Harrison Is Out of Hiding

Kenny Harrison is about to bust out of his cocoon. Or maybe jump out is more like it.

Harrison, a former world-champion triple jumper, will compete today in the Olympic trials in Atlanta. For Harrison, 31, who failed in two previous attempts to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, the competition marks the first step in what might be his last chance to earn an Olympic medal.

“I’ve been through everything and I’ve won all the major medals--everything but the Olympics,” Harrison said. “It’s really important to me.”

All of which might help to explain Harrison’s habit of making like a hermit while honing his speed and strength through daily seven-hour workouts.

Harrison, a native of Milwaukee and a 1988 graduate of Kansas State, moved to Mission Hills two years ago to be closer to respected track coach Bobby Kersee.

Kersee, who works with several world-class athletes, including his wife, two-time Olympic heptathlon champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee, has trained Harrison for two years. However, Harrison has been training solo in St. Louis in recent weeks.

Harrison’s reclusive behavior--he calls it “going into a cocoon”--is well-known in track-and-field circles. Even members of the public relations firm that represents Harrison offer apologies for having difficulty tracking him down.

Contacted by telephone this week, Harrison chuckled about the situation.

“I’ve been pretty much isolated,” he said. “I see very few people at all during the day. I go to work out, six or seven days a week.”

The torch that burns within Harrison was ignited by college coaches who told him he was too short to be a triple jumper.

At 5 feet 10, Harrison concedes he is not among the lankiest of the sport’s competitors. But his determination to measure up has carried him great distances.

“A lot of coaches said I could never be a triple jumper,” Harrison said. “After that, I really took on that kind of attitude [in training]. It didn’t make me mad, it just made me want to prove a point. Now, I hope to prove a bigger point.”

Harrison was the No. 1-ranked triple jumper in the world in 1990 and ’91. He won the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991, a year after missing Willie Banks’ then-world record jump by just 1 1/2 inches with a mark of 58 feet 10 inches at an invitational meet in Stockholm.

Harrison’s mark ranks second on the all-time U.S. performer list and is third on the all-time World list.

Yet Harrison, ranked seventh or better in the U.S. for 10 years, was sixth in the Olympic trials in 1988 and sixth in 1992. The top three qualify for the U.S. team.

In 1994, Harrison was ranked second in the world but was not among the top 10 in 1995.

Are the days of his 58-foot jumps in the past?

“No,” Harrison said. “I’ve always stayed in good condition and I pride myself on the condition I’m in. I’m older and a lot wiser. My abilities have gotten a lot better. And I’m a lot faster than I’ve been in the past.”

Much of Harrison’s training these days is devoted to sprint work. Timed between 10.7 and 10.8 in the 100 meters in recent years, Harrison claims to have lowered his time to 10.3.

Harrison says he is free of injuries that have plagued him in the past, especially during the ’92 trials in New Orleans.

Harrison was a favorite to qualify for the Barcelona Games but was hampered by severe inflammation in his left knee that required arthroscopic surgery.

“If you have to shut down for a week and a half, you lose some of your explosiveness,” Harrison said. “Four years later, I’m healthy and there’s less pressure.

“I’m just ready to go. There’s nothing that can stop me now.”