London Calling: HHS Grad Gunning for Games

Bobby Smith's athletic career has seen more ups and downs than a seismograph.

The 2001 Hopatcong High School graduate has been a state and national champion javelin thrower. He's also seen his career twice derailed by injury.

But Smith, currently training for London's 2012 Olympic Games, is trying to overcome his greatest challenge yet.

Smith's problem? "Being an American," said Garry Calvert, Smith's trainer.

Calvert, a world-class Australian javelin instructor, moved from Melbourne, Australia, to near Smith's Bradley Beach home to revamp the 29-year-old's throwing motion. Calvert believes Smith, the 2008 Olympic Trials champion, can be one of the world's best.

All Smith has to do, Calvert said, is forget everything he's learned.

"It has not been easy," Calvert said.

No kidding.

Traditionally, Europe has dominated the javelin. America's biggest star, Breaux Greer, recorded the world's ninth-best toss (91.29 meters) in 2007, but blew it on the big stage, finishing 22^nd in the 2008 Olympics.

Calvert said the United States was one of the sport's top nations in the 1980s, when Tom Petranoff and Bobby Roggy were putting up monstrous numbers. But that's changed.

Calvert blames American coaching.

"The elite throwers are in Scandinavia and mid-Europe," the coach said. "Throwers in the USA have to bridge the gap."

Smith may be able to do it.

Everything looked on the rise for Smith in 2008. On his fifth of sixth throws in the finals at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., he hurled a personal-best 249-6, which eventually held up to win the gold, even though he entered the contest ranked No. 10.

And though he didn't compete in the 2008 Games since he didn't hit the Olympic qualifying standard, Smith earned a spot at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., where he trained non-stop for a year.

"It had its financial benefits," he said. "Everything was paid for. … But I just new it wasn't the right environment for me to reach my best."

So Smith eventually left the training center, longing to be near his family, and took a job as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Monmouth University, where he was also an accomplished running back.

The move allowed Smith to "get back to normal," he said, and helped him refocus. Now, aside from training six days a week and helping college throwers, he's a part-time javelin instructor who coached two high school athletes into the top 10 of this year's Meet of Champions in South Plainfield.

But his eyes are still set on 2012, even if that means a complete transformation.

Mike Juskus, Smith's high school coach, who also attended Hopatcong High School, made the 1980 Olympic team at age 23. He didn't participate, however, since the United States boycotted the Games, which were held in Moscow while America was against Russia's war in Afghanistan.

Juskus called Smith "the fiercest competitor that I've ever coached."

"He's always had tremendous competitiveness," Juskus said. "He could focus as well as anybody I've ever coached."

Juskus, who recruited Smith to the javelin during Smith's sophomore year, also agreed that Smith may need to change his form.

"When he left me, his best throw was, let's say, 225 (feet)," Juskus said. "And after all he's gone through, his best is 250.

"I think that what he's trying to do, he's really trying to move himself into the elite level and it's probably something that he needs to do."

Calvert and Smith agreed there's lots of work to be done.

Smith said he must "get my hips into the throw. I wasn't getting a stretch reflex up top. I was muscling it. Not having your hips into a the throw — that's a big disadvantage."

Calvert said there's a mental aspect, too.

"That's come a lot slower," the coach said.

"(But) in terms of a learning process, it's been excellent. Bobby's been able to take in a lot of new information. He's getting better and better at executing each skill. And on the physical side of it, he had to do a lot of training to get himself into thee more advanced positions.

"The whole idea is that we had more than one year to do this," continued Calvert, who began working with Smith in Australia in late 2009. "We have in total about two and a half years to make this change."

Long enough for Smith to stop thinking like an American?