David Wilson’s football career may be over, but his greatest athletic achievements may still lay ahead of him.
The former Giants running back, who retired this month because of a serious neck injury, confirmed he is soon beginning full-time training to compete in track and field, focusing on the triple jump.
The super speedy Wilson won the national championship in the event in high school and continued competing at Virginia Tech, where he was named an All-American in 2011 and finished sixth at the NCAA Championships, jumping 53 feet, 1.74 inches, which would have put him in 11th place in the 2012 Olympics.
Now, with all of his efforts devoted to the triple jump, the 23-year-old is hoping to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
“That’s where I want to go,” Wilson told The Post on Monday at Citi Field, before speaking to local children from the Citi Kids program. “It’s like playing football. You don’t grow up wanting to play in the Canadian League. Everyone wants to play in the NFL. That’s the mindset I have. I want to compete in the best meets. I’m excited to get back into it.”
Wilson said he will begin serious training in about a week at Virginia Tech, where he will train with his former track coach, Charles Foster. The Virginia native, who left Blacksburg after his junior season and was drafted by the Giants in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft, said he also will finish his undergraduate degree while training.
Though Wilson has had just two weeks to adjust to life without football, he said the transition has been eased by the fact he never wrapped up his identity solely in his talents as a running back.
“I never really looked at myself as a football player,” Wilson said. “I looked at myself as a person that’s good at football and good at a lot of the other stuff. Having that transition is not really that hard to do. I just looked at myself as a competitor.
“When I got the news that I got, it wasn’t easy, but if you dwell on the negative, you’re not taking steps to making yourself feel better. I look it as you got to take it and roll with it and don’t try to fight it because that’s kind of pointless.”
Though Wilson will never score another touchdown or break another tackle for a first down, he said he’s glad to be able to do a lot of things that other former NFL players can’t do when they retire.
“That’s the positive about it, that I’m not in any pain,” Wilson said. “I didn’t leave the game on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. I don’t need crutches or a cane to help me. I can still do what I want to do. I’m still in the mindset where I want to compete at a high level.”