Dominique Arnold: Applying Knowledge
In 1993, Colin Jackson of Great Britain broke American Roger Kingdom’s 4-year-old world record in the men’s 110 meter high hurdles. Jackson’s 12.91 bettered Kingdom’s record by one hundredth of a second. Jackson’s record lasted thirteen years, when, on July 11, 2006, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dominique Arnold of the United States ran 12.90, smashing his own previous personal best of 13.01 by .11.
But even though Arnold broke the world record, he was not the new world record holder. In the same race, Liu Xiang of China, who had won an Olympic gold medal in the high hurdles two years earlier, ran 12.88. So on that day, it was Xiang who ecstatically ran around the track after the race, soaking in the congratulations, basking in the euphoric glow of having made history. Arnold, who still could call himself the new American record holder, having dipped under the 12.92 of Kingdom and Allen Johnson, was an afterthought.
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Yet as the years go by and that race grows ever-more deeply etched into the memories of many track and field fans as one of the greatest races they have ever seen, Arnold’s role on that magical day remains clear. In a race that was stacked with talent, he was one of two athletes who broke the previous world record, and there’s very little doubt that Xiang could not have done it without Arnold, two lanes to his right, matching him stride for stride.
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The fact that Arnold reached the elite level is quite remarkable in and of itself, as he did not get started in hurdling until very late in his high school career, and he was not an immediate stand-out. Primarily a wide receiver on the football team at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA, Arnold didn’t try out for track until his junior year, specializing in the jumping events.
“I did high jump, long jump, triple jump,” the gregarious Arnold said. “And I sucked at it. High jumped 6-4, long jumped 19-3. My shins started hurtin’. I said ‘Coach, I hate track. Track makes my shins hurt.’”
Arnold’s older brother, a pole vaulter on the track team, was the one who suggested he try the hurdles. Here’s how Arnold describes his initiation into the hurdles:
“My brother said ‘Nique man, when we at the house and I chase your ass I can’t catch you. Why don’t you do hurdles man?’ I said ‘Okay, long as my legs don’t hurt.’ So I started jumping the hurdles. After one practice, Coach saw me on the grass, said ‘That looks good to me.’ The hurdle coach came over and said ‘Hey, you like hurdling?’ I said ‘This is my first time over the hurdles man.’ He said, ‘You wanna run this weekend?’ So he put me in an invitational that weekend. I won. Rockin’ a high-top fade. Ran 15.9. That was it. My coach was like, yeah, you’re gonna be in the hurdles next year.”
For his senior year, Arnold focused exclusively on track. Though he liked playing football, the getting-hit part quickly lost its appeal. The fact that he was a lightweight at 155 pounds didn’t help. He recalls one play in which Willie McGinest, who would later go on to wreak havoc as a beastly linebacker for the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl teams, dislocated his jaw. “I was like, I gotta play across from him? Come on man. That’s why I ran track. I’m not made like that. So I transitioned from getting my ass whooped in football to running track where no one hits me at all.”
In his first full season as a hurdler – the outdoor season of his senior year (there is no indoor track in California) – Arnold finished third in the state meet in the 110’s with a 14.24, and he also ran 38.30 in the 300 hurdles. Very respectable times, but not fast enough to garner a scholarship from a major program. So after graduating from Wilson in 1991, Arnold moved on to Long Beach Community College, where he competed for two years before graduating in 1993.
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From there, it was on to Washington State University in the chilly Northwest. How did this warm-weather Southern California boy end up there? “I recruited them,” he explained, “they didn’t recruit me. I went to Washington State ‘cause I had two homeboys from community college who went to Washington State. I was also into a girl who went to Washington State. So I could be with my girl and be with my homeboys. I called up Washington State, said ‘I won my state meet, can you give me a full scholarship?’ Another guy I knew got a full ride to Utah running 14.4 in high school. But they just gave me some books and stuff like that.”
At WSU, Arnold was expecting to be coached by the well-known and well-respected John Chaplin, but Chaplin resigned in 1994, the year Arnold arrived. Arnold feels that Chaplin’s resignation was the result of potential violations of NCAA regulations. The NCAA’s strict rules are sometimes ridiculously oppressive, Arnold says.
“[Coach Chaplin] got an athlete from Africa, and the kid’s going to the student lounge and can’t eat. So Coach gives him five dollars and it’s a violation. If somebody finds out he gave that kid five dollars, he loses his job.” Arnold went through similar frustrations himself. Without a scholarship, there were times when “I couldn’t go eat. I had people on the football team sneaking me plates so I could eat. I had to work at the girls dormitory washing dishes. I get off work around 10:30. One night I see my coach, ask him for a ride home. He says I can’t give you a ride home ’cause that’s against NCAA regulations. I say come on coach, I think he’s joking. I tell him, give me a quarter so I can make a phone call on the pay phone. He says I can’t do that either ’cause it’s a violation. So I’m supposed to walk a mile and a half home in the snow cause you’re afraid I’ll report you? If I snitch on you I’m snitchin’ on myself.” But that’s the culture, Arnold says, at schools with major football programs. The paranoia of being busted for rules infractions runs rampant.
Despite living the inglorious life of a non-scholarship Division I athlete, Arnold excelled at WSU. Arnold attributes a lion’s share of the credit to volunteer coach Dan O’Brien, who was training for what would become an historic decathlon run in 1996. Arnold explains that in order to train there, O’Brien was obligated to be a member of the coaching staff. Another NCAA regulation. “If you’re not a volunteer coach, it’s a violation to train at a school. It gives the kids at that school an unfair advantage. So he was a ‘volunteer’ coach for Washington State.”
With O’Brien as a coach and training partner, Arnold went from running in the 13.7-13.8 range his junior year (first year at WSU) to winning the NCAA championship his senior year in a time of 13.46. Arnold says that O’Brien “gave me a lot of support. He had that love for someone like me. I was built like him. I was hungry like him. When I won the NCAA championship I was wearing his T-shirt. He showed me that even if I wasn’t great in high school, I could keep getting better if I worked hard. A lot of hurdlers think if they’re not running 13-flat their as a freshman or sophomore [in college], they’ll never be great. But with the hurdles, it takes a lot of time to mature.”
Arnold exhibits exquisite technique at the 2006 USA Championships.
Arnold had not been expecting to run so well at NCAA’s. Nor was he aware that his time easily qualified him for the Olympic Trials. He had no idea that he had just entered a whole new sphere of competition. And if not for O’Brien, he never would’ve known.
“I didn’t know how anything worked,” Arnold said. “I was at practice and Dan asked, ‘What do you need for [your trip to] the Olympic Trials?’ I’m like ‘I don’t know, nobody called me.’ He knew my coach was supposed to tell me something, because I qualified for [USA] Nationals. He said ‘Go to my car and get my phone.’ He calls Michael Johnson’s agent, says he wants Dominique Arnold entered in the hurdles. Next thing I know I have a ticket to Atlanta. He had my back. He looked out for me.”
***
But the transition from the collegiate ranks to the pro ranks was not an easy one. “I would call it more of a baptism than a transition,” he said. “I trained with Dan O’Brien, so I figured you win a championship, a sponsor picks you up, right?”
Wrong. Arnold didn’t get his first contract until 2005 – nine years into his professional career – although he had been ranked sixth in the United States in 1999, and among the top ten in the world in 2000 and 2001. At the pro level, he discovered, it’s all about business, and business is all about marketability. And in a sport like track, certain events are more marketable than others. The men’s 100 meter dash has always been the glamour event whose appeal reaches beyond diehard track fans, into the realm of the average sports fan. The hurdles are a bit too technical for the average sports fan, and hurdlers tend to be more cerebral than the charismatic, pleasantly arrogant sprinters. “I didn’t make much money,” Arnold said, “but it didn’t matter to me. Whatever happens happens.”
On the track, Arnold was being hampered by injuries that delayed his progress. Through the struggles, he was discovering that now that he was a pro amongst pros, mentors like O’Brien were hard to come by. The two best hurdlers in the world at the time were Allen Johnson and fellow California native Mark Crear, who had finished 1-2 at the 1996 Olympics. And though Crear did come to train with Arnold off and on throughout 1999 and 2000, the older hurdler did not take the younger hurdler under his wing.
“He ran 12.98,” Arnold said. “That year (1999) I ran 13.11. I said, ‘Mark, what did you do to run 12 seconds?’ He said ‘You ran 13.2 bro you on your way. I can’t tell you what I do cause I gotta keep my secrets.’ I’m like, ‘I’m just askin’ because I respect you.’ Man, Mark Crear ain’t helpin’ your ass for nothin’. It was very difficult. I had to figure everything out on my own.”
While Arnold points out that Johnson “was the only one who availed himself to me,” they couldn’t get together very often because they lived on opposite coasts. Jonson was volunteer coaching at the University of South Carolina during the years that Terrence Trammell was there, and the two continued to train together after Trammell turned pro. Arnold could see the advantages of having such a mentor, in your event, to serve as a guide in the early stages of a career. “Terrence had the privilege of training with Allen,” Arnold said, “of being around Allen. I would’ve benefitted from being around someone who was world class.”
Throughout 1997-2004, Arnold showed flashes of brilliance but continued to be derailed by injuries. He had hernia surgery in 2002, and was plagued by turf toe in 2003, preventing him from making the finals at the US Championships. In 2004, an achilles injury led to a last-place finish in the finals at the Olympic Trials. Times were hard.
Arnold battles Ryan Wilson at the 2006 USA Championships.
His best years were seemingly behind him. He hadn’t come close to his personal best of 13.11 since 2000. He was contemplating retirement. That’s when Larry Wade, a hurdler himself with a personal best of 13.01, reached out to Arnold and offered to coach him. Wade, who was serving a suspension for a doping violation at the time, was eager to help Arnold realize his potential. So he encouraged Arnold, whose wife had just divorced him, to come train with him in Texas.
“Larry took me in,” Arnold said. Shortly after the move to Texas, Wade and Arnold moved together to Arnold’s home state to train with the renowned HSI (Hudson Smith International) training group, led by former Olympian and legendary coach John Smith. Training partners included sprint sensations Maurice Green of the US and Ato Boldon of Trinidad.
“Coach Smith didn’t give me any advice in the hurdles,” Arnold explained. “He brought Larry to come help me. I was coached by Larry, but managed by HSI. Larry, he got me right man. Larry’s thing was, he was banned in ‘04, so he was like, you gotta run fast so when I come back I’ll have someone to train with. Larry availed himself. He gave all of what he had to me between ’05 and ‘07.”
2005 proved to be Arnold’s break-out year. Fully healthy for the first time since college, he had an outstanding season in domestic meets and overseas. In a hotly contested final at the USA Outdoor Championships in June, Arnold finished second to Johnson, 12.99 to 13.01, breaking his personal best by a full tenth of a second. Trammell was a whisker behind in 13.02 for third. Later that summer, in another hotly contested race, Arnold finished fourth at the World Championships in Helsinki in 13.13, only .06 behind winner Ladji Doucoure of France. Liu Xiang of China finished second in 13.08 and Johnson was third in 13.10. Arnold finished 2005 ranked third in the world and second in the US. At the age of 31, he had finally arrived as a true medal contender on the international scene.
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In 2006 his success continued, as he finished first at USA Outdoors in a time of 13.10. With no major international championship meets that year, the European circuit would be the grand stage for major competitions. One of those meets took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 11th. It proved to be an historic day – both for Arnold, and for the 110 meter high hurdles.
Let’s set the stage first. In lane one: Ryan Wilson of the US, who would go on to win a silver medal at the 2013 World Championships. In Lane two: co-world record holder and 2004 Olympic champ Liu Xiang. In lane three: 2005 World Champ Ladji Doucoure. In lane four: Arnold. In lane five: two-time Olympic silver medalist Terrence Trammell. In lane six: Dayron Robles of Cuba, who would go on set the world record at 12.87 in 2008, and to win the Olympic gold that same year. In lane seven: Aries Merritt, who would go on to set the world record at 12.80 in 2012, and to win the Olympic gold that same year. In lane eight: Stanislav Olijar of Latvia, who had a personal best of 13.21, finishing fifth at the 2004 Olympic Games.
“Before I went to the track,” Arnold recalls, “I go on YouTube and bring up AJ’s ‘97 World Championship race. That was my favorite race because if not for those last three hurdles he would’ve broken the world record. I watched the race two times. Hopped on the bus. Told myself, when I warm up, I gotta make sure I stay forward.”
Arnold was lined up right beside Trammell, who arguably possessed the fastest start of any hurdler in history. Arnold knew he would have to get out.
Arnold and Liu battle it out for the world record.
As expected, Trammell bolted out of the blocks and took early command of the race. “By the fourth hurdle,” Arnold recalls, “I catch Terrence, pass him. I see somebody to my left, but I didn’t know who it was. I just wanted to win. I never dip at the line. I usually just run through the line. This time I dipped at the line and jammed my ankle. After the race, I figured I ran like 12.98. I’m hoping I ran under 13 seconds. Saw 12.90 on the board and thought it was 12.98. Then someone said ‘Naw Nique you ran twelve-ninety. My foot was still hurting. I ran up to Liu and was like, ‘Congrats! You broke the world record! Ahhhhhh!”
Still, the euphoria of breaking his own personal best by .11, of running under 13-flat for the first time in his career, of breaking the American record, and of breaking the old world record, was tainted by the disappointment of finishing second.
“It was a letdown,” he says. “In one race, two guys break the world record. But you’re the second-place guy. It’s like, I broke the world record too! But your ass still gets nothing. And not only that, you get nothing when you go back home ‘cause you’re from the United States. You better have blasted the world record with no one coming close to you. But I broke the world record on the same day the world record was broken. It sucked because I never benefitted from it. If I was in any other country, I got second place, I run 12.90, I’m a hero! They’re naming streets after me, shopping malls. But not in the States. And I’m from California? Hell naw.”
When asked if he felt Liu should have included him more in his post-race celebration, considering the fact that they both broke the previous world record, Arnold said he did not begrudge Liu at all; it was his moment.
In athletics, Arnold explained, “You have to be a selfish person. He won from China, man. And I coach now around the world, and I see the influence that different athletes have on their country. What he did was amazing for his people, because there’s so much pressure. I’m not talking about hype. There’s so much expectation, and stress. But the way he handled it was like, I did what I did. Plus at that point he didn’t speak a lick of English. If he did, it would’ve been a celebration that was more involving. He’s since become more international. He speaks much better English. He even came and trained with me a couple years ago. But at the time, he had no idea.”
Arnold also appreciates the fact that his own 12.90 would not have happened if not for Liu’s 12.88. “He pulled me to do something I wouldn’t have done without him. He forced me to stay on my game. If it wasn’t for him, maybe I would’ve tied the world record. But he forced me to push, so I broke it, but he broke it too.”
Unfortunately, Arnold continued to be bitten by the injury bug. A chiropractor threw his back out of whack a couple weeks after the World Championships, ending his season prematurely. Then in the fall he had to have surgery to remove benign growths in his trail leg foot. The foot issue indirectly led to a hamstring strain. Still, he was able to put himself together long enough to compete at USA Outdoors, where he ran 13.17, finishing second, and qualifying for the World Championships. He credits Wade for getting him through that meet. “My body was beat up,” he said. “I crossed the finish line one time in ’07, and that was in Indianapolis.” Arnold did not go to the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, however. “I couldn’t run after USA’s because my achilles tore.”
That pretty much marked the end of his career. Although he did compete off and on through 2010, he never again came close to his personal best times.
***
Arnold looks back on his hurdling career with no regrets. While some may argue that training under a coach – Larry Wade – who tested positive for a banned substance places a cloud of suspicion over his success, Arnold does not concern himself with such detractors. “The sport of track and field is not based on drugs,” he says, “it’s based on talent. Was I dirty? Hell no. To me it made no difference if another guy was using drugs or not because if you are, okay good I’m gonna beat your ass. Everybody’s trying to one up everybody. Everybody’s looking for an edge. But what I’m saying is, God gave you what God gave me. We gonna see right now if what God gave you is better than what God gave me. I’m balls to the wall bro. I played football. I’m coming from a football state of mind.”
The key to Arnold’s success was his insatiable appetite for knowledge. He became one of the best technicians the event has ever seen because he studied some of the best technicians the event has ever seen. He also studied sprinters and was able to apply what he learned from watching them to the hurdles.
“There was a process with me,” he explained. “Because I wasn’t able to run with a lot of the best guys [coming out of college]. I watched these guys on film. I studied Allen Johnson to the T. In 2000 I had his picture from Sports Illustrated going over a hurdle. It just so happens I was next to him in the race. In that race I beat him, but going over the hurdle, he just looked more efficient. I was a great mimicker. I told myself I have to do what Allen Johnson does to run as fast as Allen Johnson. In the ‘96 Olympics I watched Allen Johnson and Michael Johnson. AJ, over the hurdles, there was no time wasted but I saw a weakness in his upper body. MJ was so strong in his upper body. I read articles that said he was doing 60-pound curls. I figured if my lower body is as strong as AJ’s and my upper body is as strong as MJ’s, I’m gonna break the world record. I watched Liu Xiang in ’04. He had very strong legs, and his hands never stopped moving. Most of us, when we go over a hurdle, we throw our arm out, hold it there and wait for our trail leg. His arm never stopped moving. So I tried that. Liu, his lead arm, it never stops, it goes up and comes right back down. No pause. I learned that from Liu. I gotta keep things moving. That worked for me because I had enough technique and focus that I could keep it moving. Otherwise I’d be too upright or too fast. I watch everybody. Even if you’re slower than me, I can learn something from you.”
The sprinters he learned the most from were the ones he trained with during his HSI years – Greene and Boldon. “All these sprinters can run 10 seconds, 9 seconds in the 100. So I look at that and ask, what are they doing out the blocks? Like Terrence, how can he blast everybody for the first five hurdles? What’s he doing that I’m not doing? I realized that in my first step, my arm was straight, so it took a long time to recover. I learned to keep the arm bent just a little bit, but to use the same force. What really helped me was looking at Terrence, Maurice, the fast starters. I’m like, I gotta be like these sprinter cats through the hurdles, but I still gotta maintain the idea of being a hurdler.”
Throughout his own career and to this day, Arnold shares his own knowledge and experience with those who are hungry to receive it. Elite athletes, especially, need wisdom that comes from other elite athletes who have walked the path they’re walking. Over the years Arnold has reached out to the likes of Merritt, David Oliver, and plenty others. He gives them the kind of nuance-laced insight that even a coach cannot provide. As Arnold states, “Unfortunately, athletes don’t have enough opportunity to be availed to past athletes. And when they do, it’s not to enough of an extent. That’s why, along the way, I’ve availed myself.”
Arnold doing an instructional video.
One of the biggest lessons Arnold teaches is that what you do doesn’t matter as much as how well you apply what you do. Regarding 7-stepping to the first hurdle, for example, he says, “I won the NCAA’s 7-stepping. I did 7-step for two years. I ran 12.90 doing 8 steps. So if you’re explosive enough, run 7. If you can’t handle 7, go with 8.”
Arnold considers Dayron Robles to be the hurdler who has best applied the 7-step approach. “Robles is a powerful dude. Powerful dude, man. I was in a meet with him when he was 18 years old. He was in the heat ahead of me so I was standing on his blocks. That gun went off he almost pushed me off the blocks. I didn’t even know he was taking 7 steps.”
According to Arnold, whether you take seven steps or eight to the first hurdle, “the three steps before the hurdle are what’s gonna set you up for the rest of the race. [In and of itself], seven steps don’t mean nothin’. Liu Xiang set the world record 12.88 8-steppin’; last year at [the] Prefontaine [Classic] he ran a windy 12.87 7-steppin’. Merritt should’ve run 12.80 when he was 8-steppin’ back in the day. His technique was sloppy. It wasn’t just that he changed his start, he changed his technique too. If he’d still been keeping his hand way up in the air, the seven step wouldn’t have mattered.”
Arnold makes a similar point about the three steps between each hurdle. Too many hurdlers obsess over technique to the point where they unknowingly sacrifice forward momentum. “It’s about body position,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how flexible, how strong you are. It’s how you apply your flexibility, how you apply your strength. It’s all about application. And it’s a progression. Don’t try to be picture perfect with no aggression. Run off of the hurdle. Keep running. Don’t stop. The reason you’re stopping is because you see another hurdle coming. If you hit it and fall down, you hit it and fall down. Keep going.”
That’s another reason why Arnold is so open to sharing his knowledge, and always has been. The key is not just to learn, but to apply what you learn. Helping athletes through this process is what he enjoys about coaching.
Arnold currently coaches the hurdlers for the Saudi Arabian national team. A former training partner became part of their organization and called up Arnold last year and asked him to come too. Arnold readily agreed, stating “I love to coach. I’ve been coaching since I was running. I’ve always been helping people out.” The Saudi hurdlers, he says, “have a lot of talent, but not a lot of structure.” That’s what he is hoping to provide.
Let me close with this: when I ask former hurdlers of mine whom they would most like for me to interview for the athlete profile that is featured in each issue of The Hurdle Magazine, the name that most often comes up is Dominique Arnold. In the hurdling community, he is admired for his accomplishments, respected for his wealth of knowledge, and revered for his willingness to share it. Rightfully so.
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