For Babicka, the Pursuit of Excellence Knows No Bounds
Balance in mind, body and soul makes it possible
Mike Brohard
Somewhere down the road, she will narrow it down. Maybe work with artificial organs or pick an avenue which allows her to work in athletics with an interest in regeneration.
At Colorado State, an engineering degree means a pair of majors, with Tereza Babicka focused on biomedical and mechanical engineering. As a multi on the track team, the regeneration aspect would come in handy right about now, thanks to the wear and tear her body goes through during the season, one event to the next.
Who knows, she might just find a way to build the perfect multi in a lab somewhere.
“I’ve never thought about that,” the native of Budejovice, Czech Republic said.
And then she did.
“A multi who would have no inflammation, pretty good height, great body type, some strong heart, good lungs, spectacular knees and shins, because those are pretty common issues that just show up during a big load,” she rattled off. “Yeah, and a huge motivation.”
That last part she could simply draw from her own DNA. She willingly chooses to do the hard things. Her major, for which she carries a perfect 4.0 GPA. Her track and field calling, which asks for a little bit of everything and doing it at level which has made her a Mountain West placer and one of the top performers in Colorado State history.
Finding motivation isn’t a problem for her. Finding time can be a challenge.
“The girl is amazing. I mean, come on. She's excelling in school, and she's excelling on the track,” said Klaire Kovatch, a thrower on the team as well as a shopping buddy. “And I know her at a level where I see all the little things that she does in order to do that. Everyone else sees, ‘oh, Tereza got awarded for her academics, and oh, she is on the podium at conference, too.’
“But being her friend, I know how much work it takes for her to do that. She is committed to her nutrition, her sleep, practicing her habits with managing her time as far as when she does homework, when she makes time for herself, when she makes time for recovery, makes time to call her family because her family's overseas, and she can't just call them whenever she wants because it's of the time of difference. Every minute of the day, that girl is busy.”
Her lifestyle definitely requires some focus. Tracking what comes next, prioritizing tasks when they start to stack together and deadlines must be met. She won’t do any of it without the full intention of excelling at whatever is in front of her.
She lacks a car but not drive. That’s why Kovatch is in charge of when and where they go grocery shopping on the weekend. They talk about what they’re going to make for the week, share recipe ideas and just chatter about any subject on their minds. Time well spent with a friend, someone who walks in the same shoes, just not always to the same place considering their events.
“Sometimes I don't feel like a normal person, trying to balance everything, and it's a lot. I just think about it differently,” Babicka said. “It all comes to mental health and the strength that a person has.
“But just focusing on my goals depending on where I'm at. If it's school, I imagine the future that I'm working towards. Even though sometimes it's hard when the classes just don't align with what I'm trying to do. But the same with track, when I get to practice and make sure my thoughts are at practice or I do my best to switch.”
Her idea in life is to keep looking forward, not just at what is on the schedule, but the next achievement on the horizon. Which is what CSU multis coach Marshall Ackley wants her to do when she’s working on her athletic craft.
“She is very, very competitive. My goal as a coach -- and it's one of my challenges with her -- is to kind of take the rear-view mirror aspect out,” Ackley said. “Stop looking at the past, look at what's in front of you. She has immense capabilities, and she is extremely driven. But I think there's a level that she's now getting to where it's self-realization, of, ‘wow, I am actually good. I actually am strong. I'm fast. I can put this stuff together.’ Where before it was, since there was a lot of inconsistencies, I don't know if she believed it as much. And now she's starting to really believe that, OK, I can make this happen.”
Looking at the results, she’s been pushing her scores upward in her time as a Ram. She has finished third in the pentathlon the past two Mountain West Outdoor Championships, ranking sixth at the school with a score of 5,342. Competing in pentathlon indoors the past two seasons she has placed third at conference each season, her score of 3,896 ranking fourth.
Her goal for the indoor season, which begins for Colorado State this Saturday at the Wyoming Invitational, is to become the third Ram to hit the 4,000-point mark. There’s a symmetry to the number there, one which would match her GPA.
I feel, yeah, the challenge keeps me alive.Tereza Babicka
One she will freely talk about, the other, not so much.
“I think that it's just pushing myself and exploring how much my body can accomplish. And I really like the challenge about it because we always count even the multis that don't do well, but they're done,” she said. “Like finishing a multi is an achievement on its own. And I like the variety of training. I would probably get bored if I specialized in one.”
That came to her naturally. She explained it was part of training as a young athlete back home. Her coaches required versatility over specialization, a way of expanding the mind as well as keeping the body fresh and well trained.
She likes hurdles, and she ranks in the top 10 in both individual events indoors at CSU. She ranks in the top 10 indoors and outdoors in the long jump. Those little tidbits are what Ackley preaches to her in proving to her she’s capable of more than what she believes.
For a coach, sometimes the hardest step is getting the athlete to believe what the coach sees.
“I think the biggest thing has been having those off-practice conversations of, here are the numbers. The numbers do not lie. And here are your numbers,” he said. “Look how they match up. I think that when you're talking about nationals in that regard, there's an Everest-type mentality that athletes put in their brain. We all want it, but it seems so far away that we possibly can't do that.
“But they realize the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. I'm no longer starting from scratch. I'm starting from mile 900. I’ve only got a couple more to go. And for her, it's getting that realization of, ‘OK, I might not be the Colorado State or the Mountain West or the nation's best long jumper or hurdler or whatever it is, but when I put all that into the multi, what I can do is I can be one of the best in the country in my event. And I think as a multi, the thing that she has done incredibly well with is identifying as a multi. For most of us, it's, ‘I'm a jumper that does the multi. I'm a sprinter that does the multi.’ For her, she's a multi through and through from upbringing to now.”
She’s also a human with emotions, an athlete with sore muscles, an academia whose brain can feel overloaded with information. Ackley loves it when she talks about her major and what she’s doing in class. No, he doesn’t understand any of it, but he finds it fascinating what fascinates her.
Every now and then, she needs a break, and she’s pretty good at identifying those moments. It may mean she sets the books aside and does some yoga. She gets her fix of home walking to class while talking to her family.
Give her some time, she’ll travel. She’s seen a lot of Europe and would like to see more. She’s getting familiar with American ways and holidays, having spent the Thanksgiving break with Kovatch and her family in Montana.
“It was awesome. I got to relax and walk in the forest and see some deer and have an awesome Thanksgiving meal with an amazing family,” Babicka said. “Thanksgiving is new to me. I do really enjoy it. I think it reminds me a lot of Christmas, but without the chaos of presents.”
Ackley, who joined the staff last year, has given Babicka permission to ask for time off if she ever feels overwhelmed in school. To this date, she’s never taken him up on the offer, though she is grateful for the invitation. She is particularly thankful for her professors, the ones who challenge her and help her work through the real-world hurdles of being a student-athlete on the road.
Babicka will not tell you she’s mastered any of it, but has found a comfortable landing spot, allowing her to handle the stress of trying to excel in two different arenas. The way Kovatch views her friend is she has found balance.
“I think that for student-athletes who are chasing, quote, perfection, it can be hard to give yourself grace and say, ‘this is my best work, we're going to go with it, and I'm satisfied with what I've done,’” Kovatch said. “But I think that most of the time she finds that, which is absolutely great.”
What she’ll never yield is the chase of excellence. Her academic record is a point of pride; one she doesn’t really talk about around others. But at Colorado State, in coach Brian Bedard’s program, she’s found a group of likeminded teammates.
It’s about getting better. It’s about chasing championships, individually and as a team. So you find a way to remain hydrated and rested in an event where five events may occur all in one day, or seven of them over the course of two.
Find a way to do it all. Take on two challenges and excel at both.
“I feel, yeah, the challenge keeps me alive,” she said.
One day, it may lead her to build the perfect athlete in a lab. For now, she’s fine with building the one she is becoming.
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