By Jerome Boettcher | George Mason Athletics
David Verburg just stared.
A five-time world champion, he has become accustomed with the hardware that comes with winning. But this was different. Etched into the center of this gold medal were the iconic Olympic rings.
“I kind of just sat there and held it for a little bit,” he said. “It was kind of surreal that I earned myself an Olympic gold medal.”
Last week, Verburg returned from Rio as an Olympic champion. The former George Mason track and field standout helped Team USA capture gold in the men's 4x400-meter relay.
The 25-year-old from Lynchburg, Va., anchored the 4x400 in the opening round. His final leg boosted the United States into the final, where the Americans won gold in the event for the 17th time.
Verburg, who did not compete in the final because of a foot injury, became the first Olympic champion in George Mason track and field program history. Greg Haughton was the Patriots' only previous Olympic medalist, winning bronze three times with Jamaica in 1996 and 2000.
“It just means my persistence and hard work has paid off,” Verburg said. “Really a lot of hard work. It sounds cliché. But I was never the most talented guy out there. So I had to work a little harder than other people did. All the sacrifices – I couldn't visit my family as much; I couldn't go out. Small sacrifices and hard work over the years paid off.”
Just reaching the Olympics fulfilled a dream for Verburg, who didn't start running track until his junior year of high school. An 11-time NCAA All-American at Mason, he missed making the Olympics by one spot in 2012 the summer before his senior year of college.
But since graduating in 2013, he has won five gold medals with Team USA in the 4x400-meter relay at five International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships. At the 2014 World Indoor Championships, he helped the U.S. set the world indoor record (3:02.13) in the 4x400.
All his international success led up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, where he qualified for the Rio Olympic Games by taking third in the 400 – earning spots in the 400 and 4x400 relay.
“This story started back when I started running track in high school,” he said. “Each year, doing different things, sacrificing a little more each year, working harder paid off at this Olympics.”
As he began training in Rio a week before his first race – the 400 – a nagging injury started to flare up.
Toward the end of April, pain started to subside in his right foot. He had suffered a micro tear in his plantar fascia – the flat band of tissue that connects his heel bone to his toes. In the peak of running season and with the Olympic Trials just two months away, Verburg couldn't give his foot the rest it needed.
“The last couple months, it has just been getting worse and worse,” he said. “It has gradually been getting worse. Nothing was really working. One of those things where you have to stop running. But I kept going. Then it intensified. It got to the point where I was getting massages and you couldn't touch the inner part of my foot. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the bottom of the foot if you pressed that part. It started getting real bad.”
With the pain mounting, Verburg pushed through the opening round of the 400 meters. He finished in a time of 45.48 to take fourth in his heat and secured the top non-automatic qualifying time to advance to the semifinals. The next night, he posted a time of 45.61, taking fifth in his heat, which included eventual Olympic champion and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa.
Nearly a week later, he returned to the track and ran the last leg of the 4x400 in the opening round. He posted a split time of 44.59 as the U.S. finished its heat in 2:58.29, just behind Jamaica, to advance to the final.
“(The Olympics) is never guaranteed,” Verburg said. “So I wanted to make the best of the situation. At the end of the day, it is painful. But you got to push through it. I wanted to still go out there and compete for my country and do the best I could. My running could have been better. It always can be better. But at the end of the day, I went out there and made the semifinals at the Olympics and helped our relay win a gold medal.”
Verburg ran the second-fastest split for Team USA in the opening round of the 4x400. But the pain in his foot severely worsened. Hours before the final of the 4x400 on Aug. 20, the decision was made to pull out Verburg.
“They pulled me from the final because they weren't sure health wise if I was going to make it all way around (the track) basically,” he said. “I didn't want my foot to give out. Individually, it is just me. But when you are on a relay, your teammates are depending on you. You've got to know when to bow out and accept your role. I didn't want to be selfish.”
On hand as an alternate in case of a last-minute injury, he watched the 4x400 final on the screen at a practice just 100 yards away from Olympic Stadium. He cheered on as his teammates, Arman Hall (his training partner back in Florida), Tony McQuay, Gil Roberts and LaShawn Merritt reclaimed the gold medal after falling short in London four years ago.
“I was proud of them,” he said. “I wanted them to do the best they could. It was a little hard to watch, of course. Because as a competitor you want to be out there competing instead of watching. It was a bittersweet moment. I'm happy Team USA pulled out the win.”
Verburg supported his Team USA teammates – on and off the track – as he submersed himself in the Olympic experience and enjoyed Rio when free time allowed.
A big Cleveland Cavaliers fan, he met and snapped pictures with NBA star Kyrie Irving. Verburg was in the stands when Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and the rest of USA Basketball defeated Australia in pool play. He ventured to the beautiful shores of Copacabana to watch beach volleyball. He hung out with members of the water polo and soccer teams.
And how did he celebrate winning gold in the 4x400? By attending Usain Bolt's 30th birthday party.
“It was cool to be around in that whole (Olympic) environment,” he said. “It is hard to explain. It is definitely an experience you want to go back to.”
Before the games could begin, Verburg took part in one of the biggest thrills for any Olympian – the opening ceremony. He walked out with the rest of Team USA's more than 500 athletes to a roaring audience of more than 75,000 fans at Maracanã Stadium.
“I did get chills – like I was about to compete when I walked out there,” he said. “It was amazing to walk out. I've always seen the Olympic ceremonies on TV. But it is cool because you are in the tunnel and you come out. You have all the countries behind you. You have cameras, people cheering. It was a lot to soak in. It is one of those things you remember for the rest of your life."
His first trip to the Olympics has him already looking ahead to the next Summer Games – in Tokyo in 2020.
First, he is eying making Team USA for the IAAF World Championships in London next summer. Then, he hopes to continue to make progress for Tokyo in four years, where he wants to achieve his goal of medaling individually in the 400.
“I have been there now. I have experienced it now,” he said. “I battled an injury to run. Now, just use this as motivation for Worlds next year and hopefully going onto 2020. I let little setbacks motivate me to make me better the next year. The fact that I did this while hurt, there is no telling what I could do when I'm healthy.”
He will head to Indiana in a few weeks to seek the opinion of a doctor to hear his options.
He might have surgery – if that is a quicker option – or just stay off his foot and rest. Either way, he plans to shut down his running for the next two months in hopes of starting back up again in November and preparing for the new season. Verburg, who has resided in Gainesville, Fla., for the last three years, runs professionally for Adidas, training under Florida head track and field coach Mike Holloway.
Since returning to the states, he has added an tattoo that he had hoped to add in 2012. Inked into his left forearm are the Olympic rings, with the Greek symbol of victory etched on the other side.
As for the gold medal, it currently hangs in his house. He plans to bring it out for speaking engagements and most likely eventually ship it to his father's house in Alabama.
More than a week after the Olympics has ended, Verburg said the reality of winning a gold medal has begun to sink in. Still, for a guy who was a late bloomer in track, who was told by some college coaches he was too small (at 5-foot-6) to run on the Division I level, who never won a national collegiate championship – or even a state championship – Verburg radiates feel good story.
Not to mention, the fact he is running at all – let alone on an Olympic level – is remarkable considering he almost died more than 13 years ago.
Born with asthma, Verburg suffered an asthma attack in the middle of the night when he was 12. Then living in rural Fairview, Ky., Verburg had to be emergency air lifted by a helicopter more than 200 miles away to the children's intensive care unit in Lexington, Ky. He spent three days in the hospital – “They weren't sure if I was going to come out of it or not,” he said – before he was released.
Then an avid soccer player, he took a break from the sport and sports in general. Fortunately, he hasn't suffered any severe complications since. His inhaler is always in hand, using it before every race. That included the Olympics two weeks ago, when he lived a dream and helped the U.S. reach the podium.
“The Lord was looking out for me for sure,” he said. “He showed that I was gifted and talented for a reason. I overcame things for a reason. My job was to figure out what that reason was.”
