MACON, Ga. — You typically won’t find many winter Olympic athletes with ties to Central Georgia, but we did. Mercer University’s graduate assistant track and field coach, Austin Hayes, decided in March he’d pursue his dream of being an Olympic athlete and grew a liking for the sport of skeleton.
"You're going nearly a mile in 50 seconds. It's a lot of adrenaline, which is what I love about the sport. Skeleton is described by the International Olympic Committee as plummeting head first down a treacherous and steep track made of solid ice reaching speeds up to 80-90 mph. There's no breaks,” he said.
Before Hayes started the sport of skeleton, he started his athletic career in track and field and quickly became a standout.
"As soon as I realized I was semi-good in track and field; the goal immediately was to go to the Olympics, so I've had this dream of mine since I was a sophomore in high school…I just didn't know how I was going to get there,” he said.
Following his senior year of high school, Hayes represented Team USA in a 2015 competition in Australia, where he won gold medals in the 100-meter dash and the 4x100m relay. After continuing to run through his college career, he dealt with some injuries.
This past March, Hayes decided to take a different path to reach his initial goal of getting to the Olympics.
"What I did was pull up Olympics.org and I just picked up just five or six summer sports and three winter sports. Used process of elimination, figured out what I was willing to sacrifice, what I wanted to put the work in,” he said.
Originally, Hayes thought he’d try out bobsled, but quickly realized skeleton is more his speed. Now, he’s gone from winning a rookie camp push championship to placing 2nd at the U.S. Push Championship becoming an American record holder for fastest sled push in the Ice House facility. All this without even competing in a skeleton competition.
"I like to say don't be realistic. I think you need to have unrealistic dreams and just follow that path, because skeleton was not at all in the cards for me. I am still living proof that if you want to do it, then go pursue it,” said Hayes.
He hopes to take all the skills he’s learned to the ice in the coming year. Hayes was named to the USA Skeleton Development Team and he hopes to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
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