FSU's record-breaking Gonzalo Barroilhet has plan for Olympic decathlon in London

Gonzalo Barroilhet has been all business - on and off the track - for Florida State the past four years.

With his college career capped by winning the ACC decathlon, then finishing fourth in the NCAAs, the Santiago, Chile, native is preparing as one of the longest shots for a medal among the sizable FSU contingent of track athletes to be running, jumping and throwing at the London Olympics.

Barroilhet and his event coach at FSU, Dennis Nobles, have plotted out a game plan in the two-day, 10-event grind that they believe can get Barroilhet between fifth and eighth place. Barroilhet topped the 8,000-point barrier and set the ACC record in the league's track and field championships in April with 8,065 points. He scored 7,952 points in the NCAAs, coming four points away from a silver medal.

This season, Barroilhet set his personal best in all 10 decathlon events.

But even equaling those marks still leaves him with 8,328 points 711 points off the world record of 9,039 set in the U.S. Olympic Trials by Ashton Eaton.

While Barroilhet won't give anything less than a full effort, he said the 2012 Games might be a steppingstone for 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"Getting on the podium is obviously a goal for any Olympic athlete," he said. "The top eight is a reasonable goal for me. It would take something special to get higher, but I'm going to be trying. And regardless of what happens, I'll be going back to work to prepare for 2016."

Nobles said effort is the least of concerns for an athlete who has bounced back from two shoulder surgeries.

Sometime after the Olympics, Barroilhet also will get his MBA degree from Florida State (he has a 3.85 grade-point average) and this year was named the ACC's scholar-athlete in track.

"He's a very purpose-driven student-athlete," Nobles said. "As a coach, you always have kids you worry about when their athletic careers are over. Gonzo is one kid I will never worry when he stops competing."

Barroilhet is one of 11 past or current Florida State athletes competing in track and field events at the Olympics, one of the largest from any U.S. college in the games. The 11 athletes represent six countries in events from sprints to the steeplechase.

It would have been more had not two former FSU athletes considered near-locks for medals sustained injuries in training or trials.

Walter Dix, who won the 100-meter bronze medal for the U.S. in 2008, pulled a hamstring in the trials.

Ngoni Makushan of Zimbabwe, a six-time indoor and outdoor NCAA champion in the long jump and sprints, ruptured the Achilles tendon in his non-takeoff leg while training in Tallahassee in late May.

The best prospects for medals are Maurice Mitchell in the 200 meters (he finished second in the U.S. trials) and triple-jumper Kim Williams of Jamaica, a three-time NCAA champion.

Barroilhet will be competing in his second Olympics for Chile, which will have an overall contingent of less than two dozen athletes.

He was introduced to the decathlon while attending the Cordillera School in Santiago. In quick order, he became the top athlete in that event in Chile, winning the junior national and senior national championships in the same year.

Because he's a world-class decathlete, Barroilhet had enough raw talent and size (he's 6 feet 4, 210 pounds) to have attempted other sports.

So why track?

"It's easy in track to measure yourself against other athletes," he said. "It's an independent sport. What you do is for yourself and what you have done in the past is not reflected on your performance that day."

It started as simply as discovering that Barroilhet's size, strength and speed made him a good pole-vaulter, his best single event. His best vault is 17 feet, 10 inches.

"I've always thought of pole-vaulting as pretty cool," he said.

That led to the hurdles as his next strongest event. Then the sprints.

"At some point, I found myself competing in most of the decathlon events," he said. "So I decided to put them all together."

But Chile is not a hotbed of track athletes, and Barroilhet realized that the top training facilities and coaching would be found in America. He also wanted to get a business degree.

After researching on his own, Barroilhet settled on Florida State as the best combination of the two. He contacted the track coaches, paid his own way to Tallahassee to work out for them and was impressive, to say the least.

The results were immediate after enrolling at FSU in the fall of 2007. Barroilhet won the NCAA and ACC indoor championships in the heptathlon as a freshman, setting the FSU and ACC record with 5,951 points. He then finished third in the decathlon to help the Seminoles win the NCAA outdoor championship.

But the first of his two shoulder injuries resulted in a redshirt outdoor season in 2009, after winning his second ACC indoor heptathlon and finishing second in the NCAAs. The injuries kept him from competing in the decathlon in 2010 but he did qualify for the NCAA East Regionals in the high hurdles and scored in four events in the ACC indoor meet to help the Seminoles win the team title. The 2011 season was completely lost with another shoulder injury.

Nobles said he never heard a word of complaint or self-pity from Barroilhet.

"He kept going back to work," Nobles said. "He has an outstanding work ethic."

Barroilhet stormed back for the outdoor season in his senior year with his ACC title and his fourth in the NCAAs. The latter was an accomplishment because Barroilhet was 13th after the first day, then scored more second-day points than any other competitor. He briefly held the lead after the pole vault, which he considers his top event.

Barroilhet's academic achievements went hand-in-hand with his track accomplishments. In addition to becoming the fourth FSU track or cross country athlete to receive the ACC's top scholar-athlete award, he is the first FSU athlete to receive six All-ACC academic awards (a combination of indoor and outdoor seasons) and is a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American.

The school used Barroilhet as a poster child for his athletic and academic success. Along with former quarterback Christian Ponder and other athletes, Barroilhet has appeared in magazine ads for Florida State, wearing a business suit and with Seminoles war paint on his face.

"He's certainly been an outstanding example of what a student-athlete should be," Nobles said.

Barroilhet said he's interested in getting into the financial or property management fields after his track career is over.

"I have more I believe I can accomplish in track," he said. "If not this Olympics, then the next."

Garry Smits: (904) 359-4362