The University of Iowa track and field team’s new assistant coach Hadrien Choukroun experienced an eye-opening journey to Iowa City.

Choukroun was raised in Paris, France, before heading off to college and competing as a decathlete for two years at Benedict College, an HBCU in South Carolina. After he graduated in 2011, he served as an assistant coach at Benedict.

Along his journey from Paris to Iowa City, Choukroun not only learned the importance of self-improvement as an athlete but also the ability to develop athletes as a coach.

While he was a student athlete, Choukroun experienced one distinct learning moment in the spring of 2011. Frank Hyland, the Benedict men’s track and field coach, suggested he take six steps on his approach to the first hurdle, and Choukroun was in disbelief.

Choukroun argued with his superior about the biomechanical elements of the suggestion. He had studied the subject in France and insisted that he should only take four steps.

“I’m leaving practice and I was like, ‘Why are you arguing with your coach?’ Choukroun said. “‘You’re running 16 seconds, you’re the slowest hurdler you can be. You might as well try something new because you can’t be slower than you already are.’ But it took me all the way to being in the U.S., to having that stupid argument to be like, ‘Look, you just suck. Anything can’t be worse, so you might as well try something new.’”

He eventually adopted Hyland’s instruction and improved his time in hurdles by over half a second. That improvement opened his eyes.

Choukroun always wanted to be a P.E. teacher. When he finally got his master’s degree at 24 years old, he decided to change paths and pursue personal training and business management.

At Benedict, he met his wife, Priscilla. He said he felt the university embraced him for who he was and allowed him to feel comfortable.

“First I fell in love with African American culture, the language, the way they relate to sports,” Choukroun said. “I felt like I could be myself there, and I never felt that anywhere else. And I think that was part of the African American culture, where they take people for who they are and emphasize what’s good in you and try to develop that.”

He also explained how overthinking was a detriment to his growth as an athlete. To alleviate that, Hyland placed Choukroun in an environment where he didn’t have to think: 5 a.m. practices.

 “And then [Hyland] put me in cross country, just to get me in shape,” Choukroun said. “I was training with the cross country team, and when you’re running a mile six to eight times with a 90-second rest on the cross country course at 5 a.m., you have to learn how to disconnect your brain. With that mindset, I was able to accomplish things I never thought I could’ve.”

Choukroun described how being at a small school like Benedict made him recognize his complacency. In turn, he realized he could improve.

“I had success early on in my career as an athlete, and so I had put myself at this level that, ‘I’m good,’ and was ignoring the fact that I wasn’t good anymore,” Choukroun said. “So, going to an HBCU and a team that didn’t necessarily have as many resources as a school like the University of Iowa, and seeing my teammates being able to perform way better than I did … At the end of the day, it’s your performance and your numbers that talk about who you are as an athlete, and so I was able to humble myself.”

Choukroun graduated from Benedict in fall 2011. While he was no longer eligible to be on the track team, he was still on scholarship for the rest of the year.

Still wanting to contribute to the team, Choukroun asked Hyland if he could help with coaching. On his very first day as a coach, the team ran time trials, and he was sure that he had found his passion.

“I could feel myself getting so excited about getting ready for a championship,” Choukroun said. “I’m trying to get them ready to win a championship. The excitement I felt that day, that was my calling; this is the job that I want to do.”

As an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin State University from 2018-22, Choukroun led the women’s team to outdoor titles in the Western Athletic Conference in spring 2022. At Stephen F. Austin, Choukroun learned how to focus on developing athletes rather than simply signing the best ones out of high school.

“You can’t count only on those high-profile recruits because that’s not enough to win a championship,” Choukroun said. “I learned how to develop athletes, which had never been difficult because in France I had coached kids 5-10 years old. You really have to break it down to very raw kids, so when you get a very raw young athlete from Texas that’s 18 years old, it’s very similar.”

Choukroun learned about the Hawkeyes’ program just three years ago. Choukroun hopes to use his experience as a decathlete in track to help the men’s team achieve the same success as it did during the indoor season last year.

“Those little feedbacks that I’ve experienced myself that I can pass on, you know, how to manage your emotions, how to manage your nutrition, and having done it, it’s good,” Choukroun said. “I want to continue the success the men had. I think we have a team that can potentially be top five in the country if everything goes properly. And then try to get the women’s team in a direction to also be a conference champion team and also be a top 25 program in the country.”