Athlete of the Issue: Christian Curatolo ‘21

Curatolo talks about having winter track during a pandemic and looking ahead towards the spring season

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Although he is committed to Lehigh for football, Curatolo is a member of the track and field team in the winter and spring.

“I throw the shot put for the field team in both seasons,” Curatolo said. “I throw with Hans Kiernan and we’re the only senior throwers on the team.” 

Like other sports, track and field has been affected by COVID, but Throwing Coach Erik Miller has been trying to keep practices outdoors to aid safety.  

“If it’s nice out we go out to the throwing area we have and we do some warm ups,” Curatolo stated. “We throw the 12 pound balls and it’s a good time to talk with the guys from a safe distance.”

Curatolo said Miller makes the practices engaging while preparing the throwers for their meets.

“We like to have some practice meets that get put in our schedule and those are fun,” Curatolo stated. “On Fridays or Thursdays, we would play this game called Medball where you’re trying to see who can throw the med ball the farthest. We do that for about an hour or so and then we lift for about an hour or an hour and a half inside.” 

The team has been able to compete at meets at the Glen Mills School this winter, where Curatolo throws for Malvern.

“Meets are every other Friday night, same as the track team. But it’s usually at the start of the meet. We warm up and do our usual stuff and if there are a lot of people there are different flights, or groups,” Curatolo said. “There are usually two different flights. I’m normally in the second flight, so I get to stay for a little bit and watch the first flight and it’s cool to watch other people throughout the meet. And then the top seven or six throwers will go to the finals and battle it out from there.”

Curatolo, along with some other members of the track team, competed at a much larger-scale meet in Virginia earlier in the season.

“I had a great experience in Virginia with Ryan Rosenberger ’21  and Collin Hess ’21. When I heard there was an opportunity to go down there, I hopped right on it. We were at a huge complex with national qualifiers there,” he said. “I didn’t end up having my best meet, but I drove down there in the morning and had to get right out of the car and throw. I was tired from that six hour car drive, but it was a great experience.”

Curatolo is excited to close out his shot put career at Malvern in the spring.

“I’m really looking forward to getting outside without snowstorms,” he stated. “I’m excited to hopefully get good weather to close out the year.”