METAIRIE, La. — Metairie's Eric Gregory recently collected a third straight NCAA Division 3 National Championship in the 400-meter dash, and his winning time of 45.73 seconds, also punched his ticket to the U.S. Olympic trials.
"I just took it step by step," Gregory said. "Went to middle school, high school, travel team, and I came to college and I felt like God got me here for some reason. He allowed me to be who I wanted to be. I had to put my faith in it and put my heart in it. "
Gregory needed to pour everything into performing because he starts every race with a disadvantage, Gregory is deaf.
Before a race, he relies on his coach in the lane next to him, to give him signals in order to get ready for his starting pistol.
Gregory said being deaf never affected him, "Because once you start running, like what choice do you have? So, I have no excuse for it."
"Like even if I feel like it's a disadvantage, I never really pay attention to it. Everybody my whole life was look, you different, don't ever look at yourself differently because you can't hear. If you want to do it, you can do it, don't take that away," Gregory said.
Gregory's track to Eugene, Oregon began in Metairie and at East Jefferson Jefferson - he was a standout track and football player for the Warriors. Gregory then took his running prowess to Gallaudet University in DC, a school providing higher education to deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
And now he has become the university's first student-athlete to participate in the Olympic Trials.
Gregory said it would mean a lot to qualify for the Olympics and everyone in the 504 and everyone in Louisiana.
"Because everybody that knew me, that grew up with me, that played with me, that ran with me, they watched me. And they all been following me," he said.
"It's just, and they've always been proud of me, it's just sometimes times haven't been paying attention to me. I'm just thinking everyone has been knowing me, but the way they look at me like 'this kid going to be something'."
Eric Gregory is somebody - who gets to now compete against other Olympic hopefuls.
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