EUGENE, Ore. – For over a decade, it has been an option for Jeremiah Nubbe. He’s using it for his career in track and field.
After an NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships that featured the Texas sophomore and Rainier High School alum miss the podium in the men’s hammer throw and foul all three attempts in the discus, his next step will be competing for a country north of the border.
Nubbe’s mom was born in British Columbia, the most Western Province in Canada, which provided the Washington-born athlete with dual-citizenship. He’s had it since he was nine-years old.
“I never really considered it too much until I got the opportunity to go up there and compete,” Nubbe said inside Matthew Knight Arena on the Oregon campus. “It was a career-focused change. If I truly want to go pro, what is going to give me the best opportunities?”
While prefacing it was a difficult decision to throw internationally for the United States or Canada, Nubbe broke it down to a pair of key factors.
First was the travel and support.
“It is hard to travel up to Europe sometimes as a college student-athlete, instead you can go a couple hours north and go compete at some high-class meets,” Nubbe said.
Second was the competition he’ll have within the country just during practices. Ethan Katzberg won at Worlds in the hammer throw with a heave of over 81 meters. Katzberg is the youngest ever to win a World title at 21-years young.
“To be honest, in the state of track and field, it is about making teams if you want to get paid,” Nubbe said.
From competing at Rainier and seemingly towering over everyone in the ring as a senior, Nubbe found himself in Austin, Texas at one of the storied programs in track and field.
Longhorns head coach Edrick Floréal remembered one of the first times he hosted the thrower on a visit.
“He was a perfect fit,” Floréal said. “Him and I had a long, long meeting (and) talked about goals and what my role was going to be to make sure he’s the very best. There’s not a more determined, hard-working kid on our team. I love him to death.”
Nubbe has one second-team All-American honor in both indoor and outdoor to this point. Decathlete Leo Neugebauer lit up with a smile when asked how Nubbe is as a teammate in their brief time of knowing each other.
“He’s very focused all the time,” Neugebauer said. “He is so locked in that nothing can get him out of that zone.”
With the NCAA meet in the rear view mirror, Nubbe’s attention will turn to international competition. He’ll be in two meets in Canada shortly after his time at Hayward Field and then it will come down to if he has enough points to compete in the Olympic Trials for the 2024 Games in Paris.
His long-standing goal is to be in the Olympics. While admittedly feeling this year is a longshot, Nubbe isn’t willing to lay down without a fight.
“If those meets put me up in the generally close ranking to the top-32, I’ll be going to the Trials,” Nubbe said. “Can I elevate and maybe get that third spot? If I do and maybe I get close to world ranking, we’ll see.
“Either way, it is a great learning experience and an opportunity to throw myself out there.”
