NEW YORK — His track and field career was seemingly over. Everyone thought so, including Garrett Scantling himself.
In 2022, he was banned from competition for three years. It’s not that he failed a doping test, but he had a third whereabouts violation in 12 months.
That means failure to update or keep location data accurate for unannounced drug testing. He was already 29.
“To be honest with you, it got dark there for maybe a year,” Scantling said. “You can’t always have control over your life. Bad things are going to happen to you, and it’s all about how you respond.”
Good things happened to him Friday at the USA Championships. At age 33, in his first completed decathlon in more than four years, the University of Illinois assistant coach became a national champion — as he was in 2022 and 2021.
It allows for the possibility of Scantling — who once signed an NFL contract with the Atlanta Falcons — making it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics at age 35.
No one older than 31 has ever won an Olympic medal in the decathlon.
“Coming out here and doing what I needed to do to take care of business, that was huge for me,” Scantling said. “It’s all been a full-circle moment.
“But I have a lot more in the tank, and I think the next year is going to show that. I was just glad I could show a little bit of it on this track in New York.”
In two days of competition on Randall’s Island, Scantling scored 8,526 points, finishing in the top three in seven of 10 events.
Kyle Garland, bronze medalist at the 2025 World Championships, was second with 8,431.
Scantling won four events: long jump, 24 feet, 101/2 inches (7.58m); shot put, 52-83/4 (16.07m); 110-meter hurdles, 13.86 seconds; javelin, 205 feet (62.49m).
“I’m really just solid across the board,” he said. “I left a lot of points out there this competition. But getting back into competition shape is way different than just training, training, training.”
He said his “coming out party” could be 2027, when he aims to make the U.S. team for the World Championships at Beijing. There, he would meet all the would-be Olympians a year out from L.A.
“He’s like a 1985 Porsche with 50,000 miles,” Illini coach Petros Kyprianou said. “Which is a very old car, good car, but with very low miles. Still an old car, so it can break at any time.”
Garland said he is inspired by the likes of Scantling, Canada’s Damian Warner, who scored 8,802 last year at age 35; and Grenada’s Lindon Victor, who won Olympic bronze in 2024 at 31.
“They’re completely changing the game for us younger guys,” said Garland, who is 26. “So it gives guys like me hope to compete at the 2036 Olympics. I’ll be 36 that year.”
Champaign is home to what Scantling calls the best decathlon training group in the world, featuring five men who have scored more than 8,000 points.
Besides Scantling, there are Ayden Owens-Delerme, silver medalist at 2025 worlds; Heath Baldwin, silver medalist in the heptathlon at 2026 indoor worlds, and two Illini from the Netherlands, Jip de Greef and 19-year-old Luuk Pelkmans, with that duo placing third in the NCAAs indoors and outdoors, respectively.
Scantling and Kyprianou have been linked for 15 years. Kyprianou coached him at Georgia, coached him after college, hired him as an Illini coach in May 2025, and continues to coach him.
“He’s done a tremendous job with our guys, helping me with everything,” Kyprianou said. “He’s such a positive personality and role model.”
Scantling said Kyprianou was “always in my corner, no matter what.” The decathlete said he needed that support and was eager to reunite.
Scantling scored 8,867 points in winning the U.S. title in May 2022, a score that would have won a gold medal two months later at the World Championships. But he was suspended.
“Decathlon was my identity. That’s who I knew I was,” he said. “I was the world’s best decathlete when that happened.”
Thereafter, he returned to his high school, Episcopal School of Jacksonville, Fla. He coached track, football and girls’ weightlifting. It was better than therapy.
“I think that just made me realize there’s way more to life than track and field,” Scantling said. “Giving back and teaching, just understanding I have so much more to give. Having that perspective alone made it so much easier to come back.”
It’s a comeback that is seemingly far from over.
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