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Inside the Family Room
Learn more about Reese Hoffa in the Family Room, or watch videos of the athletes and their families as they prepare for the Olympics.
 
Olympic redux
The 2008 Beijing Olympics will be the second in Hoffa's career. In Athens, Hoffa finished 22nd in pre-Olympic qualifying. He entered the 2004 Games that year as the second-ranked U.S. Olympian. This time, he will go into the Olympics as the prohibitive favorite, having won the shot put at the Olympic Trials in Eugene.

Outdoor bonanza
There is a certain amount of pressure that goes along with being an American shot putter. U.S. throwers have claimed 10 of the last 18 Olympic medals since 1984. But that pressure hasn't gotten to Hoffa. At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, he and training partner Adam Nelson went 1-2 in the shot put, with Hoffa winning his first World gold. "Just being an American shot putter there's a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations," Hoffa said. "For me to finally win my first outdoor championship, I don't think I could have picked a better setting. I think I was just ready."

Incredible indoors
Hoffa enjoyed the finest indoor season of his career in 2006, highlighted by his victories at the AT&T USA Indoor Championships in Boston and the World Indoor Championships in Moscow. At the World Indoor Championships, he unleashed a massive world-leading and personal-best heave of 22.11m (72-6 ½), which placed him #8 on the all-time indoor list and made him the fourth-best indoor performer all-time. That performance propelled him to the #1 ranking in the world by Track & Field News for the first time in his career.

The turkey trot
After winning the 2007 World Outdoor title, Reese Hoffa carried a flag in one hand and an enormous turkey leg in the other as he attempted to run a victory lap around the stadium in Osaka. The turkey trot around the stadium has become a tradition for Hoffa, who started the custom in 2000 as a junior at Georgia after winning the Drake Relays. In order to get an autograph, the fan has to do him a favor, and hold his turkey leg as he signs. "It's a nice way to say hello to the fans and sign autographs," Hoffa said. "I love to have fun. I'm kind of a clown anyway."

Jose Luis Roca/Getty Images

Reese Hoffa at the World Indoor Championships.

The great ‘Unknown' no more
In 2003, Reese Hoffa was so anonymous that he dubbed himself "The Unknown Shot Putter" and competed at the 2003 Home Depot Invitational in a black mask with a red "X" on it to conceal his face, ala professional wrestling. By 2004, he had opened eyes by becoming a legitimate force on the shot putting circuit. At the 2004 Home Depot Invitational, he recorded a personal best throw of 21.64m (71-1), and went on to win a silver medal at the 2004 World Indoor Championships. "I'm becoming more and more known," Hoffa said. "But it's really hard to be one of the top names because there are so many good people. Adam Nelson and John Godina (the 1996 Olympic silver medalist) are legends. These are the guys that paved the way for someone like myself to do something. Until I do what they've done, I don't deserve the right to be known as a 'known' thrower. They've done so much."

From Athens to Athens
A University of Georgia graduate, Hoffa still trains on the Athens, Ga., campus with 2000 and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Adam Nelson. Hoffa says the arrival of Nelson prior to the 2002 season was a huge help for him. Hoffa was an NCAA Outdoor All-American at Georgia in 2000 and 2001, and also won an SEC Championship in 2001. He graduated from Georgia in 2001 with a degree in Health and Physical Education.

Nice call, Coach Mac
When Hoffa was in eighth grade, his future high school coach told him he would never be any good in shot put. But once in high school, Hoffa won consecutive state championships under "Coach Mac." Hoffa also wrestled and played football and baseball in high school.

Family reunion
When Hoffa was 4-years-old, he and his older brother Lamont were left at a Louisville orphanage by their mother Diana Chism, an unmarried teenager ill-equipped to raise two young boys on her own. About 18 months later, Hoffa was separated from Lamont when he was adopted by Stephen and Cathy Hoffa. In 1990, Chism married Mark Watts and resumed a search for her young son. A decade later, Hoffa, then a college senior at Georgia, began a search for his birth mother and his brother. By chance, he stumbled across a posting from Chism-Watts on the website adopt-assist.com. After 19 years apart, the two were reunited in 2000.