Derek Drouin healthy, hungry for high jump gold entering Rio Olympics
Canadian experienced career turnaround at 2015 Pan Am Games
By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports
It was the summer of 2012 and one of the just-happy-to-be-here moments in Derek Drouin's high jump career.
One would expect such a cavalier attitude entering a lower-level competition, but at the London Olympics?
"I had … not the smoothest ride going into London," Drouin, who was coming off a pair of foot surgeries to repair torn ligaments in the year leading up to the Summer Games, told CBC Sports. "There were times where I told myself you've just gotta be happy to get [to London]. The injury you've been through, you've gotta be satisfied with that."
Drouin, then 22, was definitely satisfied with clearing 2.29 metres and winning bronze, Canada's first jumping medal since Greg Joy won silver at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
He just wasn't too excited about what was about to happen, namely a parade in Drouin's honour in his small hometown of Corunna, Ont. If you know Drouin, you know he doesn't seek the spotlight and is known for his calm demeanour.
I'm happy to do it when my motivation is trying to promote the sport and trying to motivate our future Olympians.- Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin on being in the spotlight
"It was really uncomfortable for me," said Drouin, who holds the Canadian record of 2.40m, set in April 2014. "It's just outside of my comfort zone. [But] it was important for me to do it because I was hoping there were kids that were watching and hopefully they could see that someone from a small town, or someone that was just like them 15 years ago, could have a dream like that and see it through.
"I'm happy to do it when my motivation is trying to promote the sport and trying to motivate our future Olympians."
Four years later, Drouin is back, this time healthy and eyeing Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro. And, unlike in London, he has a group of followers, literally, as in 3,311 Twitter followers (as of July 29).
"I won bronze in London but I want to be an Olympic champion," said Drouin, who won bronze at the 2013 world championships, gold in 2015 and gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Pan Am Games. "I want to win three world titles. I'm still hungry for more."
In Rio, Drouin will be happy if he's able to walk off the track knowing he performed at his highest level and prepared the best he could on the day of competition.
The start of Drouin's 2015 season was slow, he said, but picked up after he was "motivated by the experience" of competing at the Pan Am Games in Toronto.
'You're going to have setbacks'
In February, Drouin withdrew from the Millrose Games with a minor training injury, but the lanky six-foot-five jumper won his first outdoor event of the 2016 season in late April by successfully defending his title at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
"You're going to have setbacks, things you're going to have to work through," Drouin said, adding the foot surgeries ahead of London had him questioning whether he would realize his Olympic dream. "I think that [allowed] me to really appreciate my sport and the opportunities I'd been given that I had kind of taken for granted."
Drouin reached a season-best 2.38 at an international high jump meet in Eberstadt, Germany, in mid-July. At the time, it was the third-highest jump in the world this season and topped Drouin's 2.34 from the 2015 worlds in Beijing, China.
Earlier this season, he finished seventh at Diamond League Monaco (2.27) and won at the Harry Jerome Track Classic in Burnaby, B.C., and Canadian Olympic trials in Edmonton with jumps of 2.20 and 2.30, respectively.
Another opportunity awaits Drouin in Rio.