Howe It Will Be

This weekend, American born Andrew Howe will attempt to long jump to gold for his adopted Italy. The 23-year-old phenomenon won silver at the '07 world championships in Osaka, Japan by leaping a personal best, 8.47 meters. The night before the event, his mother (Howe's coach and former '84 Olympic hopeful), Renee' Felton, had a vision. Unbeknown to her son, Felton wrote the exact distance of his jump inside his track shoes, and upon seeing the result posted both went into trance like states.

Mother and son have been immutable partners in 'athletics' since a four-year-old Andrew followed her lead around the track in the children's 200 meter at Santa Monica community college -- finishing first with a time of 58.4 seconds.

In Italy, where Howe serves in the Air Force, he's quickly approaching rock star status. His chiseled body, biracial good looks (he has a Caucasian father and an African and Native American mother) and athletic prowess have landed him endorsement deals, television appearances and magazine covers. This year alone Howe has graced the cover of Italy's Vanity Fair twice, the most recent being this moth's August cover photographed by PAPER lens man Richard Phibbs. Howe is also ranked number 36 in this month’s Time Magazine's list of "100 Olympic Athletes to Watch." To add to his pop culture appeal, Howe also plays drums in the heavy metal band, Craiving. A rocker athlete with fashion model looks... Christiano Renaldo and David Beckham be on notice!

I crossed paths with Howe earlier this year in his native Los Angeles, where he was in training for the Beijing Olympics. After a morning work out, we chatted briefly in the stands at UCLA's track stadium.

How far do you think you can jump?
I want to be the first man to jump 30 feet.

What's the worst thing about being a professional athlete?
[That's] hard to think about because I really like being a professional athlete. Let see... there are times when we don't want to get up in the morning and spit out blood to do what you gotta do. Other times you're like "This is what I was born to do, and I like doing it." So you just go out and do it... it's kind of a situation where you like pain. I don't think there is anybody in sports that doesn't like pain.

Is that why you're in a metal band?
That's probably why I'm in a hardcore metal band and listen to Metallica, Def Tones, Nine Inch Nails and new bands like Under Oath, The Agony Scene and As I Lay Dying; which is one of my favorite new bands... I could go on 'cause I got about 1,000 songs on my iPod.

Speaking of which, what's on your training and competition playlists?
My playlist starts off really hard so I can wake up. Then [it] goes to a song called "Wings of Mary" from Tool's 10,000 Days. I pretty much listen to that song before I begin a race... it puts me in the mood of going out there and conquering.

How do you think you'll do in the Olympics?
I think I'm gonna win. That's what I'm training for, and I'm confident in what I can do. My goal is to win.

To find out "Howe" it turns out. visit NBCOlympics.com for a complete viewing schedule and results.

Photographs by Phil Smrek