Until last year, Tejaswin did not consider decathletes as athletes. He felt they were "average athletes who weren't even good in one discipline." But a bet with a friend saw him try it out and now he is India's best decathlete on current form, along with being India's best high jumper of all times.
He's already achieved the qualification mark for Asian Games, in only the second time he participated in a decathlon. And he hopes to balance both, no small task in athletics.
Tejaswin sees decathlon as a means to solidify his high jump prowess. While the decathlon helps him push his limits and satisfies his need to "do more", the high jump remains his forte.
"It's hand in hand, one goes with the other," he tells ESPN.
"I rely heavily on the high jump to score big points in the decathlon because I'm not going to score the same number of points in the pole vault as compared to somebody who has had more experience in that. So to offset that, I need the high jump to score massive points over the field. Logically, how can I not do the high jump and just focus on the decathlon without having a good high jump?" he says.
Last week, Tejaswin scored 7,648 points at the Jim Click Shootout competition in Arizona, USA - missing Bharatinder Singh's 2011 national record by a mere 10 points.
The 24-year-old already holds the high jump national record of 2.29m and won his career's biggest medal yet - bronze at the Commonwealth Games - last year. A medal which he says was a defining moment for him, especially considering the drama that surrounded his participation.
"In hindsight, everything feels great, but what would have happened if I had not won a medal? That's a story I don't want to think about. I was lucky to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, otherwise it would have been a hard couple of months, not just for me but for my family members too because they would have to deal with a grumpy TJ all the time."
"I feel nobody should go through those things. That being said, it's behind us and hopefully, there's a more systematic way of selecting athletes going ahead," he says of the legal battle he had to fight with the Athletics Federation of India for his selection.
Even now, though he's gone past the AFI's qualification standard of 7,500 for the Asian Games, he remains wary. "I don't know if it's the qualification mark or not because anything can change overnight. I think we operate differently than all other countries," he says with a hint of sarcasm.
Tejaswin has been working in the US with Deloitte since graduating from Kansas State University but is planning on moving back to India. He's likely to move in June, just in time to compete at the Federation Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar.
He also has plans to shift base from New Delhi "because I can't be eating chhole bhature every day" to the Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary, Karnataka to go full throttle in his training.
For now, has a gruelling schedule that sees him train for the 10 disciplines through six days each week. He then makes the two-hour drive from Kansas City to Manhattan every Friday to work with his coach over the weekend. All to see the big changes in his game.
"Over time I've realized that my motivation comes from doing multiple things and being successful in those. I'm not excited by making marginal improvements, but big improvements that can lead to better performances. It's really hard for me to dial in on that one per cent improvement because I can't see those changes."
This is the same mindset that pushes him to pursue decathlon.
Nothing more satisfying than finishing a decathlon. Taking home a new PB of 7648 today ! 😊🇮🇳 #decathlon #multis pic.twitter.com/8I0kcCbMVk
- Tejaswin Shankar (TJ) (@TejaswinShankar) April 8, 2023
"My goal was to see what I can do outside of the high jump to improve my athletic ability and that's how I started doing events like long jump, hurdles because they have really good carryover into the high jump as well. I needed to do something else to get physically stronger, faster and fitter because that's what will eventually matter at the high jump," he says.
"The second reason I switched to decathlon was that we Indians are known to be the hardest workers. So I was like how are we not doing something like the decathlon? I was like I need to put India on the map for the decathlon. If we are the hardest workers, then I think the decathlon should be the easiest event for Indians, right? So that's also why I got into it."
Of course, he has now realised that decathlon is not about being average in everything, but about being really good in 10 events, "which is extremely hard to do," he says.
Tejaswin talks about the numerous variables that play a role in a single event like the high jump and how that is multiplied into 10 when you're competing in a decathlon. "Just think about how many things can go wrong over two days and 10 events. I think the biggest thing for me was to put all that together and go through it because this is one of the only events when you see the highest number of dropout rates. After all, there's so much to do over two days."
One of these events is the javelin, a discipline in which his good friend Neeraj Chopra is the Olympic champion. But he wants to wait before he calls on him for a few tips... wait till he crosses the 50-meter mark at least.
"I think I'll only send him a video once I get over 50m, abhi toh bezzati ho jayegi [I'll be embarrassed if I send him a video now]. But eventually, I plan on sending some videos, once I reach a certain level. Otherwise, it's going to be humiliating for me, and he will not leave a chance to mock me," Tejaswin says amidst splits of laughter.
Until he reaches that level, he has his hands full with ten different disciplines, a process he has now grown to enjoy and appreciate.