even though it might seem like I quit on them. They didn't see it that way. They saw it as a young man chasing his dreams."
And chase them he did. Coming back to Athens and training with now-former Georgia coach Petros Kyprianou, Scantling soon found himself hitting personal bests in one event after another. In February 2020, right before the coronavirus pandemic shut down everything, Scantling won the heptathlon at the USATF Indoor Combined Events Championships.
After COVID forced the postponement of pretty much everything, including the 2020 Olympics, Scantling went ahead and had ankle surgery to repair a longstanding issue. Fully healed and back training as hard as possible by the fall of last year, Scantling had a "hold crap" moment as he saw how well he was doing training alongside Erm, Tilga and current Georgia All-American Kyle Garland, who placed sixth at the Olympic Trials.
"That second year back at it, of going into fall training and having my mind focused on what I need to do, I was on a different level," Scantling said.
Scantling proved to be on a different level at the Olympic Trials in June, winning with a personal-best score of 8,647, well ahead of runner-up Steven Bastien's 8.484. It was Father's Day when the decathlon wrapped up, when Scantling, who'd come so close in 2016, won the biggest event of his life and made his first Olympic team. The Scantling family was there in Eugene, Ore., for the Trials, and many tears were shed that day.
"Once I crossed the line (after the final event, the 1500-meter run), I looked up and saw my family," Scantling said. "You could see it on the video, I just started crying. It was just the culmination of everything that has happened to me in the last five years, from coming in fourth at the last Trials. It's been a lot and it's taught me a lot about who I am as a person. It's taught me about my resiliency, just knowing that I'm going to do whatever it takes to succeed.
"It was Father's Day and my dad was there, crying like a baby."
Life father, like son. It was a joyous and heart-warming day, and the culmination of an incredible amount of hard work getting Scantling not only competitive again after his multi-year break from the sport, but getting him better than ever.
"He's been waiting for this moment for so long and I'm so glad that his dream was finally realized," Williams said.
Scantling was thrilled to take the Olympic team, and he desperately wants to leave Tokyo having performed to the very best of his abilities, but these Olympics aren't the final step in this process. Really, Scantling is only just beginning. After the Olympics, there are the indoor and outdoor world championships in 2022, and the Paris Olympics in 2024 are not too far down the road.
Everything that happened before now has been a building block to getting Scantling to where he is and where he wants to go. As Williams said, the sky's the limit.
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.
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