GLOBE TROTTING OLYMPIAN TRAINS AT MT. HOOD

Meet Janna Vander Meulen.

Born in Buckley, Washington, but raised in the nearby town of Puyallup, Vander Meulen was introduced to sports at a very young age. Her mother had noticed how active and athletic she was and decided to sign her up for sports. Janna did a little of everything, ranging from gymnastics to swimming, though she soon fell in love with soccer, where she initially wasn’t looking forward to trying out.

She later attended Rogers High School where she lettered in soccer, basketball and track and field. After graduating, she moved down to Monmouth to attend Western Oregon University and continue her track career. During her time their, she set some astonishing records including the women’s indoor collegiate record for the 60-meter hurdles: a time of 9.06 at the GNAC Indoor Championships,  held at Nampa, Idaho, in February 2012.

Yet, Janna’s most recognized success came after college.

She believed her track career was done after graduating, but destiny had different plans for her: In 2012 she became a member of the United States of America Deaf Track and Field team (USADTF).

You see, Janna, who just turned 28, is deaf. She was born with a very low percentage of hearing so, since she was 15 months old, she’s had hearing aids. It hasn’t been easy for her competing in a hearing world, and it’s brought challenges to her life, but she’s always been able to overcome them. She has learned to read peoples’ lips and use sign language, as well.

Janna participated in the 2013 Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she earned two silver medals: one in the 100-meter hurdles and the other in the 4×100-meter relay. She also earned a bronze in the 400-meter hurdles. And yet, her second-place finish in the 100m hurdles was one she doesn’t forget, being only .006 seconds away from the leader.

“It was a race I knew I could have won,” she says now.

Coming to Mt. Hood

After experiencing success at the world stage, Janna was hungry for more. She was determined to be at the 2017 Deaflympics to win the 100m hurdles. But some obstacles early on made that very difficult. She said 2014 was tough in terms of training: She had relied on her coach, Michael Johnson from Western Oregon, but noticed she needed someone closer to home.

“I used to work with my college coach, but he’s all the way in Monmouth – to see him once a week. It was really hard to hurdle by myself,” she explained. “I knew I needed a different coach to be able to work out more, someone to be there to watch me hurdle.”

So, in 2015 she reached out to a former coworker to see if he knew any good hurdle coaches. That friend pointed to Fernando Fantroy, now MHCC’s co-head track and field coach, with whom he had previously coached at Gresham High School.

Janna admits to being a bit nervous meeting Fantroy, as she knew nothing of him, and had no idea her first practice with him was more of a tryout than anything else. That said, she passed the test and began training with him in August 2015.

Fantroy has coached for over 35 years, in both high school and college, in a variety of events. From mentoring state champions to state record holders, he is no stranger to the sport. But this was a new challenge for him, he said.

“My first thought was, I don’t know no sign language,” he said, laughing over what his first thought of coaching Janna. “It was a challenge, but I always tell my athletes, ‘Hey, let’s go ahead and challenge ourselves, always challenge yourself,’ so it was a new challenge for me and I said, hey, let’s see what she’s bringing to the table.”

A new challenge

He then researched her and got an idea of what he was getting himself into. And during her first training sessions on Mt. Hood’s track, he  realized he could work with what she had: “I said, man let’s see what I can do.”

Switching coaches was new for Janna. She noticed that her old coach and Fantroy had very different coaching styles. The former stressed experiment and feedback; the latter, laser-sharp focus on hurdling technique.

“Their ways are completely different. He’s (Fantroy) more like ‘trail, trail, trail, tactical, tactical, tactical,’ while my old coach was more like ‘run through, give me feedback, and then run though, run through,’ ” she explained.

“Fernando helps me work one part at a time, so he basically broke me down and built me back up. So, I really enjoy working with him and I learn a lot.”

Her new coach also learned to make adjustments, and overcome hurdles – in communication.

“Like I always tell everyone, it was a ‘ear opening’ (experience) for me,” Fantroy said. “Ear opening because I just had to make sure I was looking at her, because there were times where she was walking away, and I was talking, and I realized she didn’t know – so the other athletes, the Mt. Hood athletes, had to let her know that coach was talking to her.”

Chasing down the dream

After the pair found the base of communication, knowing Janna could read lips, things got smoother. As time went by, both got more comfortable and she taught Fantroy some sign language. He concedes he isn’t proficient with it yet, and boy, does she get on his case for it, but they’ve created a great relationship.

Helping to smooth things is the fact that hurdles are a tactical event, he added. “You don’t really need to do much communicating; it’s a visual thing. I’m not going over a hurdle (to demonstrate a point), but I can still show visually what I want from her.”

Fantroy discussed how he felt coaching Janna with her strong ambition of going to the 2017 Deaflympics and winning gold.

“There was nothing significantly different. Athletically, she’s like any other athlete. The only difference was that I was dealing now with an international athlete, an actual professional, world class athlete,” he said.

“But it was no different because I know how to get an athlete hurdler or any athlete to that next level. My goal was to get her that gold medal. I teamed up with her strength coach where she totaled 20 hours (per week) in between me and her strength coach, which I recommended to her, besides her 40-hour weeks she works at Nike.”

All that hard work and countless hours of training with Fantroy paid off.

In 2017, Janna headed to Samsun, Turkey, for the 2017 Deaflympics and finally won that gold medal in the 100-meter hurdlers that she so much dreamed of. She also earned a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles. She currently holds the deaf American women’s records for the 100m hurdle, 400m hurdle, and 4x100m relay.

The results made her so happy and proud, she said. That feeling of finally winning a gold medal after all the hard work she put in and beating that girl who won the 2013 100m hurdle race was awesome, though she was slightly unsatisfied with her time.

There are no complaints, though: “Deciding (between) a personal record or a gold medal, I would definitely pick the gold medal,” she said.

Inspired, and an inspiration

But Janna isn’t done yet. Her eyes are now on the 2021 Deaflympics, where she is determined to break the Deaf world record for the 100m hurdles of 14.21 seconds, and rightfully make history at the world stage. Her current time is 14.29, just .08 seconds away from that time. Her dream now is to crush that and get under 14;  even a 13.99 would be enough for her.

Her next international meet will be in Japan, a friendly meet for Deaf athletes this Memorial Day weekend where she plans to make a statement for 2021 goal.

Meantime, Janna will continue training with Coach Fantroy here at Mt. Hood’s track, twice a week, which is  how she’s been doing it since 2015. She noted that she loves the environment at Mt. Hood and finds the track and field athletes here very supportive.

“It’s nice to work out with a team you know. The athletes here are very welcoming, even though I don’t come here (for school), but they always make me feel as I’m part of the team,” she said.

And Janna always gives back to Mt. Hood. She shows up at the Saints’ home meets and helps run the meet, guides and gives feedback to athletes she considers her teammates.

“I’m hoping I inspire them to keep running after college because it seems like everyone is done after college,” she said. “I’m actually faster now. I thought I was my fastest when I was in college but look at me now: I’m older but faster! So, you guys have more chance to improve your personal record and surpass your limits,” is her lasting message.