Zach Ziemek now trains full time with Badgers assistant coach Nate Davis. | Twitter
Zach Ziemek now trains full time with Badgers assistant coach Nate Davis. | Twitter
An Olympian from Sun Prairie will compete in the 10-event Olympic decathlon and in the process hopes to come home with some medal hardware.
After the delay of the games last year, Zach Ziemek he said maximized his time in order to have a strong showing.
"In 2019, I actually ruptured my hamstring and we were deciding on how best to treat it with the Olympics originally scheduled for last year," Ziemek told WTMJ. "This extra year has given us time to heal it completely. It gave us this extra window of time and I want to show that I've taken advantage of that window."
The decathlon takes place over a two-day span.
Ziemek, from Itasca, lives in Sun Prairie, attended the University of Wisconsin and now trains full time with Badgers assistant coach Nate Davis.
He found a love for the sport when he was in high school, he told NBC 26.
"My personality is I wanted to explore what my potential would be in other events and I fell in love with trying different events," he said. "I was a jumper. I was 5-foot-9 and maybe 110 pounds. It just fits my personality perfectly."
Ziemek earned a spot in the Tokyo games with a third-place finish in this year’s trials.
He is no stranger to Olympic competition, the Courier reported, as he previously competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he came in seventh in the decathlon event with 8,392 points.
Ziemek believes his biggest strength is being well rounded in all of the decathlon events, which will feature running, swimming, pole vaulting and bicycling among other sports.
“We’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades. We’re kind of just average at 10 events, but once you get to watching it and knowing the work that goes into it and what it takes over two days, I personally think it’s a pretty awesome thing and pretty cool to watch,” he said.
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