Matthew Boling’s viral track videos are turning him into a mainstream sports celebrity.
Boling, the record-breaking sprinter who is headed this summer to UGA on a track scholarship, was featured this week in an article by People Magazine.
And that’s not all. Boling stories have also recently appeared in the New York Post, CBS News, Deadspin, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, the London Daily Mail, NJ.com, USA Today, Reuters, and the Australian news wire, along with traditional sports media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, and Yahoo Sports, among others.
That’s the sort of media publicity usually only reserved for Olympic-winning track athletes. What’s next for Boling? An invitation to appear as a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars?”
What’s really crazy about “Boling mania” is that he is still finishing up his senior year of high school at Houston’s Strake Jesuit. In other words, we’re probably at the very beginning of it.
Why all the hype? For mainstream, it’s definitely the videos more than the actual track times or money quotes from Boling.
It’s like watching short clips from the “Avenger” movies when Boling uses his superhero-like skills to walk down an opposing runner from 20 yards behind as the anchor leg in the 4×400 relays to win the state championship. Or run the second-fastest time in the entire world this year in the 100 meters (even though it was wind-aided).
Track and Field News called Boling a “legend” in Texas high school sports this week; while that word always needs to used very carefully, it seems to be a very accurate description of Boling.
To his credit, Boling has handled himself very well so far in the ever-growing media spotlight. The Olympic hopeful will report to the Bulldogs later this summer.
Despite the grand accomplishments of UGA’s men program with winning its first national championship last summer, Boling’s arrival will surely provide the Bulldogs with unprecedented media attention to benefit the SEC program for years.
