GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Gettysburg College track & field teams are not accustomed to having a former Olympic athlete in their midst, but that was the case this past Wednesday when sprinting legend
Arif Husain' 93 revisited Gettysburg.
Husain, who represented his native Pakistan at the 1992 Barcelona Games and is the only track & field national champion at Gettysburg, returned to the Battlefield for a team practice.
He was introduced by assistant coach
Ed Riggs '77, who served as Husain's head coach during his tenure as a student-athlete. It was the second time he returned for a team practice within the past six years.
“While I have not visited Gettysburg as often as I like, I enjoy returning to the campus,” he said. “Helping out the track team is an added bonus.”
A 2003 inductee into Gettysburg's Hall of Athletic Honor, Husain started by giving the team a brief speech, which he started by challenging the Bullets to “dare to be great.”
“It's something that I remember Coach Riggs saying to us my freshman year,” he said. “Focusing on success and not being weighed down by the fear of failure is a big part of excelling in sports.”
He also touched on the mental aspect of competition, heeding the team to “focus on what you can control,” while citing examples from his own days as a Bullet.
Husain spent the remainder of his time working with Gettysburg's sprint group, first in a discussion on technique before observing the team in action.
“The main thing we focused on was trying to get the athletes to understand how to run fast and relaxed,” said Husain. “and share with the athletes what worked for me. If I can teach them one aspect of running that they might not have thought of before, then that in my mind is a successful session.”
Husain was an eight-time All-American at Gettysburg, and he capped his career by winning the 200-meter dash at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships as a senior. The summer before, he competed for Pakistan at the Olympics in the 200. He now resides in Stamford, Conn. and works in aviation consulting and finance.
