World class putter Maggie Ewen will be filing monthly reports as she travels the world plying her trade. In this piece, Maggie gives McThrows readers insight into life on the road as a professional putter.
If you’re a fan of the professional circuit, I’m betting you’ve noticed throwers always seem to be traveling. Sometimes even multiple countries and competitions within the span of a week. It’s true the life of a professional athlete is filled with travel. That’s because there’s simply more opportunity outside of the United States. Meets are contested more frequently in Europe and there is greater general appreciation for track and field overseas. Even a relatively small throws only meet will have a packed stadium. The pay is better in Europe as well. So, yeah, we want to be over there as much as possible!
I’ve been a professional thrower
for eight years and the
travel aspect was definitely
a learning curve.
But I’m accustomed to the system now. I’d like to give you a snapshot of that system in the hopes you’ll get a better picture of our lives on the road as professional throwers. Most athletes will have a system that looks very similar but as with all things, there are outliers. With that being said, lets get into it!
The first thing you need to know is that most meets will not host a full program. They’ll cherry pick the events they want and the genders they want competing in those events. At that point it’s my job to look through all the meets that will be contested through the year to find the ones that will have women’s shot put. I make a list of the meets I would like to compete in and hand that to my agent. Our agents have many important jobs but I’d argue reaching out to meet directors is the most important. Our agents are our advocates. They approach meet directors and discuss why their athlete should receive an invite to the meet. Most of the time it’s a quick and easy process. Other times, the meet director may wait until just a couple days before the meet to extend the invite. Needless to say, we athletes have learned to stay ready for anything.
Once my agent informs me I have been successfully invited to a meet, I will book travel. Typically, I try to set up a meet schedule that allows me to hit a couple meets while I’m overseas with minimal down time between meets. So, it’s a lot of multi-city flights and (once I’m in Europe) checking if it’s cheaper to book a flight, a train or a rental car to get to my next destination. I’m like my own travel agent. Most athletes have their agents handle this part but I’ve found I prefer to do it myself. When the trip is fully booked, I send the itinerary to my agent who will forward it to the meet organizers.
They send the travel itinerary for three reasons. First, so the meet knows how much to reimburse me for the travel. If I went over the travel stipend they offered, I don’t get reimbursed for the remaining portion. So it’s good to stay on budget. Second, so they know when and at which airport I will be arriving. That allows them to send a driver to pick me up from the airport. Third, so the meet organizers know how many nights I will need to stay at the meet hotel. This is the hotel where they will house and feed all of the athletes for the duration of their stay. It’s fairly standard that they will offer one or two nights before the meet and one or two nights after the meet. If I want or need to stay longer than that, I book my own accommodations out of pocket.
Since all athletes are held to this same standard. We tend to unintentionally show up at the airport at the same time. When I leave baggage claim I scan the airport for someone holding a sign with the name of the meet or a desk set up that has the name of the meet plastered all around it. That is where the arriving athletes, coaches and medical staff congregate. Once everyone is accounted for, they throw us into a car, a sprinter van or a bus depending on how big the group is and shuttle us to the meet hotel.
Once at the hotel, we find the meet desk located in the lobby. This is like the central hub for the rest of my stay. If I ever have a question, need something, have to get my bibs, etcetera…this is where I will go. At this desk will also be a huge board with all the information we need. Shuttle times to and from the track, when and where meals will be held, medical sign up sheets, start lists, really just everything pertinent to our stay. So once I arrive at this desk I will check in and receive my room key for the hotel. It’s important at this stage to ask who my roommate is. Unless athletes request someone specific ahead of time, roommates are assigned at random. They keep the genders separate but they’ll mix up events and nationalities. All in all, this system works fine but it can get tricky if your roommate doesn’t speak the same language. Personally, I like to coordinate with a fellow athlete and request my roommate ahead of time. I’ve found it’s just more comforting to stay with friends rather than strangers while I’m getting ready to compete.
Once settled in my room, I make myself at home for a couple days. Eat complimentary meals at the hotel, use the provided shuttles to get to and from the track, shake out, do workout at the stadium if that’s available and generally just chill until the competition. It’s a lot of down time but that’s important to keep the body ready for the big day. Competition day isn’t much different. Breakfast, small shakeout in the hotel gym, shuttle to the track, call room, compete and shuttle back.
Back at the hotel is when
we can finally breathe again
after the work is done.
Since, shot put is usually the first event contested, the throwers get back to the hotel hours before dinner is ready to be served. So, we’ve gotten into the habit of treating ourselves to a little meal instead of waiting. One of my favorite post meet dinners is from last year. After the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Chase Jackson, Sarah Mitton, Jaida Ross (my roommate for this meet) and myself went to dinner. At this point in the season we were all a little homesick and craving something familiar. So, naturally, we got a round of cheese burgers and they were perfect! We ate, laughed, reflected on the meet and just had an overall great time.
It’s moments like this that make us close not only as competitors but as friends. Being on the road constantly can be lonely. But no one knows the grind better than your competitor who’s going through the same thing. At a certain point, it’s hard not to befriend each other and we find ourselves helping each other through the tough times, the boredom of hotel life and homesickness we all eventually go through.
So now it’s the evening of the competition. It’s not unusual for people to leave for the airport or train station at this time. I usually book my travel for the morning after in case the meet runs long. So bright eyed and bushy tailed at usually around 4am the following morning, I will load back into a shuttle bound for the airport. Am I going home? Am I going straight to my next meet? Am I going to a training camp because there’s too much time before my next meet and they won’t pay for my housing that long? It all depends on the schedule I set up at the top of the season. But the process always stays the same.
The one thing I can guarantee is that I’m not going on vacation.
We travel to compete. It’s a bunch of work trips. It’s not the glamorous travel-and-explore-a-country that you may think it is. We see very little aside from airports, hotels and stadiums. However, it’s an opportunity unlike any other, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
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