Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 4 | March 2018

30 Inside Hokie Sports • • • • EO Employer: M/W/Vets/Disabled “That was really frustrating,” Laidig said. “That whole indoor season, something was missing. I was in really good shape, and I think I could have jumped higher, but it just never happened at the meets that we went to. “After indoor was over, I had two really good weeks of practice, where things started to click, and it resulted in me jumping 5.70 [meters] at the Texas Relays. So I was super happy about that, but five days later, the following Thursday, I had a really good practice, and on my third or fourth jump, I broke my pole.” The injury took him out right when he was vaulting his best. His 5.70-meter vault (18 feet, 8.25 inches) at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas set the school’s outdoor record and the ACC record and also qualified him for the 2017 World Championships. So he not only missed the Hokies’ outdoor season, but the injury also wiped out his opportunity to represent Germany at the World Championships held last summer in London. Now in his final season, he hopes to make the most of a final opportunity. He nearly won his third ACC gold medal when he vaulted 5.50 meters at the recent ACC Indoor Championships, but teammate Deakin Volz vaulted the same and edged him on progressions. In ACC competition, teammates have been his biggest competition. Guys like former teammate Chris Uhle and Volz have kept Laidig from mining more ACC gold. “I think that competitiveness is really important to push each other and jump high, push each other to the next level and get every little bit of energy out of you during workouts,” Laidig said. “I think it’s very beneficial. It’s something I didn’t have in Germany, and it’s also one big reason why I came here, just because everything is so competitive, and joining a competitive team, I knew I was going to get that every day. “I think everybody who’s been here has made me better—Chris [Uhle], Jeff Linta, Brad Johnson, Jared Allison—  all those guys have really made me a better athlete. All of them have their strengths and things that they’re better at than me. Obviously, I’m trying to reach their level in whatever they’re better at. Like James Steck, he was a really good gymnast, and I’m trying to get to his level when it comes to gymnastics. Chris is really fast. Joel [Benitez, a current teammate] is really fast. Obviously when we’re doing sprints, I’m trying to beat them at practice, and I think that really helps to just push myself and push them to the next level. I think that’s a big reason why we’ve been so successful as a pole vault team over the years.” Laidig plans to keep vaulting once he departs Virginia Tech in May, with an eye toward the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He may find it difficult to work in practice time, though, considering he’s set to enroll in medical school in Germany later this summer. Laidig not only embraced the challenge of being a student-athlete at Tech, but also welcomed the opportunity to pursue two degrees in tough fields—  biological sciences and biochemistry. He arguably has spent more time in labs or doing undergraduate research than on the track, and yet he rarely complained. “I’ve always been interested in science,” Laidig said. “I went to a biotechnological high school that put a big focus on sciences. I’ve always been interested in it, and with me wanting to go to med school, it was just something that I wanted to do. “I just like how the human body works. It’s kind of related to sports, I guess. It’s just something that interests me, and in the long term, I want to be able to help people as a doctor, and in order to do that, you’ve got to have an in-depth understanding of how the human body functions.” Of course, Laidig’s staying in the United States would meet with approval from Tech coaches, teammates and friends who would want to see him on a more regular basis. And for sure, the U.S. features O N A N U P W A R D T R A J E C T O R Y Continued from page 28