Why Matthew Boling Became One of America’s Most Exciting Track Stars

I was always like, oh, I want to win this, I want to win that. And even though I had a big chance at winning that, they're like, I don't care if you win. You need to focus on you being better than yourself, being better than you were last week. Because at the end of the day, it's about progressing. I'm blocking out the outside noise. Then social media, whether that's Instagram or Twitter, YouTube comments, that's not what matters. What matters is me on the track and running my best. I got to focus on my lane. I kind of moved to here. I think the competitiveness really builds you the most when you lose a race. Like, no one likes to lose. So it's all about going back, back to the drawing board, back to practice, picking yourself up and getting ready to run even faster. I'm Matthew and I run track. Fifth grade was the first time I'd ever ran. It was like a PE unit. Sixth grade was when I actually competitively ran for a track team. I have a twin brother. We used to race. He used to beat me. But then one day I started running and I ended up beating him by a lot. And that was really the only sport where I just clicked immediately and I was good at it. I instantly became kind of like obsessed with that feeling of doing well and winning. I usually go to the training room around two o'clock, get my body ready for practice, and then practices from three to six. I'll go to the training room after practice, make sure I'm right, and then go home, do some homework, go to sleep. The indoor track, it's a whole lap on a 200 meter bank. So my first time ever running on the indoor track, I was like, this is weird. Because you're running sideways because you're uphill. So that took me a whole year to get adjusted to. The length of the season and just the different type of track is the two biggest learning curves. I think my biggest challenge is off the field. I haven't perfected yet, but I've really been working on controlling what I can control. Even if you're way better than them, maybe you'll only beat them by a little bit because all you're focused on is beating them. When really, if you're worrying about yourself and your performance, then that's what's really gonna elevate you to beat everybody else. I think my strength in all the sprints from one to four is my top end speed. I'm able to maintain my speed well and I have really good technique. My weakness, which I've been working on this whole year, my start, I'm just trying to hit the right angles. Sometimes I come a little too high or get out of my pushing angles too quickly and that affects my acceleration. I think my strength in the long jump is my landing is pretty solid and I have good speed, but my biggest weakness, and it's what's holding me back the most, sometimes I break at the boards. I'm bringing nine, nine speed through the runway and then slowing down to 10, four, 10, five speed right before I take off. So if I can just run through the board and bring that 100 meter speed through the whole thing, then I'll fly. High school, Coach Collier was my high school coach. Coach TJ and Margaret, they're my club coaches and summer coaches. I've been working with them since seventh, sixth grade. Coach Neighbors was my middle school coach. College right now, Coach Carroll is my sprints coach and Coach Thomas is a jumps coach. I really trust my coaches right now at the college level to get me to where I need to be. I still have great relationships with all my coaches that I've had in the past. I'll text them every once in a while. How's your team looking right now? My dad actually surprised me. We were at the hotel after the meet. It's an Olympic coin. It has a diamond on it in the middle. He told me, he said that he's gonna do everything he could to help me reach my dreams. And he just wanted me to have it to remember that. So it's really special to me. I'm friends with a lot of my competition. We all try to keep it light. So we all support each other. I have friends in the NCAA that I run against in the 200 who I'll text after they have a good meet. If I'm not there, I'll be like, good job, man. I saw you run well today. And then they'll do the same thing back to me. Some of my competitors were the ones who were the most happy for me after I won. I saw this comment on TikTok and it was, why aren't you in Tokyo? One of my friends was having like a bachelor party. And for that, he wanted to go skydiving. So we were on the way there and we stopped at Chick-fil-A. He goes, hey Matt, look, it's Tokyo. And I'm like, oh, that'd be so funny to take a picture next to. I've always kind of been like that, even at home. Like I'm kind of the jokester in the family. So I think just me being confident as an athlete is why I can kind of joke about that. Because I know I have so much left to give to the sport and I'm gonna only get faster. So maybe this didn't happen this year, but I'm telling you now I'm gonna come back August when the preseason starts and I'm gonna be working harder than anyone else to reach my dreams. So I can joke about it now, but once the season starts, like it's serious. Like it's up. I like golf because it's relaxing and it gets my mind off a track. When my mind's going 24-7, you just gotta have something to wind down with. My name's Colin Lark. I'm from Dallas, Texas. And I know Matthew because we used to be on the UGA track team my freshman year together. And I'm also from Easton, Texas. Me and Matthew went to the same high school and played Little League together. A lot of times I could see how people would like try to put on like a fake face, but he doesn't do that. Ever since I've known him, he's always been crazy, silly guy. He's a dog though, man. He's serious about track and getting better. And there's nothing else that comes before that. The third day of spring break, he made one of our friends laugh so hard he had to Heimlich maneuver him because he choked on a cheese ball. Saved a life that weekend. And like freshman year coming in, new state, like you don't know anyone. Like it's great to be able to make friends and like form that brotherhood early, especially since we all went to similar high schools. It's been great to have guys like this and all be able to stick together a little bit as outsiders. I'm gonna hit the target. Oh, over. That was just good. Kind of a solid contact there. I'm gonna hit the target. Oh yeah! The finesse jab. This one's going in right here. If you could go pro in any other sports, what track would it be? Basketball. And why? Basketball because I wish I was good at basketball. Can you dunk? Yeah, but I can't do a 360 windmill dunk. Oh, baby. Once you get to this level and you're running against other like elite athletes, it's really just staying focused on yourself and more focusing on your own performance. Favorite lane? Lane four or five because those are the fastest runners going those lanes. So that means I ran a good prelim and I'm feeling good. Least favorite lane? Lane one because it's the tightest curve. So you gotta really work that curve. I remember at SEC indoors, I didn't have my best race. Get sucked. I went home. I was upset for a day, but that Monday I was right back at the track working harder than I'd ever been working that whole year. And then two weeks later, I'm the national champion and I ran like a 0.2 second PR. Everyone wants to win every race, you know, but the reality is like, that's not gonna happen. You could have an off day, you could have an on day and whoever's next to you could just have an even better on day. It kind of is bittersweet realizing that. Bitter as in like, you're not gonna win every race, but sweet as in like, I'm at the level where people are actually watching me run and I have like the best people around me. What motivates me is my goals to get to the highest level I think I can get to. This year, I think one of the biggest motivations for me is nationals and the world team. Every year, I kind of think of what's at the end of the season. I love how much dedication it takes. You gotta work hard, not only on the track, but off the track. You gotta take care of your body, hydrate right, eat right. It's just a lifestyle and that really is what makes you great. That's been my dream since I was in sixth grade and I started. I always wanted to be running on TV and now like that's happening. My name is Matthew Bowling. Thank you for checking out my episode of No Days Off. Yeah.