Jared Connaughton started track as a way to get out of class, quickly fell in love with sprinting and got to the pinnacle of the sport in Prince Edward Island.
He represented the province nationally and internationally before hanging up his spikes a couple of weeks ago. The two-time Olympian played other sports growing up, but it was on the track where he felt most at home.
“I was a sprinter playing hockey and I was a sprinter playing soccer,” Connaughton told The Guardian.
The short distances were so purely physical they caught the New Haven native’s attention in elementary school.
“It’s just gun and go and let the best man win,” Connaughton said.
Vernon Frizzell was his physical education teacher at Eliot River Elementary School.
“You could tell at a very early age that he was going to be a track star,” he said. “He would just come out of those starting blocks like a shot — like something coming out of a canon.”
He was a naturally gifted athlete, but something else separated Connaughton from his peers.
“He is a perfectionist,” said Colin MacAdam, who coached him from his days going to the legion national meets to his retirement. “He analyzes what has to be done and he drives himself to get it done, not to get it done well, but to get it done perfectly.”
Early career
Connaughton was 16 years old when he went to London, Ont., in 2001 for the Canada Games. He admitted receiving a “butt-kicking,” finishing near the back of the pack in his events.
In 2004, he started at the University of Texas at Arlington, but was banged up during his freshman season. He promised his coach to finish in the top-8 in his four events in his sophomore season or lose his scholarship.
“That mission started in Regina at the Canada Games,” Connaughton said.
“To come home victorious in two events really set me up well for the next few seasons.”
The sprinter from the smallest province won gold in the 100 and 200 metres.
At the finish line in Regina, Connaughton did something MacAdam has never forgotten.
“He grabbed his shirt and pointed at P.E.I. on the jersey,” he said. “That’s an image I will always carry.”
Grabbing his jersey was only one sign he was proud of where he came from and it
never changed.
MacAdam said Connaughton was always willing to work with local athletes when he came home. Connaughton said he was fortunate to work with great people early in his career, including Frizzell, MacAdam and Dave MacEachern, and he was pleased to be able to pass on what he learned to the next generation.
Regina is one of the special memories Connaughton has during a career measured in races ending in less than a minute.
One of Connaughton’s best races came in 2011 in Texas following a mishap in a relay where a sprinter slipped into his lane and collided with him. It was the only time Connaughton ever fell in a meet and it resulted in road rash and a torn uniform.
Shaken, he changed and ran the 100 metre in 10.04, the fastest time of the 2011 season at that point.
“I was so out of it mentally that I didn’t overthink it,” recalled Connaughton. “It was really evidence to just letting your body do the talking and taking your head out of it.”
He recalled one moment occurring on a two-and-a-half-hour train ride near Munich, Germany, in 2012 as two Canadian relay teams with alternates, coaches and a biomechanist discussed how they were going to make a contending team for the London Olympics in two weeks time.
“I think it was really the moment I defined myself as a leader and a captain,” Connaughton said.
Canada was ranked 11th going into London and experts were not expecting them to make the finals.
They did and as Connaughton said “(we were) one step away from a bronze medal.”
Connaughton stepped on the line of his lane and his team was disqualified after finishing third.
“It was just an honest-to-goodness athletic mistake,” he said.
Retirement
Connaughton said he has thought about retiring throughout 2014, noting he and his wife Tanesha are looking at starting a family.
“It’s hard to be in a one-track mind for a decade straight,” he said. “After the Commonwealth Games was truly when I said there, it’s time to go.”
Connaughton felt good going into the nationals in Moncton this summer, but sustained a foot injury. Preparing for the Commonwealth Games he re-aggravated a hamstring injury.
“It was kind of like one thing after another after another and it was kind of like my body telling me it was time,” Connaughton said.
Connaughton said he would miss the drives home from the track after a hard workout and the march out to a competition.
“As soon as you come through the tunnel, the crowd erupts, that’s the stuff you can’t replicate,” he said.
Connaughton would like to become a strength and conditioning and speed consultant for a professional sports team. He will be an Athletics Canada track and field ambassador, speaking on their behalf across the country.
Jared Connaughton
u Who – A 29-year-old New Haven native who recently retired from sprinting.
u Quote – “He worked for every one of those tenths of a second that came off his time.” -
Coach Colin MacAdam
u A look at some of his career highlights -
— Maritime record holder in the 100m (10.15), 200m (20.30) and 4-x-100m relay (38.08.).
— P.E.I.’s only double gold medal winner in a Canada Games (2005).
— The Guardian’s co-winner of the Newsmaker of the Year in 2005.
— 2008 Southland Conference Indoor and Outdoor Conference track athlete of the year.
— Captain of 2008 University of Texas at Arlington track team and conference champions.
— Named to all-time indoor and outdoor Southland Conference team.
— Texas Relay 100m champion.
— Osaka Japan open 200m champion
— Francophone games gold medal 4x100 relay.
— Four-time Canadian champion outdoor 200m (twice) indoor 60m and indoor 200m.
— Canadian championship record 200m (20.34).
— Diamond league gold medal 4x100 relay.
— Three-time finalist in the 4x100 relay at the world championships.
— Two Commonwealth games.
— Two Olympic games (two-time semifinalist in 200m and two-time finalist in 4 x 100).
— A Pan Am Games silver medallist in the 4x100m relay.
— Three-time P.E.I. Lieutenant Governor’s Award winner.
— Halfpenny Award winner.
— Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal recipient.
— Multiple Sport P.E.I. award winner.
Jared Connaughton started track as a way to get out of class, quickly fell in love with sprinting and got to the pinnacle of the sport in Prince Edward Island.
He represented the province nationally and internationally before hanging up his spikes a couple of weeks ago. The two-time Olympian played other sports growing up, but it was on the track where he felt most at home.
“I was a sprinter playing hockey and I was a sprinter playing soccer,” Connaughton told The Guardian.
The short distances were so purely physical they caught the New Haven native’s attention in elementary school.
“It’s just gun and go and let the best man win,” Connaughton said.
Vernon Frizzell was his physical education teacher at Eliot River Elementary School.
“You could tell at a very early age that he was going to be a track star,” he said. “He would just come out of those starting blocks like a shot — like something coming out of a canon.”
He was a naturally gifted athlete, but something else separated Connaughton from his peers.
“He is a perfectionist,” said Colin MacAdam, who coached him from his days going to the legion national meets to his retirement. “He analyzes what has to be done and he drives himself to get it done, not to get it done well, but to get it done perfectly.”
Early career
Connaughton was 16 years old when he went to London, Ont., in 2001 for the Canada Games. He admitted receiving a “butt-kicking,” finishing near the back of the pack in his events.
In 2004, he started at the University of Texas at Arlington, but was banged up during his freshman season. He promised his coach to finish in the top-8 in his four events in his sophomore season or lose his scholarship.
“That mission started in Regina at the Canada Games,” Connaughton said.
“To come home victorious in two events really set me up well for the next few seasons.”
The sprinter from the smallest province won gold in the 100 and 200 metres.
At the finish line in Regina, Connaughton did something MacAdam has never forgotten.
“He grabbed his shirt and pointed at P.E.I. on the jersey,” he said. “That’s an image I will always carry.”
Grabbing his jersey was only one sign he was proud of where he came from and it
never changed.
MacAdam said Connaughton was always willing to work with local athletes when he came home. Connaughton said he was fortunate to work with great people early in his career, including Frizzell, MacAdam and Dave MacEachern, and he was pleased to be able to pass on what he learned to the next generation.
Regina is one of the special memories Connaughton has during a career measured in races ending in less than a minute.
One of Connaughton’s best races came in 2011 in Texas following a mishap in a relay where a sprinter slipped into his lane and collided with him. It was the only time Connaughton ever fell in a meet and it resulted in road rash and a torn uniform.
Shaken, he changed and ran the 100 metre in 10.04, the fastest time of the 2011 season at that point.
“I was so out of it mentally that I didn’t overthink it,” recalled Connaughton. “It was really evidence to just letting your body do the talking and taking your head out of it.”
He recalled one moment occurring on a two-and-a-half-hour train ride near Munich, Germany, in 2012 as two Canadian relay teams with alternates, coaches and a biomechanist discussed how they were going to make a contending team for the London Olympics in two weeks time.
“I think it was really the moment I defined myself as a leader and a captain,” Connaughton said.
Canada was ranked 11th going into London and experts were not expecting them to make the finals.
They did and as Connaughton said “(we were) one step away from a bronze medal.”
Connaughton stepped on the line of his lane and his team was disqualified after finishing third.
“It was just an honest-to-goodness athletic mistake,” he said.
Retirement
Connaughton said he has thought about retiring throughout 2014, noting he and his wife Tanesha are looking at starting a family.
“It’s hard to be in a one-track mind for a decade straight,” he said. “After the Commonwealth Games was truly when I said there, it’s time to go.”
Connaughton felt good going into the nationals in Moncton this summer, but sustained a foot injury. Preparing for the Commonwealth Games he re-aggravated a hamstring injury.
“It was kind of like one thing after another after another and it was kind of like my body telling me it was time,” Connaughton said.
Connaughton said he would miss the drives home from the track after a hard workout and the march out to a competition.
“As soon as you come through the tunnel, the crowd erupts, that’s the stuff you can’t replicate,” he said.
Connaughton would like to become a strength and conditioning and speed consultant for a professional sports team. He will be an Athletics Canada track and field ambassador, speaking on their behalf across the country.
Jared Connaughton
u Who – A 29-year-old New Haven native who recently retired from sprinting.
u Quote – “He worked for every one of those tenths of a second that came off his time.” -
Coach Colin MacAdam
u A look at some of his career highlights -
— Maritime record holder in the 100m (10.15), 200m (20.30) and 4-x-100m relay (38.08.).
— P.E.I.’s only double gold medal winner in a Canada Games (2005).
— The Guardian’s co-winner of the Newsmaker of the Year in 2005.
— 2008 Southland Conference Indoor and Outdoor Conference track athlete of the year.
— Captain of 2008 University of Texas at Arlington track team and conference champions.
— Named to all-time indoor and outdoor Southland Conference team.
— Texas Relay 100m champion.
— Osaka Japan open 200m champion
— Francophone games gold medal 4x100 relay.
— Four-time Canadian champion outdoor 200m (twice) indoor 60m and indoor 200m.
— Canadian championship record 200m (20.34).
— Diamond league gold medal 4x100 relay.
— Three-time finalist in the 4x100 relay at the world championships.
— Two Commonwealth games.
— Two Olympic games (two-time semifinalist in 200m and two-time finalist in 4 x 100).
— A Pan Am Games silver medallist in the 4x100m relay.
— Three-time P.E.I. Lieutenant Governor’s Award winner.
— Halfpenny Award winner.
— Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal recipient.
— Multiple Sport P.E.I. award winner.
