A promise made after illness turns Garrett Appier into a champion

For two months, Garrett Appier couldn’t figure out why he was so tired all the time. It felt as if he had the flu, only without all the symptoms. He could sleep for 12 hours a day and still be exhausted. His grades started to suffer and the semester he was supposed to spend redshirting to train as a shot putter at Pittsburg State University was being wasted. His skin turned a pale white and pain was coursing through his bloodstream.

“Shrapnel,” Appier describes it, “shoots through your body.”

Eventually, doctors found the cause: EFE hereditary haemochromatosis, a condition resulting from excess iron. The pain was the result of the excess iron balling up in his blood.

He still has to maintain the condition, even if he’s not actively battling it. Usually it just means a few routine check-ups and blood drawing. The effects that linger, instead, are the memories of how his friends, family and coaches took care of him during his moment of confusion and frustration.

“I just felt like I kind of owed everyone something and I didn’t know another way to do it than to get good at something,” Appier said, “and the only thing I could at the time was shot put.”

Appier’s redshirt athletic year, which had him sit out the spring semester of his sophomore year and fall semester of his junior school years. He returned for the outdoor season of his junior year and finished fourth at the national championship. Last year, he claimed his first national title and Sunday he completed one of the most remarkable seasons in Division II history, claiming his second straight national championship in Bradenton. He didn’t just break his Division II record with a put of 20.37 meters — he holds each of the top 10 spots in the Division II record book.

Appier, who graduated from Pittsburg State this month, will try to make more history next month. The 23-year-old has the sixth-best distance in the country this season and will compete in United States Olympic Trials on July 1 in Eugene, Ore. The top three finishers qualify for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“He’s just always been a hard worker,” assistant coach Brian Mantooth said. “This year he really committed himself even more than he did in the past.”

Appier, who is now 6 feet, 5 inches and 250 pounds, didn’t make the baseball team at Park Hill South High School in Missouri as a freshman. But his athletic ability was obvious — “I was fat, but I was quick,” he said — so he went to the track and field team. He moved to Kansas midway through his junior year and as a senior at Paola High School he won a state championship. He never cracked any national rankings, though, and made his way to Pittsburg State, where it would still take him two more years before he finally showed major progress.

“It’s taken a long time to get to where I’m at,” Appier said.

For a year and a half he was, self-admittedly, mediocre until his condition limited him even more. Even when he returned for the indoor season, he only finished ninth at the national championship before he finally broke through for a medal in the spring. By then, his battle with haemochromatosis had slid to the background.

“It’s just something I have to live with,” Appier said, “and obviously it hasn’t stopped me.”

He now has the next month to dedicate himself fully to qualifying for an unlikely Olympic berth. He’s in the conversation, even if it is as a longshot.

“He’s got a shot,” Mantooth said. “He’s going to have to throw 21 meters, but I think he could’ve thrown 21 meters today.”

This story was originally published May 28, 2016 at 11:31 PM with the headline "A promise made after illness turns Garrett Appier into a champion."