Interview with Scot Hollonbeck

Scot Hollonbeck was a silver medalist in the 1500m at the 96 Olympic Games. He is the world record holder in this event, as well as the men's 800m, the 4 x 400m and the mile. He is a former member of the University of Illinois Wheelchair Track and Field Team who now lives and trains in Atlanta, GA. Hollonbeck talks about his training, controversies between male and female racers, attitudes toward disability, the University of Illinois and sponsorships for wheelchair athletics.

University of Illinois

Q: How did you getting involved with the wheelchair sports program at the University of Illinois?

SH: It's funny...two, three days after I got hit. I was lying in this hospital. I had been out training and I got hit by a drunk driver and was sort of wondering what's next? I was fourteen and a scared young kid. It was during the 1984 Olympics and on the TV they said next will be the 800m women's wheelchair race. And I crinkled up my brow and said what? I had no idea people raced wheelchairs. So Sharon Hedrick from the University of Illinois proceeded to set a new world record, amaze the crowd and complete an act of athleticism that I had never seen or been exposed to. And I was just like...(smile) I want to do that. And I looked across the room at my mom and she was just very quiet, waiting...and I said I want to try that...and bang...you know, the next week I think we called to see what went on at the University of Illinois and the next summer I went down to their kids camp and that was it. I was sold.

Q: So why do you think Marty Morse has built such a successful program at the University?

SH: He's a sincere coach and as an athlete you know he's interested in you as an individual. But I think there's a lot of components that add into his success. Marty is an integral part of having a University that was fully committed and involved. The University of Illinois is good but there's a long way to go still. I think that if you look around you won't see complete equity. And I'm not going to give them that kudos yet because they haven't earned it. They've done some great things but they have some other places to go. And I don't know that many other Olympic athletes coming out of the University of Illinois and they should of capitalized on that more. But it was also having the right athletes there...the mix...you have people like James Briggs and Tony Iniguez and Sharon Hedrick and Jean Driscoll and Ann Cody..all these people and they just drive you. You couldn't have a bad day. You make it into a good day because there were five or six other people who were struggling to be the world's best right along with you and it was very motivational.

Q: How do the members of the University of Illinois wheelchair track and field team such as you and Jean Driscoll, support each other?

SH: It's just unconscious that you know if there's a little bit of a crisis you know that a person is going to be there. And maybe it never happens but you know that you get a flat tire at the start of the race and Jean's there and she's got a spare, she's gonna throw it to you. And vice versa. I'm gonna throw her the tire. Even in the event that I might need it later on down the road. I'll throw it over there cause that person needs it right then. Little things here and there that you can do. It's nice to know that. The funny thing is after all these years it's not like we've done that much socially or as a group. You're training and then you're racing and if you are doing something socially you probably want to get away from all those people just because they are there all the rest of the time. But yeah I enjoy when me and Jean have both had a good race, it's fun to go back before the awards ceremony. Once we were going to a press conference in Jean's van and we got hit by another car. And so I was like I'll stay here and take care of this. You go to the press conference. It was more important for her to be there. She was a returning champion. I was a hopeful. So I sit with the van and I like to think that had it been reversed had it been an event that I had been successful at that she would um do the same for me.

Training

Q: What does it take to be an elite level marathon runner? How do you keep yourself motivated?

SH: As long as you're willing to be out there on a day when its 42 degrees and cold and you'd rather be in bed then I think you're okay. I like that sort of the rugged individualistic approach to it. I set up a program where I'm around things and people that motivate and drive me. I mean every day I get up and the first thing I look at is what I call the wall of competition. There's the five guys I got to beat next year and then two question marks for the people that I don't know who will be there (laughs)..the mystery men.

Disabilty

Q: What are the common stereotypes you have to overcome as a person with a disabilty?

SH: I have a serious attitude problem when it comes to people and what they expect with a person with disabilities. They just don't expect as much. When I got hurt. I can remember. I went from being this kid who would be a doctor or a lawyer, on the track team or a basketball team, to "so you can dress yourself? That's great! Wow you can push your chair up that hill! Or you can get out of your wheelchair?!" I was in shock. Here I was..midstream in the socializing process of the American male and bang, all of a sudden nothing is expected of you. People don't know how to act around you. Then you become a bi-product of that. I think that's one of the reasons I'm still racing. Because for those three pivotal years of my life when I was in high school being denied..just being denied the opportunity just because I was disabled and then having people not expect things of you. That made me a little upset. And when you lose opportunity is when you really value it. So I value what um can be done as an athlete with a disability. You go out there and you win the Boston Marathon. You win the Olympics and you just change some serious attitudes. It carries a lot of clout. More importantly, it's physical clout. It's the clout which you're not supposed to have. You're supposed to be disabled. And you're more, you are super-abled. You are not giving them a choice really. You are force-feeding them as to what they will think about you and they'll think..hey wow! awesome.! That's cool. When they see Jean cross the finish line, they're not going to see disability. They are going to see power. They are going to see strength.

Q: So you see wheelchair athletics as a great way to challenge the common perceptions of people with disabilites?

SH: I think thats one of the really interesting, well it's kind of a phenomenon. I guess, is that I could spend a lifetime of speaking to kids at schools, or trying to be a lawyer and change laws, or getting into the state legislature or national government. But I couldn't do half of what I could do as an athlete. I can get in front of 16 million people on ESPN. I can give them a positive experience. Where the only thing they do is they focus in on the ability. They don't necessarily see a chair. If they do, it's a pretty cool chair. And they don't have all those feelings of empathy, these feelings of negative associations with disability and people's abilities. When Jean crosses the finish line at Boston, what are you going to see? You are going to see this. (raises arms) And for that split second people go, 'Man I wish I was her". How often is it that you get people say they wish they were disabled? The only way you can do this is through sport.

Men versus women racers

Q: Do you think men in wheelchair sports get more exposure?

SH: I think the men's divisions are more often covered. Let's say you are there to film an event. The men are out in front. They're going to cross the finish line first cause they are running a little faster. You've only got one crew. What are you going to do? Are you going to stick it on the field that's going to finish first or are you gonna run it with the women's field? If I was Jean Driscoll I would organize the women's 10 K National Championships separate from the men's. Because then you are going to get the focused coverage. There are pros and cons. I think that women's fields are a little smaller. You have more of a chance to be in the limelight. Your shot at winning is better statistically than mine as a male athlete because I have to spread it out with that many more people. The top three women wheelchair racers are making more money off the circuit than the top three men. Because the top three men end up splitting it among the top ten guys and the top three women have pretty much dominated. And it's the same with women's running and women's cycling. The women's sports movement is still young and women are still coming out of the woodwork and it's the same for women's wheelchair athletes. If you are a very good woman you can get a lot of coverage. I certainly haven't won five Bostons and I have been working at it one hundred percent. (laughs). I have a feeling that a lot of people going into Boston aren't going to be following me and we know who they ARE going to be covering. So it really depends on the event. On the one side sometimes the men's fields are getting a lot more coverage, but on the other side you've got a chance to win a lot more events and be up there on that stage.

Q: What is your opinion on the issue of prize money. Some people argue that women should not receive the same prize money since there are fewer women competing?

SH: If I was a woman racer and I was devoting as much as I am now, I'd be making a lot more money than I am. Just cause I could win more events. Because there is a smaller field. My chances are better. But now coming from the men's side I 'm going huh? I just went to the Honolulu Marathon. There's a handful of women and there's dozens of competitive men. And they both pay three deep. Of course a lot of the guys are out there saying, hey take the money out of the women's field because the numbers aren't there. And put it into the quads or put it back into the men's. And from the other side, the women are saying, no we've got to have that to get the numbers up. I don't know. It's tough. I don't like to look at it like that. I don't like to look at say we have this finite pie and if we give this big of a piece to the women, that means I get a smaller piece. I look at it how are we going to make the pie bigger. You know it was the funniest thing. What do you think is one of the biggest opponents for getting equity in disabled sport? It is Women's sports. You'd think the women would be on your side because they went through the same crap fifteen years ago. It's like hey we had to fight so hard for our little measley piece of the pie here and there's no way we are going to give it up to you.

Sponsorships

Q: When you started competing how did you go about getting sponsorships?

SH: That's one of the really interesting parts of wheelchair sports is you have to be a self-promoter. You learn some extremely valuable skills by never having anything given to you. You always have to get out there and work for it. You had to find out how to sell yourself. You had to figure out how to get into situations which will give you the exposure or create the opportunity for exposure. And I just started when I was fifteen. My first sponsor was a funeral home. (laughs) A funeral home. And I did some work for them. I put out some flowers and things and answered phones and they paid me a little bit as an employee, but then also they paid my entry fees and my gas to go to races and that was pre-Illinois. And I did things like spoke at service organizations to raise a few hundred dollars. People would say, "how do you train? how do you go to all these events? How can you afford it?" You learn how to do it cheap. I used to travel all around the world for three thousand dollars a year. You scrap together for every race. You have to be very good at budgeting and make sure that you keep track of the expenses

Q: How do you get more funding for wheelchair athletics?

SH: You get the spokespersons and the advocates out there. You get them hooked up with the people who really make the Olympic movement. The Visas, who oddly enough aren't sponsoring the Paralympics. Yet their latest commercial says they sponsored the entire Olympic team and uses a disabled athlete. I thought that was interesting. I've got to give them a hit. They deserve a hit on that because they are not supporting the movement in general but they came out with this national commercial, which is great, but it's not really truthful. First of all there's something to the tune of three hundred and seventy billion or five hundred and twenty billion in consumer spending power from persons with disabilities and their immediate families. That's a lot of money. Nobody is marketing to that group directly. Nobody. It's the largest minority in the country. And now people are starting to figure that out. And they are going it's a neat story. Sports is about a story. I've got a pretty good story I think. You're out running and whack some drunk driver hits you and then you start the struggle and it is a struggle. And you climb through all that crud and you end up as one of the world's best athletes. And people look for that. I think that is what the real attraction of the Olympic Games is. It's about the kid next door that started running or started swimming and kept going and going and going and now all of a sudden they are the best in the world. Look at my van. It's considered an antique and I'm one of the best in the world. I think it comes back to you're doing it because you love it and that's neat. And that's a good story that is marketable.