He was in Beijing competing in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships, and he hadn’t missed a jump through 2.33 meters until he missed all three at 2.36.
However, Guowei Zhang of China and defending champion Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine missed as well, leaving the high jump world championship to a three-man jump-off.
“At the end of the regular competition, I thought for sure that I was finished,” Drouin said. “I knew that I was tied for the lead, but I thought somebody after me was going to clear that bar.”
Drouin, attempting his only opportunity to clear 2.34 meters in the jump-off, approached the pit with long strides, planted his right foot and curled himself above the bar, cementing his World Championships gold medal for Canada.
“I really felt like I was the one to beat, that this was my championship to lose,” Drouin said. “I told myself so many times, ‘You can win this, you can win this,’ that when it finally happened, it was just a relief.”
Since the IAAF World Championships were established in 1983, Canada had not won a gold medal in high jump, and no Hoosier had won an individual gold medal since 1956.
With a personal record of 2.40 meters, Drouin had gone a month without jumping 2.30, he said, leading him to frustration and eagerness for the season to finish.
Drouin earned bronze in the 2013 IAAF World Championships, when he lost to Bondarenko with a jump of 2.38 meters. He also won bronze in the 2012 London Olympics, where he finished in a three-way tie at 2.29 meters.
“I think that, because I wasn’t just thrown into this atmosphere, it was a long one coming,” Drouin said about competing against the world’s best. “I competed in high school track, then college and finally on the world stage. Everything leading up to this has prepared me for world-class competition, so when I finally got to this point it just seemed like the new, natural challenge that I was prepared to take on.”
In his competitions, Drouin has traveled to Beijing, Moscow, Sydney and London, as well as other international cities.
“My absolute favorite place that I’ve traveled to is definitely Sydney, Australia,” Drouin said. “I spent a month there earlier this year getting in some warm-weather training while it was still winter here, and it’s also where I kicked off my 2015 season.”
Before his worldwide endeavors and his collection of colored medals blossomed, though, Drouin’s career began in Bloomington, in IU’s track and field program.
***
Drouin was at recess in elementary school in Corunna, Ontario, Canada, playing on jungle gyms with his friends, when the track coach spotted him and approached him about track and field.
“The track coach came up to me and told me that I was going to run track,” Drouin said. “So I did.”
But it wasn’t until he reached St. Patrick’s Catholic High School that Drouin began taking the sport seriously. He was named track and field Most Valuable Player for St. Patrick’s every year 2005-08, and he earned two silver medals at the Canadian Junior National Championships.
For his accolades, IU recruited him aggressively.
“We didn’t see Olympic potential back when we recruited him,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. “What we did see was his size and pure athletic ability. He also had the ability to rise to the occasion when under pressure.”
Drouin proved the coaching staff right immediately, as he won the 2010 NCAA Indoor National Championship in the high jump with a clearance of 2.28 meters.
He then went on to win the NCAA Outdoor National Championship with a jump of 2.26 meters, sweeping the championships in his freshman season.
“When the lights are on, Derek competes,” Helmer said. “That’s something that a lot of kids have trouble with, performing under pressure, but Derek didn’t, and that really changes the challenge when it comes to developing as an athlete.”
Drouin went on to win the next indoor championship in 2011, with a jump of 2.33 meters, to claim his third straight championship.
But midseason in 2011, Drouin’s sophomore season, he suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his foot, taking most of the year to recover.
“I’d say his biggest challenge was recovering from the injury,” Helmer said. “Most athletes with high expectations find it to be debilitating, but he managed it really well and came out strong the next year.”
Drouin finished second in his first championship attempt after his injury, but he competed in the 2012 London Olympics the same summer after the championship.
Earning bronze in the Olympics, Drouin was ready to return home as a student at IU.
“I’ve always been one to avoid the limelight whenever possible, so going back to class was a nice excuse to get back into a normal, low-key routine,” Drouin said.
Drouin returned to NCAA Track and Field the next season, winning indoor and outdoor championships as a decathlete his senior year.
He also earned the 2013 Bowerman Award, which recognizes the best track and field athlete in the nation.
“The time that stands out to me the most in Derek’s time here was the first National Championship he won after the injury,” Helmer said. “To be an elite athlete, you need to be a risk-taker, and it’s tough to be a risk-taker when you suffer a serious injury, but he did it. I feel that good things need to happen to good people.”
Even though he has won Olympic and World Championship medals, Drouin still takes pride in his NCAA titles.
“I don’t think winning any other accolade would ever diminish an NCAA title,” Drouin said. “It’s a feat that I’m still really proud of. So many of the faces you see at NCAA are the same faces in the finals and on the podium at the world championships two months later.”
***
At practice Aug. 30, before the Hoosiers embarked on their long run for the week, the runners were sitting in the locker room on their phones.
They were watching Drouin.
The Olympian has not only gained the respect of his home country, but won the adoration of former IU teammates and those who have joined the program since.
A banner with his picture and an image of the Bowerman trophy hangs above the entrance to Gladstein Fieldhouse, where the Hoosiers compete and practice in the indoor season.
“When we started out here at IU, we were kind of lost,” senior decathlete Stephen Keller said, including his teammate senior decathlete Dylan Anderson. “We didn’t even know we needed a strong, focused mindset. But Derek, he was always in control and knew that what he was doing was right. He really took us under his wing.”
Keller and Anderson, who both came into the program in 2013, Drouin’s senior season, practiced and competed with the Olympian in his final year in the program.
Keller said he noticed no one is aware that they are standing, sitting or talking with a five-time NCAA Champion or a medal-bearing Olympian outside of the track and around people in public.
“He is very, very humble,” Keller said. “He doesn’t like to talk about track unless he absolutely has to. He just talks about what’s up and what’s going on. I really look up to him for that.”
Drouin continues to train in Bloomington when he’s not overseas or finding warmer climates to train, and he is slated to be a volunteer coach for the IU program, as he also continues to work on making the IU program better.
“Track is just a sport, not my entire life,” Drouin said. “I’ve always said that the day that this starts to feel like a job or a responsibility is the day I’ll know it’s time to retire. So at the moment, this is just part of my life and something I’m still doing because of my love of the sport.”
