IT ALL SEEMED SO EASY a few years ago, when Kyle “Freight Train” Garland burst onto the scene. He came into the ’22 season already an SEC decathlon champ with a PR of 8196. Add to that a 6th in the Olympic Trials and he had a solid set of credentials in the 10-eventer.
In ’22, though, he showed up at the USATF Multis — held in early May that year — and exploded to a Collegiate Record 8720 score, finishing runner-up, that made the world sit up and take notice. He was just 21 and suddenly, everything and anything seemed possible.
Progress, though, rarely follows a straight line, especially in an event as complicated and demanding as the decathlon. That 8720 would remain his PR for 3 more years as he worked to get healthy and sort it all out. The next season, he scored a best of 8630 in finishing 2nd at the NCAA. He placed 4th at USATF and got a chance to represent the U.S. at the Worlds in Budapest. That didn’t quite go to plan, as he no-heighted in the vault.
Last year, he made it through 7 events at the Olympic Trials but was forced to drop out by an ankle injury incurred during his vault warmup. His season best was only 8261.
“I had to deal with the ups and downs of some injuries and competition was not going the way that I wanted to,” he says. “Just hearing the comments from other people of, ‘OK, maybe this guy has fallen off. He’s not as good as we thought he was, you know. He was young and he had a perfect meet.’ So just dealing with that as a 21-, 22-year-old kid, these expectations were so crazy for me.
“I’m just a kid trying to learn about life and trying to grow as an individual and you have all this expectation and all this heat on you.”
Now Garland is 25 and he has earned his maturity, battle scars and all. He’s ready to make good on his promise. He opened his season at Götzis with an 8626 tally that put him 2nd to Sander Skotheim of Norway, this year’s World Indoor heptathlon champ. Then at the USATF Champs, Garland stormed to a 462-point victory with a huge PR of 8869 that makes him the No. 3 American ever.
Unlike his ’22 breakthrough, he says there were few surprises this time around. “At 8720, I was surprising myself event after event after event, [whereas] every event that I did this weekend, minus my 65-meter javelin throw, was really inside of my wheelhouse.”
Garland explains that an important part of his learning curve has been controlling how his mindset changes throughout the two days of his event: going from very high-intensity events like the 100 and long jump coming down to the shot. On day 2, you go from the 110H right into a discus, which is really no energy exerted at all.
“So I have kind of put myself into a position mentally. Once that next pair of spikes goes on, you have to shut the brain off from what has already happened, and it’s time to move on to the next. And I’m not saying that was the easiest thing to master; I don’t even think I’ve mastered it completely. But I think I’ve gotten a good grasp of it just to put myself in a position where it’s like, OK.
“Now I don’t even kind of see the people that are in the competition. I sometimes visualize a Cordell Tinch next to me in the hurdles, you know, to get myself in that mindset of, ‘OK, I have to race guys that are the best of the best.’ And I view myself not as just the best decathlete. I view myself as the best athlete. So it’s putting myself in that mindset where I have to challenge and push myself to take me to a different place.”
Garland still trains at Georgia, now under the guidance of Bulldog assistant Ryan Bailey for the last two years. Calling Athens his home, he says, “I can’t leave regardless of the coaching changes. I saw my body progress and I decided to get better and grow in the event.
“I realized I’ll be able to succeed regardless of who I’m working with just because it’s about the work ethic. The coach brings that opportunity and the expertise of the coaching structure. But in the end, it’s my legs and my body that are doing the work. I was going to be able to succeed regardless of who I was with. And, ultimately, being with coach Ryan Bailey has been the best option so far.”
On the throws he defers to Bulldog assistant Don Babbit. “He is a guru. You know? He knows his stuff. He has worked with the best of the best throwers in the world and he sees a gift within people and he’s able to bring that out absolutely incredibly. So being able to work with him and getting his expertise on everything has definitely played a big role in the way I’m able to produce on these throws.”
As for the nickname “Freight Train,” the 6-5/230 (1.96/104) Garland says he owes that to Georgia head Caryl Smith Gilbert. “I was running down the track,” he explains, “and she yelled out, ‘Oh, Lord, it’s a freight train coming down the track. Y’all wanna move out the way. Y’all don’t wanna get hit by that!’”
He reveals that during his down years, he occasionally entertained thoughts of leaving the sport. “I was like, ‘Man, maybe I can put on a helmet and some shoulder pads for a couple months and make a little bit of money there.’ I really had to have a come-to-myself moment and sit back and think, ‘What is my purpose in this sport?’ I asked myself that question countless, countless times and it wasn’t really until New Year’s Eve right before ’25 when I realized this journey of mine is not about anybody else but myself.
“As selfish as that might sound, my mental health in this sport… what I’m doing is all for me, nobody else. I appreciate everybody’s support, but I’m not doing this for you guys. I’m doing this for me, man. If I get to a point where I am starting to second-guess what I’m capable of doing, it’s time for me to start hanging the spikes up. Just realizing that and realizing what my worth is in this sport and what it is that I have to accomplish has allowed me to just be clear-minded, clear-hearted, and just take every opportunity like it might be my last, because you never know when it might be.”
The hard times, the doubts he faced after ’22 are inextricably part of his success now. “Ultimately, it shaped me into who I am today because I decided to persevere past that and be able to not just be back at 8720, but to surpass that and know that I have a whole lot more coming.”
As for Tokyo: “I’m just ready to get myself in the best mental spot possible to go out there and make a name for myself on the world stage. I’ve been on two other World Championship teams, and they haven’t gone as good as I might have wanted them to go. This is the first year where I really feel like the eyes and the lights are on me. So I want to capitalize on that as best as I can. So just get my body, my mind right to be able to go out to Tokyo and have a little bit of fun.”
