Author: Tom McCann
The Campus: When did you start running track?
Matt Malek: I started running track junior year at Middlebury.
TC: Why did you decide to start?
MM: I played soccer for the first two years, on the B-team, and then I didn't play my junior year and I got fat and bored. I'd always wanted to play track and it seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I took it up.
TC: Did you ever think about playing something else?
MM: Not really. At this level you kind of need to be fairly well trained to say the least to play most sports, but track is something where if you have the kind of natural ability, you can pick it up faster.
TC: So would you say you're a natural?
MM: [Laughs] I guess that could be said.
TC: What do you talk about with other sprinters between sprints?
MM: [Laughs] I don't think that's fit for publication. [Pause] Well, today we were watching the jumpers - we often comment on the other people in the gym and the pole-vaulters are always entertaining because they do funny things in their training.
TC: Do you have a favorite event to watch or compete in?
MM: I think it's the same answer for both actually. I think the 4x400m relay is my favorite event both to watch and do because it's short enough to be "not-boring" in my opinion, but long enough to build up and have a lot of excitement. It's, in my opinion, the best spectator event in track - probably a biased event since I run the event.
TC: Do you have an occasion that stands out for you so far when you think back over your track career?
MM: Definitely the Open New England meet in Boston last indoor season. It's when our relay sort of came out of nowhere to come in fourth and qualify - or we thought, qualify for nationals and it was excellent. Everybody ran the best they could that day and it was a wonderful experience.
TC: What's the best thing that track has done for you?
MM: You mean besides my beautiful girlfriend, Kirsten? [Laughs] It's given me an outlet for my competitive desires. I really love to compete and it's done that, and I've met some amazing people, some really awesome people.
TC: OK. Now, if you could nix an event from a standard meet what would it be?
MM: Easily the 5000m, or 3000m, whichever one they run outside -- the really really long one. I don't even know what they run here. It takes a long, long time and it's around a circle and you never know where they are in the race and usually they don't actually make their move until the end so the first 20 minutes or so is kinda planned.
TC: If someone tripped you during national qualifiers, would you start a bobsled team?
MM: [Laughs] Yes. [Pause]
TC: OK, fair enough. Who would you have in your sled?
MM: Well, naturally I would have Khristoph Becker as the driver because he can do everything anyway so I'm assuming he can drive a bobsled. I mean, if he can do all the decathlete things that he does so well, why not drive something that nice? In the back, for power, we'd have Pat Swan '08 - "Man of Steel" - then, second from the back we'd have Matt Angoff '07 who would entertain us with quotes all the way down the ice, keeping the whole sled chill, and naturally I'd be carrying the egg.
TC: What's your favorite sports movie?
MM: That's a tough question. Surprisingly, it might be Cool Runnings, even with the reference. It has humor, it has passion and it has people who do things that they're really bad at and loving it.
TC: Do track kids throw the sickest parties?
MM: We have had some "fun-day Sundays." I would say yes, although I don't know if I can answer that appropriately for the paper. [Laughs]
TC: So what's the major difference between track athletes and field athletes?
MM: Track athletes tend to be smaller than field athletes. Track athletes tend to be more masochistic and field athletes more bouncy and strong.
TC: How do you find the time to keep up your grades and train for track every day?
MM: It's not that bad. I would either play something else or goof off in the afternoon for that amount of time for the most part so it's just a matter of applying your free time.
TC: Do you have any other sporting interests at Middlebury?
MM: Well, in fact I do. One of my great passions here is intramural sports - especially the Xi Omega Great White Yaks Intramural Sports Franchise.
TC: Really? Tell me about that.
MM: It's a group of overzealous and entirely too-enthusiastic group of students who began in one sport and got jerseys and then extended to hockey and got jerseys and then they started recruiting and then they expanded to many other sports and now they expand through the entire intramural sports network, including fund-raising, charity events, inter-collegiate intramural sports competitions - the likes. Even end of year banquets.
TC: OK. Would it freak you out to run clockwise?
MM: It's very very strange. We do it in practice because otherwise you would fall apart going one way around the bubble. It's really weird - it's remarkably strange - you feel like you're going to fall over.
TC: Do you also find yourself wearing spandex when you're not involved in track?
MM: [Coy look] Maybe…
- Tom McCann, Sports Editor
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM Matt Malek '06 plays hard and works harder
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