TCU Great Khadevis Robinson To Speak To Area Youth
6/15/2010 12:00:00 AM
June 15, 2010
FORT WORTH, Texas - Eight-time World Champion and former Horned Frog great Khadevis Robinson is hosting a lecture tonight at the Carswell Air Force Base for area youth titled, Awaken The Olympian Within. During his return to Fort Worth, the former Olympian and NCAA National Champion in the men's 800 meters was gracious enough to sit down with GoFrogs.com to talk about his amazing career and succeeding in life.
Talk a little bit about your event tonight?
"Tonight we're having an event for local track and field coaches and teams here in the Fort Worth area. We have a lot of the kids, coaches and their families coming out. We are putting on an event so the kids can see that through hard work, dedication and sacrifices that they can not only succeed in track and field, but can also succeed at life. So we're bringing these kids together and letting them know that if they continue to work hard and continue to stay with the sport, that it's bigger than they're seeing now. They can do it as a profession and that it can allow them to travel the world and see and experience a lot of amazing things."
Does it mean anything to you to be able to come back to Fort Worth and share your experiences and give back to the youth of this community?
"Yes, it means a lot. What happens is this, I had my cousins with me today and they were able to go up to the Air Force Base and meet some of the cadets and stuff like that. A lot of times when it comes to aspirations, goals and dreams, we dream of doing all types of things, but our dreams, in a sense, are somewhat limited to what we see to our spirits. The more we are able to experience and read, helps us figure out what dreams can become. The bigger your dreams can become the more you can shoot for those amazing aspirations. So for me to be able to come back, it's going to allow some of the kids and individuals to see that from what they've experienced so far, there's so much more out there. By running track you can travel the world and meet all sorts of people and it can take your life to different heights. Not only with track and field, but I was able to go to college through track and field and a lot of other individuals are able to get an education and really open up a broader horizon."
You are such a class act, what do you want the kids to take away from tonight?
"The running part is important because that's the tool, that's the shadow mission. But more than that, it's more about really working hard and setting a goal and really going after the goal. It's the journey, the journey is what's important really and if you make it to the destination, that's great. We all have these goals and really want to make it to the destination, but without necessarily going through the journey and putting in the hard work. What I want these kids and individuals to understand is that no matter how big they dream, no matter how big their dreams are, they can achieve them. In that process, you really can enjoy the journey. For me that is the thing you can't even see, sometimes you have to jump and grow your wings on the way down. I want people to understand that and to know that where I'm at now, I could have never dreamed of this, but it's not over yet. It's not just about track, but more so that they use it as a platform and keep moving forward. I always say when I finish my career as a world-class athlete, I not only want to be a world-class father and a world-class husband, but most of all I want to be a world-class human being. Hopefully, that's what the parents and the coaches and the kids get out of this."
Looking back you talked about the journey, can you take me back to when you were a kid and kind of what drove you as a youngster?
"I was a football player, so my aspirations and goals were all set for football. It was kind of ironic cause I had a friend named Clayton Brookins that went to TCU. I also had another friend from Fort Worth named Michael Kenny that didn't go to TCU. These are the guys that were the track stars, I just ran track because of football to be honest with you. So what happens is, whenever you do something that's a big goal, no matter the job or profession, you learn a lot about yourself during the process. So for me, it was more so I was running track at first and you have to be around all the other kids and other athletes, who made me become a competitor. I started to realize that a lot of times we look back and say well I didn't have the opportunity that someone else had. You start to realize that's not true, we don't get the same amount of opportunities, we might not get the huge opportunity, but we all get opportunities. They might be small, there might not be that many of them, but we get opportunities. As a kid, you have to take the opportunity that you get. Through track, I started realizing that pretty quickly and even though I didn't take advantage of every one of my opportunities, I was able to take advantage of the ones that were important at a crucial time. It's not like I am more special or better then anyone else, its just at certain times I knew I had to make the most of certain opportunities that were presented to me. I learned a lot about myself because of my failures and I have used that later in life to catapult myself to be able to reach my goals. Track is a great analogy for the rest of life. When you test yourself and are able to defeat that negative voice inside of you, you are going to be successful. No matter what happens in a race, you will learn something about yourself, which will carry over to different parts of your life. You can't quit and can't give up because you have worked so hard towards something, which in the end will make you a better person and have a much better life."
Looking back at your career, is there one thing that really pushed you?
"When I was a kid, my parents were amazing. No one in my family ever told me what I couldn't do, but my parents always pushed me to succeed. I had to be successful and always wanted to push myself to another level. We aren't talking about the win's or losses, but about sacrificing to make yourself work hard and become better in all facets of life."
You won a National Championship at TCU, is that when you started to see that you could compete professionally in track and field?
"I was starting to realize it right before I won the title. About a month before, it hit me that I was pretty good at track. To be honest with you, that championship is one of my proudest moments of my career. When I went to college, I wasn't a track guy, so I was just happy that I was able to get a scholarship and go to school to get my degree. I didn't start visualizing that I could win a title until about a month before, which changed everything for me. When I won that, I began thinking that I could definitely compete with some of the best in the country and the world."
