Roger Kingdom is back – over the first four hurdles, at least. Competing for the first time since 1999, the two-time Olympic champion was a DNF in his signature race, the 110-meter high hurdles, at the Slippery Rock Invitational on April 17, 2004, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, Kingdom’s alma mater. Kingdom said he felt a twinge in his right hamstring – his trail leg – and bailed out after four hurdles.

“I did not complete the race, which was a disappointment to me,” he said from his office this morning at California University of Pennsylvania, a Division II school where he recently began work as an assistant track coach.
Kingdom said racing over 42-inch barriers “felt great,” but admitted he was “rusty over the hurdles.” He confessed excitement at the effort – and he wasn’t alone.
“People lined the track to see it,” Kingdom said, and he quoted a former agent, Bill Parise, as saying, “Roger, there’s no question you still have it.”
Parise told Kingdom he should be able to run 13.4 or 13.5 this season – a mark that would smash the current world masters record for 110 (42-inch) highs of 14.16 held by “a good friend of” Kingdom’s — Carlos Sala of Spain.
Kingdom, who trains over 42-inch hurdles with his athletes, said he is open to competing in masters meets – unlike other former Olympians who disdain age-group competition as beneath them or not remunerative enough. But Kingdom still has a way to go in adjusting psychologically to masters competition.
He asked, “Do they run 42-inch (hurdles) in masters?”
Told that masters in his age group run lower barriers, Kingdom laughed and said, “I’m not ready for 39s.”
Not ready? No, he doesn’t foresee problems with his step.
“It’s a little pride thing right now,” he said.
Unlike Edwin Moses, who announced his ultimately failed comeback to great fanfare with a news conference in Paris at the 2003 World Championships, Kingdom’s comeback is low-key – revealed through an article in the Pittburgh Post-Gazette.
But Kingdom still put in a call to USATF chief Craig Masback as a courtesy, hoping the U.S. national governing body would take note of Kingdom’s efforts on the track and through a foundation he and his mother recently founded.
“I left a message for him (Masback),” but the organization’s CEO didn’t return Kingdom’s call. “No reply. That’s pretty unusual (for USATF).”
Kingdom isn’t making an issue of the slight. He’s more interested in getting out the word that his comeback is more than self-gratification. He says he hopes his efforts will bring attention to CUP’s athletic program and the Roger Kingdom Foundation Inc., which recently incorporated out of his hometown of Unadilla, Georgia, a community of about 3,000.
Kingdom’s mother, Christine Kingdom, has shifted gears from being the head of Roger’s fan club to the administrator of his foundation – at 314 Owens Store Road, Unadilla, GA 31091
The charity — intended to show “track and field is still alive” — already has begun raising money through a golf tournament and dinner. Kingdom hopes to give athletes with academic problems the needed push to achieve their college dreams. He also mentioned scholarships, mentoring and clinics, which could help athletes in the rural Georgia area improve their track skills.
As for his own skills, Kingdom is confident he’ll be back to full speed soon.
Asked what he might be able to run a 100-meter dash in now, he said, “10.8 to 11.0.” The American record for his age group is 10.86. (The world record is 10.29.)
Kingdom, who co-holds the American record in the 110 hurdles of 12.92, hopes to continue his comeback soon with a race at either Berera, Ohio, or at Columbus, Ohio, the weekend of May 1-2. He’s not looking for races much ahead of that because his focus is on preparing his college team for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championships on May 15.
After that date, he’s open to suggestions, and he even asked me where he might compete. (Anyone interested in having an Olympic legend run hurdles in their meet can write Roger at rogerkingdom@hotmail.com.)
Kingdom is acutely aware of the doubts about his fitness – especially since he had reconstructive knee surgery by noted Dr. Freddie Fu in September 1991. But he says his repaired right knee “feels better than when I was competing” and the five-year break has let it heal further.
Kingdom hasn’t seen a doctor lately, but has a support system in his school and athletes, where they cheer him with cries of “Oh, Coach, you can do it!”
Another fan (besides his mother) is his 13-year-old daughter Jierra Brianne, who lives with her mother (Roger’s college sweetheart) in New York City. Jierra (like Sierra), who spends summers with her dad in Pittsburgh, says she’s excited at the prospect of going to the Olympic Trials in Sacramento this July.
Whether Kingdom will compete there is an open question.
But the 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medalist is confident he’ll stay healthy and make a try for the qualifying time of 13.55.
“Injuries aren’t strange to me,” Kingdom said. “I’m used to adversity. . . . It’s the attitude that helps you.”