Jacobs alum prepping for Rio Olympics
Veteran track athlete Evan Jager is 27, at the top of his game and a clear favorite to win an Olympic medal this year.
The Jacobs High School alumnus, formerly of Algonquin, will try out in July for the U.S. team that will compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Aug. 5 to 21 in Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. Olympic Team track and field trials are July 1 to 10 in Eugene, Oregon.
Jager holds the North American record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and represented the U.S. at the 2012 London Olympic Games, finishing sixth in that event.
"Nothing's a sure shot," Jager said in a telephone interview from Oregon, where he is a professional athlete for Nike's Portland-based Bowerman Track Club. "Obviously, a big part of competing at this high of a level is staying healthy. It's very easy for little injuries or things to pop up. This is going to be the most competitive year of the steeplechase since I started steeplechase in 2012. It's not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination."
Last year, Jager ranked fourth - he placed second the year before - in the world for men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, a race in which runners must clear hurdles and water jumps.
The top three are Kenyan runners on whom Jager has set his sights to beat. This year's global rankings won't be determined until the end of the season.
Jager has competed all over the world and is featured in the documentary "Driven."
"I'm pretty confident at this point," he said. "I'm in a completely different place than I was the last time in 2012 for the Olympic trials. While I was fit, there was still so much about the steeplechase that I didn't know. Now, I feel like much more of a veteran of the event."
<h3 class="breakHead">Hometown hero</h3>
The 2007 Jacobs graduate has a huge fan following here at home.
Jager won four state titles at Jacobs, finished third in the 5,000-meter run at the USATF Outdoor Championship in 2009 and represented the U.S. at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin.
Jager has been running since middle school. Even when he was a high school freshman, coaches saw his potential.
"Every year he did something a little bit more amazing than he did before," said Jason Borhart, Jacobs' head track coach. "He is a very hard worker. He is not a complainer. He loves the challenge."
That drive is what allowed Jager to turn pro for Nike at 18 - the start of his sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin - leaving behind a full scholarship.
"We're very proud of him, and happy for him for what he's been able to earn," Borhart said. "It's not just at Jacobs. It's a regional thing. It's almost a state thing ... conference coaches, District 300 ... everybody's rooting for him."
During Jager's London Olympic bid, more than 600 people packed Buffalo Wild Wings in Algonquin to cheer him on, and the school later hosted a homecoming reception and inducted him into Jacobs' Hall of Fame.
"We'll probably do something similar to that again ... watch him in Rio," Borhart said.
Jager's most ardent fans are his parents, Joel and Cathy Jager of Algonquin. They follow him from competition to competition and will be at the Olympic trials in July, partly because it's the only way they get to see him. The couple also are planning to fly to Rio if he earns a spot on the U.S. team.
"Because he is the best in the country, I think it's quite likely he will be successful," said Joel Jager, 63, digital asset manager for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington. "He is strong. He has got a lot of stamina right now. As long as something doesn't go wrong, it's a pretty good likelihood ... he's got enough skill and energy.
"We are really proud of him just because he has done a lot of work to get where he is," he added. "Right now, it's about the adventures and the experiences of this. Not many people have the opportunity to see their children grow up to be the best in the world."
Jager is counting on having that hometown support again to get him through this Olympic bid.
"It took the edge off a lot," he said. "It made me feel really happy regardless of winning a medal or not."
<h3 class="breakHead">Olympic rivals</h3>
The last American to win an Olympic medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase was Brian Diemer, who took home bronze at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
Getting to the Olympics is hard enough, but to win a medal Jager must beat the Kenyans, something Americans haven't accomplished in decades.
The top two Kenyan steeplechase runners to beat are Ezekiel Kemboi Cheboi, 34, who has won two Olympic golds and four world championship golds, and Conseslus Kipruto, 21, who won the 2011 World Youth and 2012 World Junior titles in the steeplechase.
"The great thing about the steeplechase that works for Evan is the endurance," said Rob Piercy of St. Charles, Jager's former cross country coach at Jacobs. "He still has the fastest time in steeplechase. It's especially grueling just because of the jumps and hurdles. You need athletic ability to get up over those hurdles. You can't just be a 10,000-meter guy or a sprinter ... you have to have a meld of the two. The difficult part for him is going to be being able to keep up with the kick of the Kenyans in the end. It's going to really depend on can he do the brutal last lap with those guys."
Kenyan runners are known for their ability to finish strong, accelerating three or four times in the final lap.
"It's not something that everyone in the world can do," Jager said. "I don't have the capabilities to try and react to what they are doing and be competitive with them. I have to do what I do best."
Though he's among the favorites to medal, Jager said he is not going to let the pressure get to him as it did in London.
"I am much more prepared to handle that mentally and emotionally," he said. "Medaling at the Olympics would be the absolute best thing that could happen to me. Just to be at this level and being competitive on the world stage ... it's been incredible. I wouldn't want to be doing anything different in my life. I am literally living out my dreams, so I'm having a ton of fun."