“Lost part of me a year ago, still searching to put it back in place,” Cordell Tinch wrote on social media in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was tightening its grip on the world. The Wisconsin native went back home to Green Bay after leaving school, and what followed was a three-year break from the tracks. At the Tokyo World Championships, however, Tinch had finally found his place: On top of the podium. Indeed, it was a revelation to himself.
Edging out the likes of Tyler Mason and Orlando Bennett and posting a staggering 12.99 on the clock, Tinch claimed gold in the men’s 110m hurdles at the Japanese capital. While for most athletes, such triumph only comes from sweating it out for years on the tracks, Cordell believes it was his time away from sports that helped him etch his name among the elites. In an X post by NBC’s Travis Miller from September 16, the Minnesota alum’s emotional words after the race were shared.
On being asked how he felt the break helped him, Cordell, grinning, said, “I think that without me finding myself, without me stepping away from sports in 2019-2020, to be able to find myself, I don’t think I would have found myself on the top of the podium in 2025.” It was evident that while talking about his long break between 2020 and 2023, memories were rushing back.
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During that period, Cordell worked several odd jobs, including installing cables, selling mobile phones, and operating machinery that made toilet paper. But that was also the time when Tinch finally found his calling. “Being able to step away from sports in general, kind of living through things that I don’t wanna do, you know. I don’t wanna sell phones, I don’t want to work on paper mills, I want to have my own hours, be able to work toward something as a goal,” the truth revealed itself to the track star.
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