USA’s Hyleas Fountain, IAAF Combined Events Challenge winner and Olympic Heptathlon silver medallist, has enjoyed a glittering 2008 campaign.

Yet with the 2009 World Championships looming in Berlin next summer, the US athlete could have a very special weapon to potential next year in the shape of her German fans. Yes, German fans.

But why Germany?

Well, the question also baffles Fountain, who admitted: “I think my (Olympic) medal reached out to a bunch of fans that I didn’t know about. I don’t know why but I would say most of my fan mail comes from Germany. I’ve never competed in Germany, but maybe they’ll be on my side (at the Berlin World Championships).”

To consider her chances in 2009, we have to look back at 2008 - a year in which Fountain emerged as a world-class performer who could finally deliver on the big stage.

Fountain credits much of the improvement down to her coach Lynn Smith, but she also admitted learning from her past mistakes.

In 2005 she enjoyed a huge breakthrough scoring massive new PB of 6502pts to signal her intent as a potential medallist at the World Championships in Helsinki later that summer.

However, her senior international debut is not one she recalls with fondness as she finished down in a modest 12th in Finland.

“I was in training on the college level and I peaked for my season a bit early around Gotzis time,” said Fountain. “I also really just choked; it was my first World Championships. I was overwhelmed by the crowd.”

In early 2006 she moved from Georgia, where she had studied child and family development, and moved north to link up with Smith, her current coach.

But success on the international stage has proved a long, slow process.
She finished eighth in the pentathlon at the 2006 World Indoor Championships and no-marked in the Long Jump at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.

Yet Fountain emerged as a different athlete in 2008. She started her season with a bang, amassing a world leading mark – at the time - of 6667pts to win the US Olympic Trials in Eugene and she did not disappoint in Beijing.

Fountain led at the end of day one in the Bird’s Nest Stadium, although she was below par in the long jump at the beginning of day two she successfully accrued her second best ever total of 6619 to, initially at least, take the Olympic bronze behind the Ukrainian duo Nataliya Dobrynska and Lyudmyla Blonska.

“I learned a lot from Helsinki,” explained Fountain. “I choked there but that was definitely a good experience. I went to the World Championships in Japan and didn’t do too well. I think all those moves prepared me for the most important meet of my life. I definitely appreciated getting a bronze medal.”

Yet life was to take an unexpected turn for the better for the 27-year-old athlete, as Blonska was discovered to have committed a violation of the doping regulations, and so Fountain was upgraded to silver.

“When I was told I got a silver medal it was so funny because I was just walking in the Olympic Village having done some shopping when I got a call on my cell phone. When I was told the news the hairs on my arms stood up. Life just got even better. “

The US multi-eventer then capped a successful summer by winning her third and final heptathlon of the year in Talence with 6473 points to complete a season long victory in the IAAF Combined Event Challenge – a fitting way to end the year.

“I just thought it was cool because it was actually one of my goals this year to get three top scores,” she explained of winning the IAAF challenge.

Yet it is a minor miracle the talented Fountain – who was given her colourful Christian name after her grandfather Hyle – can perform at an elite level.

A talented schoolgirl basketball player she suffered a pair of childhood accidents, which left her with two dislocated arms and she still undergoes weekly treatment to relieve the pain.

Fountain, a left hand thrower, insists she has greater trouble in her right arm, however, that is not to say she has not encountered problems in the past.

“A couple of times my arm came out of the socket in the shot put,” she added, although I’ve never had a major problem for the last two years.”

Fountain, however, has fully arrived in 2008 and with the help of her German fans it is all systems go for Berlin next year.

“We are trying to keep things the same, (in training),” she said. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. My main goal for next summer is to get on the World Championship stand.”

Steve Landells of spikesmag.com for the IAAF

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