UL Olympian: Hollis Conway

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NORMAL — At the end of one of the world’s greatest high jumping careers, Hollis Conway felt like a failure. He hadn’t met his goals of setting a world record nor had he won an Olympic gold medal. Now five years removed from his last competition, Conway sees he accomplished enough to make people listen. They were listening to the two-time Olympic medalist at the Brown Ballroom in Illinois State’s Bone Student Center Tuesday night during the annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes Home Team Banquet, a fundraiser for the FCA’s ministry in the north-central Illinois region. “I want them to understand there are millions of people like me who could not have made it without people who cared and got involved,” said Conway, who grew up poor in Shreveport, La. Conway, 39, is a motivational speaker and the Area Director for the Northeastern Louisiana Fellowship of Christian Athletes based in West Monroe, La. The 1988 Olympic silver medalist and 1992 bronze medalist spoke at 38 events last year at places ranging from schools and churches to corporations. “If you have all success, kids who struggle can’t identify with you,” Conway said. “If you have some failures and disappointments, they can identify with you in the process of pursuing their success.” Conway, who has a wife and three daughters, struggled financially and emotionally when his 10-year professional track career ended. “There was a three- or four-year period where I sat around and I had no idea who I was,” said the University of Louisiana graduate. “Even though I graduated from college and everything, my pursuit was athletics. I had to figure out, ‘What am I good for? All I’ve ever been is an athlete.’” Conway found the answer when he heard a preacher say “whatever you need to be successful, you already have inside of you.” “The more I look in there, the more I find, but it takes the same work (as pro track),” he said. Conway worked his way to national prominence early in his college career, winning the 1988 NCAA indoor title as a sophomore. He set the still-standing collegiate record of 7 feet, 9¼ inches in 1989. The rest of the story By Randy Sharer rsharer@pantagraph.com

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As a scrawny freshman at Fair Park High School, Hollis Conway was really bad at football and not much better at basketball. Conway had little success trying to make it on the school's track team, too. His first attempt at the high jump, with the bar set an inch below qualifying standards for the varsity squad, went about as badly as everything else. "I hit the bar and it knocked the wind out of me," Conway said. "But even on the ground, with everyone laughing at me, I saw myself as being successful at this someday." No kidding: Conway would go on to earn a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. That improbable six-year journey from schoolboy dud to Olympic medalist taught him a valuable lesson that he shared again Sunday at a special prayer service for the Bossier high school seniors. "Your vision has to be bigger than your circumstances," Conway said. "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." A native of Shreveport and the only American to win two Olympic medals in the high jump -- he earned a bronze in the '92 Barcelona Games, Conway was the keynote speaker at a baccalaureate for graduating seniors from the six Bossier Parish high schools. The rest of the story By Joel Anderson joelanderson@gannett.com

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Hollis Conway hasn't competed in the high jump in five years. Yet Conway, a two-time Olympic medalist, has other bars to surpass these days. He is a motivational speaker who has his own company, Overcoming Obstacles, Inc. Conway, a former star at Fair Park High School and the University of Southwestern Louisiana, has seen his share of obstacles. Some of those very obstacles led him to where he is today. "I had some major injuries," Conway recalled prior to speaking at this week's Fellowship of Christian Athletes' Founder's Banquet in Bossier City. "In 1995, I completely ruptured my patella tendon. In '96, I completely ruptured my Achilles tendon. I came back in '97, '98, '99, just jumping a little bit. I was jumping 7-5, but not at that level. "In the midst of those years, trying to compete, finances went away because of the injuries and I was away from the sport. I spent three or four years trying to figure out who I was and what was my purpose in life. I got into ministry and started with FCA along with that I was working at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, counseling athletes." He eventually ended up in Monroe where he worked with the FCA and then began his own company. During that late 1990s period when he was searching, he found his purpose in life. The rest of the story