 Today's guest is in a clip from our interview with Chuck in Nekwache. He is an American born shot putter who has dual citizenship parents from Nigeria and he opted to compete for Nigeria. He's had an amazing international career. So in today's clip, we will talk about a few things ranging from his early hammer experiences to transition from the glide to the rotational shot and making that switch to an elite world-class shot putter. What was your PR in high school? 62-4. And you were about 5'10 and 2'20. Have you gotten much taller since then? I have not gotten much taller. Right now I'm about 5'11. So 5'10, what do you currently weigh? 2'80. 2'80. So in high school, you were 5'10 and about what? 2'20? Right. Okay. So that definitely helps. Now I noticed that your pictures look fantastic. You look super jacked when we see you and when you're throwing. So you're about 5'11 and 2'80. So in high school, you go 62. You get recruited. You go to Purdue and obviously had a modest first year, right? I think you were right about 16 meters or so. Yeah, 16, 26 in a shot. And that first year to the 16, I've talked to a couple of other coaches and some guys I know and they said, I don't know anybody no matter how good they are. That first year is always the toughest year. And so from there, the next year it looked like you jumped up right around what? High 18 meters. Yeah, indoors 18 and then outdoors. I had one meet at 1905. So the next few years, obviously you kind of deal with a lot of throwers. You get to 19, that's a big jump. And you were working with Coach McBride at the time. Yep. Right. And so and from what I did, looking at the research on you, it looks like so he arrived when you arrived, right? So he wasn't the coach who necessarily recruited you. Right. But you show up and then he shows up. And obviously talk a little about how that process was for a new coach. First of all, that happens a lot in the NCAA. People get recruited and then maybe a coach, he goes to and takes another job. So talk about how that kind of worked for you two. And then obviously you had a lot of success together. Yeah, so McBride and I, like you said, showed up at the same time. The coach that recruited me, wound up having to leave. And after I got on campus, I kind of, I finally got to know that. And the track and field supervisor asked me to come into the office and meet my new throws coach, which, you know, again, I'm 18 years old. I'm like, I already met him. Like he took me on a visit and everything. So I come in and meet McBride. And he kind of, again, like we said, I was 5'10, 2'20 at the time. And he's like kind of looking me up and down and not too sure about what's going on. So, you know, he told me his goals for me, which were to throw over 58 feet as a senior in the shot put and 70 feet in the weight. And then over 65 in the hammer. And the thing about that was I wanted to quit the shot put because when I 362 forward in high school, I was gliding. I'd have to learn to spin. And the plan actually leaving high school was to kind of become a hammer thrower. And we figured that the weight would be too heavy for me at that point. So I throw the weight indoors, you know, turn, turn, let it go to get ready for outdoors once I'm in college. But coach McBride had the idea that if I'm throwing it, I've got to throw it for real. So I've got to throw the shot put for real. If I'm throwing the weight, I've got to throw it for real. And I've thrown the hammer. Same thing. I've got to throw it for real. So that shifted my focus a little bit. Then basically on produce campus is where I started learning to spin. And that was the same time I started throwing a 16 pound ball. So things didn't go very well that first year. But I mean, we grinded that whole year. And the plan was to be ready in 10 months after redshirting. And that's what happened. Yeah. So that first year, obviously, it looks like you go 59 meters, roughly 5960, I think, with the hammer. And that's a pretty legit mark for a freshman. Now it's changed. It's amazing how much it's changed, even like the hammer and the shot, right? From the time you were in, you know, 62 feet is a great high school throw. But 62 feet in 2012 was a much better high school throw. You know, and nowadays it's just like the level of shot globally, and especially in the US, right? It's just it's insane. So go and kind of talking about some of that. Obviously your hammer progressions were pretty impressive as well. And a lot of people may not know that obviously you've had, you know, a ton of success as a shot putter finalist of the worlds in Doha. Again, you know, I mentioned this to Zayn, we're when you get eighth place, you didn't just get eighth place at the World Championships. It was like the best world championships ever, right? Like the marks, the marks across the board, crazy deep. Like, you know, the same thing. It's just been absolutely insane. So then you were fourth at the World Cup in 2018. And that's the Strava meat, which is always looks like a really cool meat. Yeah, it was a fun one. Yeah. And I think that it's really cool. I'm going to just I'm living vicariously through through you and all these other guys because I love the places you get to go. Right. It's really cool. So all African Games champion, Commonwealth. You got to go down to the Gold Coast in Australia and second there behind Tom Walsh. Obviously kind of just taking a couple of steps back. You grow up in the U.S. Your parents are from Nigeria. When did you kind of decide that, you know, because I think a lot of throwers are well, not a lot of throws, but there's a number of throwers that kind of get in this situation. Do I do I represent the U.S. or do I represent Nigeria or whatever country? When did you start to one, think about representing Nigeria? And then to, you know, what was the process like to actually make that decision and do it? Yeah, so I thought I'd be able to go on to the professional level around my junior year in college or maybe a little bit before that. And Coach Green, the head coach, was one of the Bahamian national coaches. And he had professionals. He worked with Veronica Campbell Brown and, you know, he he of Regina George. So he'd seen collegians make that leap. And to him, it was a no-brainer. We had Chris Huffins on the staff also as the jumps coach and multi-coach. He was a big bronze medalist in 1996. So he kind of saw something in me. And then Coach McBride himself who was with me through training daily was like, you know, get your mind around moving on from college to the professional level. So those talks were happening from like sophomore to junior year. And I think the conversation was, like you said, do you represent the U.S. or my parents, you know, home country of Nigeria? And we looked at America and at the time there were like five 21 meter guys, which we figured that's what it would take. And the hammer also, I was at 72 meters, but I would need a three meter jump. So we shifted the focus more to shot put later on. And we saw that America would not need me quite as much as Nigeria would appreciate to have me. So it wasn't really a hard choice. And I was born a Nigerian citizen. So I didn't do a bunch of like paperwork and me. It was just like, all right, cool. I have two passports. Let me use this one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was pretty. It was it was definitely a little easier transition. So now, you know, I'm going to take a one step back. You mentioned, too, that when McBride met you, kind of looked you up and down. You're this 510 to 20 guy. I'm sure you were pretty low body fat and Jack to 20, though, right? Is especially if you're throwing 62 in the glide. That's that's an impressive glide. When he says to you, you know, the goal is to get you to throw 58 feet by the time you're a senior one, what's immediately in your head and you're thinking good. Are you thinking, man, I'm going to throw a hell of a lot farther than 58 feet. No, I wanted to be done with the shop put. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's not I didn't like the event. It's so my coach in high school was John Giuseppe Ramon and he was a Frenchman, but he was raised in the Ukraine. And he only knew the linear technique. All he did was glide. And the way I glided was pretty much European. It was, you know, short, long, wide based stuff like that. That's not really applicable to the rotation. So my mind was pretty much crystallized on like that's how I could get the ball to farthest. And the 16 would not, you know, I couldn't do anything with the 16. That was my 18 year old brain, you know, thinking that, especially after throwing 19, you know, in high school. So I was ready to be done with it. And coach McBide is like, hey, I want you to throw over 58 feet. So he's probably thinking 60, but didn't want to scare me. I can't throw this thing 50 feet. So it shocked me. And I kind of left that meeting a little bit spooked. Because then I had to, you know, I'm here now. It's the real thing. My recruiting process was really short. So, you know, basically everything was thrown at me super fast, including some of those big boy goals. So left me a little bit spooked. But I think it was up to me to figure out, you know, how to get my mind around it. And, you know, Monday was practice. So that's cool. Now that said, so Hammer was really kind of your real love then. Yeah. And that's another thing. So the reason I picked up the weight was so I can throw the hammer in high school. So coach looked at me and was like, my high school coach looked at me and was like, look, you're a small guy, but you have a lot of like good attributes. So you'd probably be a Hammer guy eventually. But if you look at my high school rundown, I threw it for one season. Okay.