James Edward "Trey" Hardee III (born February 7, 1984, in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

) is a retired

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who specialized in the

combined events Combined track and field events are competitions in which athletes participate in a number of track and field events, earning points for their performance in each event, which adds to a total points score. Outdoors, the most common combined events ...

. He is a former

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Champion, a two-time World Outdoor Champion, a member of the United States 2008 Olympic team, and the silver medalist in the decathlon at the London 2012 Olympics. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2018.

High school and college career

Hardee did not start out as a decathlete. He preferred basketball, and only joined the track and field team as a junior after failing to make the basketball varsity squad at

Vestavia Hills High School Vestavia Hills High School. Vestavia Hills High School (VHHS), founded in 1970, is a public high school in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It is part of the Vestavia Hills City Schools. History The land was acquir ...

. He was recruited to

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

as a pole vaulter. Hardee started college at Mississippi State in 2002. It was at the university that coaches, noting his combination of size and speed, pushed him toward the decathlon and the indoor heptathlon. He finished second in the decathlon at the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Mississippi State dropped its indoor track and field program after the 2004 season, so Hardee transferred to the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In his first season at

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, he was third in the heptathlon at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships and won the decathlon at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2006, he set the NCAA decathlon record with a then personal best 8,465 points and was named the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.

Professional career

Hardee was the runner-up in the decathlon at the 2008 US Olympic Trials and made his first Olympic team. At the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, he was in 4th place through seven events when his no-height score in the pole vault cost him a chance to medal. His performances during the 2008 outdoor season garnered interest from the

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of the

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, who offered him a tryout. However, he expressed no interest in pursuing the opportunity. At the

2009 World Athletics Championships The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

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, Hardee won gold in the decathlon with a points total of 8790, which is his personal record. He was awarded the Jim Thorpe All-Around Award by the United States Sports Academy for his achievements that year. In the same year, he won the USA Outdoor championship with a score of 8,261. At the

2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics was held between 12 and 14 March at the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar. The championships was the first of six IAAF World Athletics Series events to take place in 2010. Bidding and organisation Th ...

, he won a silver medal in the heptathlon by finishing behind

Bryan Clay Bryan Ezra Tsumoru Clay (born January 3, 1980) is an American decathlete who was the 2008 Summer Olympic champion for the decathlon and was also World champion in 2005. Biography Clay was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Hawaii. He is Afr ...

. Hardee finished with a points total of 6184, which was 20 points behind Clay. At the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

, Hardee defeated his compatriot Ashton Eaton and retained the world decathlon title with a final points tally of 8607. In 2012, Hardee again finished second in the

Olympic Trials Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

and made a second

Olympic Team A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

. On August 9, 2012, he won the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics behind Eaton. Hardee attempted to make a third Olympic team in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, but was unsuccessful due to injury. He did attend the

as a television analyst for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

Personal bests (outdoor)

Last updated April 6, 2016.

PB Decathlon and potential PB

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardee, Trey 1984 births Living people American male decathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States Track and field athletes from Birmingham, Alabama USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners World Athletics Championships winners Texas Longhorns men's track and field athletes