Eli Kosiba is a high jumper who trains on the Mondo track at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. The DII athlete hopes to place well at the Olympic trials in June and make the team. He recently achieved his season best of 2.22m at the USATF Indoor National Championships on the Mondo track at the Albuquerque Convention Center. We talked about his first experience on the world stage at last fall's Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, and how much he looks up to his coach.
I played club soccer in high school and wasn’t enjoying it like I used to. I was in track at the same time, but I wasn’t taking it seriously. My high school coach was like, “Hey, if soccer doesn’t work out, you can try track,” and I was like, “No way, track isn’t for me like that.” But then things started to click. I wasn’t jumping insanely well, but I was starting to get better.
I always liked to compete, and I thought, “Well, if soccer’s not the thing, then I guess I’ll see if I can be the best at track,” and I just fell in love with it. I didn’t get that senior [track] season [due to COVID], but I liked it enough that I wanted to continue doing it in college.
The top three athletes get selected for whatever team they’re trying to make. I went in trying to make the U23 NACAC* team. I ended up making that team, but my passport wasn’t here yet, so I couldn’t go. But I had a shot at making Pan Ams. The top three guys all decided not to go, and I was the first one selected.
It was the first time I really held my own at any big competition like that. I competed with all the best guys at the top of my ability. It was a really fun experience.
Just being at the Pan Am Games alone was a sweet experience. I think there were 40,000 people on the track when I was jumping. It was electric. They were loud, they were emotional. They really support their track athletes over there - they love it. Track is up there being their main sport. The atmosphere was wild.
I got to meet a lot of athletes that are now in the position I want to be in the next couple of years. For example, I was rooming with Chris Benard, who’s a two-time Olympian in the triple jump. I was just trying to get as much knowledge as I could from him, how to navigate all the things you don’t really learn when it comes to taking the next steps. My ultimate goal is to go pro, so I was trying to build relationships so that in the future I could still talk to these guys, learn, and grow.
[Mondo is] fast. It’s got grip. When I’m running, my spikes are contacting the ground a lot better, and I get a good response off the track.
High jump is such a technical sport. Your coach is always giving you something that you can work on. I remember once I was in my head real bad, I wasn’t jumping how I jump. My coach said, “All you have to do is just jump like Eli.” Sometimes you get caught up in all the technical stuff, and here he was saying, “Just let your body do what it knows how to do and trust your training.” And after that, I started jumping really well, because I wasn’t thinking as much and I was just having fun.
My mom has always been my biggest supporter and always believed I could do whatever I set my mind to.
My coach at GVSU, Steve Jones, has always been on the same page as me. When you have someone who believes that you can do something that not everyone believes in at first, that’s a lot of motivation. He’s my biggest role model.
Being able to mentally overcome stuff is the biggest thing when it comes to being successful, especially in track. At the end of the day, you have to be your biggest supporter. If you’re having a bad day, you have to realize it’s okay. It’s okay not to be at your best every time you step on the track – it matters what you do after that. If things aren’t working, I don’t need to go to practice and be harder on myself. I do have to go to practice and be consistent.
I just tell my teammates, like, it can’t rain forever. It’s how you respond to this. You might not have the same amount of energy or might not have the same amount of motivation as before, but you’re going to come back and you’re going to keep remembering what you’re working toward.
Track is really a full-time job. You start pretty much right when you get to school in September, and you’re going all the way until the end of May, depending on if you get to outdoor nationals. You have to treat it like a job. You have to take care of your body, but you should pick somewhere you are going to click with your coach. I feel like that’s the biggest thing. I feel like a lot of kids get caught up on the school size or the division, but the reality is that if you click with your coach well, you’ll succeed.
*North American, Central American and Caribbean