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Interview | Mark Janzen
Photographs | Mark Janzen

Giovanni Hernandez landed in the pit with a thud of frustration that could be heard from Tepic, Mexico. 

Entering the Canada West championships, the Trinity Western University star pole vaulter, had already twice cleared 5.06m in competition over the course of the 2020 season. It had been his best season since his sophomore campaign at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) in 2016. Hernandez, 27, was creeping in on his personal record 5.20m, which he cleared four years earlier while finishing first at the So Cal Championships. 

In his third year at TWU and his fourth year of eligibly, things were coming together for Hernandez. 

Then, on a late-February Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon, he knocked the bar off on his final attempt at 4.80m. He punched the mat, stepped off and swiftly walked away. 

"I was emotionally destroyed," recalls Hernandez.

His final mark of 4.70m earned him a silver medal, but on this day, there was zero solace in second. 

Upon returning to Langley, Hernandez unraveled. 
 
"I was emotionally unstable for a few days. I doubted myself so much."

He yearned for his college days in California when he was statistically at his vaulting best, for Mt. SAC and the championship form he had once uncovered. 

Then TWU teammate Zach Augenstein entered the room and woke Hernandez to his reality. 

Beyond all the poles, mats and runways, Augenstein helped Hernandez put the old days behind him. He helped him see what being at TWU has meant in his life. 

"I realized that I grew up as a person here," Hernandez says. "This is where I grew up spiritually and this is where I matured. This is where I got closer to God.

"So, I just prayed and prayed and prayed."

He felt what it meant to truly place his identity in something larger than his sport.

"He came in as a guy who was just all about pole vault," says TWU assistant coach and Spartan alum Jamie Sinclair. "I know it's a cliché in the sporting world, but 100 per cent of his identity was in pole vaulting. If he was jumping well, he was on top of the world. If he wasn't, he was a nobody in his mind."

The two weeks leading up to the 2020 national championships was excruciatingly long, as he sought redemption. But in every quiet moment, he prayed. 

On a Saturday in early March in Edmonton, Hernandez cleared 5.08m, marking the highest bar he gone over in nearly four years. His performance earned him the U SPORTS silver medal. And, as both he and Sinclair are quick to admit, he wasn't even in form. 

"He wasn't having a day, but he managed to pull it out, which is so courageous and encouraging," Sinclair says. "He competed so well. His ability to clear the highest bar that he's cleared in four years and do so while not even jumping well, really shows how well he competed. He fought for that medal."

After his final attempt, he took another moment to pray. Then he phoned his family in Tepic. 

This is a different Gio.  
 
Born in Los Angeles, Hernandez moved to Tepic with his mother and sister when he was nine years old, joining a full home including his grandparents, his uncle, his aunt and three cousins. 

"The house was packed every single day," Hernandez says. "I loved it. I kind of miss the chaos a bit."

It was in Tepic where the happy-go-lucky side of Gio was fostered.  

"The culture is really warm and really intimate. Tepic is a strong influence on my culture. When I open up to someone, my Tepic side comes out."

Sport wasn't a thing for Hernandez until he was 15 years old. Before that, he buzzed around the apartment common areas with his neighbourhood friends, espousing an unbridled form of Gio-esque energy. If you know, you know. 

Hernandez started his track and field career in long jump and triple jump – and he was decent – but in December 2008, he pleaded with his coach to try pole vault. 

"If I don't clear (three metres), I'll stop bothering you," Hernandez said (in Spanish). 

"You're a decent long jumper. I can't switch you that drastically."

"Come on. Please."

"Okay. If you jump three metres today, I'll let you pole vault and I'll even take you to regionals."

After a brief warmup, Hernandez did exactly that – launching himself up and over the required bar.

Thus began Hernandez's wild career pole vaulting career.

Before he was even 18 years old, he had cleared 4.60m. Then, after turning 18 and with a bag of potential in his back pocket, Hernandez moved to Mexico City in 2011 to pursue his Olympic dream. 
 

In Mexico, athletes with Olympic potential can join the Mexican Armed Forces and serve within the army as a commissioned athlete. The experience affords athletes training opportunities and a salary while the athlete trains and competes, while also representing the army in various platforms. As an aspiring Olympian looking for a way to successful navigate the financial challenges of amateur athletics, Hernandez took the opportunity. He joined the army with the expectation that he would become a commissioned athlete. 

Instead, when he joined the army, he was recruited as a paratrooper. 

"I didn't get commissioned as an athlete and life hit me hard."

From 2011 to 2014, Hernandez was part of the Mexican Armed Forces in a full-time role, while still trying vault whenever he could. 

"I couldn't drop out of the army and I couldn't commit fully to track and field," he says. "Those three years were a waste of training and I was going through really tough military training. It was straight up chaos for me."

After biding his time, eh eventually was given the opportunity to go through his basic training as a paratrooper – a requirement if he was to become a commissioned athlete. To put it mildly, it was brutal, putting Hernandez through physical and mental exhaustion he'd never experienced before.

However, through it all, he earned his paratrooper wings in exceptional fashion, earning an award for the top solider in the training group. He returned to his battalion with a certain prestige now tied to his name and his reputation. For the next year, he became something of a poster boy for his battalion. As such, he avoided being "deployed to fight crime or ambush drug dealers." That may have saved his life and his vaulting career. 

In the summer of 2014, he made a phone call to Giovanni Lanaro – a two-time Olympic pole vaulter for Mexico and the Mexican record holder (5.82m) – who was coaching at Mt. SAC. Lanaro knew Hernandez's background and offered him a chance to return to Los Angeles and join the Mounties. Soon after, Hernandez was released from his duties within the Mexican Armed Forces and, after taking little more than his wings, he made his way back to the USA. 

Under the tutelage of Lanaro, Hernandez pushed his personal record to 5.20m and once again showed vast potential in finishing first at the 2016 California Community College Athletic Association State Championships.

With his success on the front porch, he sought a NCAA Div. I scholarship, but a bid to join Washington State University in the summer of 2017 was rejected after his time served in the army was mistakenly deemed to have burned his final two years of NCAA eligibility. 

With no place to go and his Olympic dreams suddenly in tatters, Hernandez was lost.

"I was shattered. It was chaos. I was depressed. I gained weight. I was in a dark place."

Then Lanaro reached out to him and suggested Hernandez contact then TWU coach Rob Pike, who was a world class vaulter in his day and had coached Lanaro in years past. Hernandez and Pike talked and, in short order, Hernandez found a new home in Canada. 

"I didn't look through anything about the school," Hernandez admits. "I didn't have a clue that Trinity Western was a Christian school. I didn't even think about Trinity and the Holy Trinity."

He still came.

He hated his first year in Langley. 

It wasn't quite the party school he was pining for and the attention he'd imagined earning as a student-athlete rarely came to fruition. 

"It was just me going out and trying to do the dumb things that I wanted to do and it just wasn't there."

In the pole vault pit, the best he cleared in his first year was 4.75m at the 2018 U SPORTS Championships. At the same time, injuries started to surface and by his second year, he was forced to miss the entire 2019 indoor season. Yet, something kept him at TWU.

"There was this little thing in the back of my head, saying 'Gio, stay and fight through it.' There was someone and now I know it was God telling me to stay at Trinity. So, I stayed."

"If it wasn't for those first two years here, I don't think I would be a Christian or believe in Jesus or want to make changes in my life to help the people around me. 

"Jesus doesn't change you, he regenerates you. You're not the same person."

In the same breath, Hernandez brings up Sinclair.  

"Jamie has been one of the best coaches I have ever had. I can talk to him about anything and everything. He influenced my faith so much. God was talking through Jamie to me.

"I wouldn't be who I am without Jamie."
 

The bar sat at 4.73m and Hernandez had already missed it twice. The 2020 U SPORTS Championships was supposed to be redemption from the conference meet. Yet, Hernandez was one miss away from crashing out with a "no height."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear an old Sargeant. 

"Be the strong person you can be. You're better than what you think you are."

"I was bullied so much in my life and put down so much, so him telling me that helped me heal. I doubted myself so much. What the Sargeant said became a motto for me and it helps me fight through adversity."

He decided to take his third attempt at 4.73m with a larger pole. 

He flew over. 

After passing at 4.83m, he did the same at 4.93m – clearing the bar on his third crack. He then went over 5.03m on his first attempt before setting his season's best with a silver-medal winning clearance of 5.08m.

He prayed and then made a call.

A few weeks later, Hernandez, who is set to return for his final year in 2020-21, was awarded with the track and field team's 2019-20 Leadership Award. He wasn't a team captain, yet by the end of the season, he was most deserving.

"He cares more about the process and his teammates," Sinclair says. "It's less about Gio, which is cool to see. He has the ability to lead people. He's willing to invest time in people and talk to them about difficult issues. He's willing to be honest about stuff and talk to teammates about things It's really cool to hear the conversations that he's having with his teammates."
. 
The framed picture that was selected to honour Hernandez for his award has him clearing a bar with relative ease. It's a fine photo, but perhaps a better image would have been if there had been one snapped inside his hotel room after that season-ending performance. If a photo had been taken, it would have been of Gio and third-year teammate Ben Tjernagel – six years his junior – just hanging out, chitchatting and watching P.S. I Love You.

Yea, this is a different Gio.  

This piece is part of an extensive series, detailing the people and the stories that make up Spartan Athletics. 

Print copies of the SPARTA magazine are available for purchase. All proceeds go to Spartan families in need.

Previously Posted Stories from SPARTA
Being Caleb Gerth | by Mark Janzen
Being Tessa Ratzlaff | Interview by Mark Janzen
Being Teammates | by Mark Janzen
Being Mowa Adeleye | by Mark Janzen
Being Joel Waterman | by Mark Janzen
Being Eric Loeppky | by Mark Janzen
Being Aaron Paetkau | by Mark Janzen
Being Jean Laforest | by Bailey Broadbent 
Being Servants | by Mark Janzen
Being Isaac Labelle | by Bailey Broadbent
Being a Spartan | by Michaella Crema