Golden boy — 2 World Junior championships don't sway Carter's personality

PROVO — No matter what the competition, winning a world championship in anything would be enough to go to the head of most people.

It takes a pretty cool customer to downplay the hype and go back to training for the next competition — someone like BYU hurdler Chris Carter.

Carter, a 19-year-old track phenom from Roy (no, that's not a misprint), won gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles and 4x400 relay at the World Junior Track and Field Championships last month in Beijing, earning him Deseret Morning News Athlete of the Month honors.

The victories came just a couple months after the end of the collegiate season, when he won Mountain West Conference titles in the same two events, then went on to capture all-American honors with a third-place finish in the hurdles at the NCAA Championships.

"It's unprecedented ... we've never had a freshman do what he did," BYU men's track coach Mark Robison said.

But all those achievements are already in the past for Carter.

"I'm just trying to go to school and get ready for the next season and some other things," Carter said. "That season is done."

Probably not the response you'd expect from an athlete just three weeks removed from a world title, but then again, Carter isn't like most athletes.

While other athletes were whipping themselves into nervous wrecks in Beijing, Carter was conducting his own course of international relations, befriending athletes from around the world.

He took German in high school and took the opportunity to practice it with some German athletes with whom he shared an elevator ride. Later on, he was hanging out on their floor, eating pizza.

"I understood most of what they said, and they understood most of what I said, but they made fun of me for my grammar," Carter said.

"It surprised them to hear me speak German, but they were really cool kids. They were fun to hang out with."

BYU coach Kyle Grossarth, who accompanied Carter to China, said he wasn't surprised to see the quick friendships he made.

"That's typical Chris," Grossarth said. "He'll talk to anybody and befriend anyone. In warm-ups, you'd see him warming up, and there would be kids from different countries coming up and saying, 'What's up, Carter?'" But beneath all of that, Carter's coaches say his competitive nature is what makes him successful.

"He has the attitude that he's going to go out and win every race," Grossarth said.