Florida Gator Christian Taylor is only a freshman, but he's got a deep resume of accomplishments under his belt. This season he's qualified for the NCAA National Indoor Meet in three events, the long and triple jump, as well as the 4 x 400-meter relay, where his Gators are the top ranked team with a time of 3 minutes, 5.82 seconds. Let's see if he can pull off a big triple like he used to do in high school.

What are you looking to accomplish at the NCAA Meet?

I'm definitely going to go for the gold! Personally, I'd like to jump 16 meters (in the triple jump) and I definitely want to get eight meters again (in the long jump). I know my competition is going to be strong. It's going to be like Tyson. There's going to be a lot of big jumps there and big jumpers. I'm going to have to compete. At the end, I'm going to have to run hard for that four by four. We've got the target on our back now so it's going to be big.

Have you picked a favorite event yet?

I'm really about “whatever it takes” to get points for the team. I love jumping, and that's where my passion is, but if coach needs me to run the four or run the two...I'll do whatever it takes.

I know you're a freshman and you have a lot of college meets left, but way down the road, what do you see yourself doing for an event?

I'd like to do long/triple. I definitely want to do a sprint. I've been pretty successful with the four. I haven't really run that and I'll probably start outdoors. I'd love to do some 400s, because I know it's good to have a good balance with the sprints and the jumps. It's definitely going to be long and triple though.

What's your 400 personal-best right now?

Outdoors it's 46.6 in high school.

Is that a split or was that in the open four?

That's open. Then this weekend I split 45.6 on the first leg of our four by four.

You think you can hit 45 in the open?

I'd like to, but, like I said, I need the chance to get in the open. Then I'll do whatever it takes.

What was it like when you hit that first eight meter jump?

Basically, when you hit big jumps, you know that you did, but you don't really know the distance. When I hit eight, it was kind of an unbelievable feeling. It really didn't hit me until two or three days after that I jumped that far. It was kind of a “club thing”. I finally joined the “eight meter club”. That was big for me. Especially as a freshman. I'm a pretty realistic kind of guy. It's a step-by-step thing. The coach was like, “you've been training hard and you've been running fast. Eight is going to come before outdoors.” When I hit it, it was unreal.

Some people struggle with the high school to college transition. How did you handle it so well?

Right. In high school I traveled a lot and I had a lot of exposure with the world teams and stuff like that. It was pretty easy. I took every meet like it was “just another meet” sort of thing. It was an easy transition. Going to college, I felt like I'm being independent on my own and I'm just going with that right now.

In your opinion, what's your biggest accomplishment so far?

I'd have to say World Youths. That's probably one my happiest days for my track career. Just because it was the first big win for me and that made it official that track was the thing that I was going to do. SECs were great, but I definitely wish we could have won as a team. Individually it was good, but you wish the home team could have come out with the win. But winning World Youths was definitely big for me.

Can you explain a typical training week for you?

Yeah, yeah. Well, Monday is our recovery day because we're just coming back from the meets and stuff. We usually do a couple of diagonals, a lot of treatment, check-ups on the body to see where everybody is physically and mentally. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are really about technique and technique work. These days are like a lot of box jumps, small treatment stuff. We have such intense fall training that now the coach is like, “you're in shape, you're ready to run, we're just going to do some small things here and there.” I do a lot of technical box jumps and bounds and stuff like that. Fridays...that's when we're traveling. Running-wise, with this four by four, I'm guessing it's the fall training that has me running strong because we really don't run anymore. I have a lot of easy strides, it's not like I'm running workouts. I'm still trying to figure out where this speed is coming from.

What's your fall training like?

Fall training was definitely different. I don't know if you knew that we had a coaching change. We were definitely running a lot of 250s and 300s. Definitely a lot more speed work. It was all-around strength work. Four days in the weight room. After the first meet, coaches got changed. It's kind of the same now, with three days of jumps and a lot of jogging around.

Was bouncing from coach to coach difficult?

Mentally it was pretty tough. Me and Coach had a pretty strong connection. Mentally it was tough. Physically—because like I said the fall training was so intense—it was a tough transition because the things we do now aren't as challenging as they used to be. It's all technical. But it really wasn't too difficult.

What's the hardest workout you've done?

I think probably four 300s. They were like 35 seconds and we had maybe a minute rest. That was our Saturday workout because Coach didn't want us to go out on Friday. It was basically our little “club check”. He was making sure that we didn't kill it. So, if you went out, you were hurting pretty bad. And if you didn't go out...then you were still hurting, but you could recover. It was quick, but it made us strong...and that's showing now.

As a jumper, how easily can you dunk a basketball?

I can do it with vert. Like right under the goal kind of thing. I'm not going to tell you that I'm a basketball player, because I don't play, but I can dunk if I'm under the goal.

You're not going to be picking up high jump then?

No (laughs). But if coach wants me to, then I may see what I can do. But if it was my choice...then probably not.

What are you long term goals?

Outdoors is coming up, so that's pretty big. SECs. My biggest goals are this summer and the Pan-Am Games and Worlds. Basically how I do outdoors is going to choose if I go to Pan-Ams or Worlds. I'm pretty young, so I'm going to take advantage of all the teams I can make. Pan-Ams are pretty big on my agenda right now.

Do you have any numbers in your mind that you want to hit?

I don't know because with the way I've been jumping, it's been so surprising to me. I really can't pinpoint what it's going to be. Just because it's been so surprisingly good, that it's hard to pinpoint a number. I guess after Nationals I'll be able to sit down and see how I'm feeling and see. Me and coach will get together and we'll see where we'll go from there.

What pumps you up at these meets?

I feed off other people's energy. My biggest thing is if the team is doing good, then I'm going to feed off of that. I kind of do my thing. If we're doing bad then I feel like someone has to step up...and why can't it be me? I feed off of that. Also—since high school—I've like watching the shot putters and discus throwers. They have an intensity and with every throw they go in screaming and slapping themselves. It's a whole different mode than any other event. I really like watching that before, even during, while I'm competing, because with them screaming and stuff...it gets me pumped and I just go from there.

You should apply that your jumping. Start screaming and stuff.

No, no, no. I definitely do. When I run down the runway I try to hit a couple of grunts and stuff like that. Just so I can release that and get that thrower's mentality.

What's something weird about you that some people don't know?

That's a good question. I've never been asked that before. I guess just chilling out on campus. I skateboard. My parents weren't too happy about that when they found out, because it was like a secret. They'd never encourage something like that in case I fell or something. But, yeah, I skateboard a lot.

That's how you get around campus?

Yeah. My parents wouldn't be too happy to hear that...but that's probably that most interesting thing about me that people wouldn't know.

I hope your ankles stay intact. Those are the moneymakers.

I haven't fell too hard and I keep my left leg strong. That's my push leg. I push with my jump leg, so I'm keeping it pretty strong.