Elite thrower Kade McCall is a “queer, tatted, septum piercing barista” who can exert 300 pounds of force
Kade McCall is a walking contradiction. And that's just the way the hulking thrower likes it.
Mark
Kade McCall is a walking contradiction. And that’s just the way he likes it.
The hulking hammer thrower hails from Idaho and tosses a 16-pound metal ball. Factoring in velocity, throwers exert up to 300 pounds of force to heave the ball forward. To gear up for each toss, they run around in circles.
McCall says he used to throw up all the time. Then he got used to being on an indefinite roller coaster. “That’s the thing about hammer,” he tells Queerty. “It’s the hardest but the easiest thing at the same time.”
A track & field standout at Kansas State, McCall competed in his final NCAA meet this spring. He finished with a PR and placed No. 4 for the men’s team overall, the highest finish for a K-State athlete since the 1950s. In his final season, the 24-year-old earned NCAA First Team All-American honors.
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Now competing professionally, McCall is gearing up for a series of meets this summer. But more immediately, the double kinesiology and integrated physiology major, who also has a masters in nutrition, has to tend to his 20-some odd plants.
McCall may come off as an intimidating presence. But deep down, the bonafide plant dad says he most identifies as a “gay, queer, tatted, septum piercing barista.”
For his day job, McCall works at a local coffee house in Manhattan, Kansas. He fits the stereotype to a tee: over the last three months, he’s gotten six tattoos.
We told you… he likes to stand out!
In between practice (and tattoo) sessions, Queerty recently caught up with McCall to chat about his life as a pro thrower, the importance of a well-balanced meal and the gayest thing about him. Here’s what he had to say…
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QUEERTY: Can you describe hammer throwing? What’s it like?
KADE MCCALL: It’s the hardest but the easiest thing at the same time. It’s a matter of physics. You have to generate the most speed, but you can’t change the orbit or path of it when you’re moving it, or else you’ll slow it down. I think the release speed of a hammer is 60 miles per hour. You’re spinning that fast, and the pounds of pressure is [300] pounds once you’re at the end of it. There have been some studies. It can be heavy as hell! But it’s also fun.
What’s one thing about throwing that people don’t know about?
The weights we throw and the amount of force that goes into, as well as the precision and physics of it. There’s an elegance to throwing, and hammer in particular. If it’s not done correctly, you’ll know it. It just looks pretty. Another thing most people don’t know is, a lot of people think it’s an [explosive] in the airport, so that’s really fun. I haven’t had a whole lot of scares, but you’re hauling around these things. TSA is constantly “looking into it!”
What’s your fitness routine?
It’s different for the fall versus the spring. In the fall, we do two-a-days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Monday and Thursday is leg day and then Tuesday and Friday is upper body. Those leg days are like 2.5 hours. I’m working out for about 5 hours per day on Mondays and Thursdays. For my upper-body, it’s not as much. I have a bunch of injuries, so I can’t do as much stuff. Then in the spring, we still throw for four days, but we only lift for two. We lift on Sunday, that’s our big lift. Those lifts can be two hours. The lifts in the spring are more full body. But I have really f’d up shoulders, so I can’t do some of that. My right shoulder tends to dislocate…
Oh, it just tends to! I’m sorry! But tell me… you’re lifting all of these heavy weights. You’re tatted up. What’s the gayest thing about you?
Oh, I’m a barista. I work in a local coffee shop here. It’s very fast-paced. We don’t do latte art, necessarily. There are six shops around here and we’re at the biggest location. It’s also a bakery. We roast our own beans and then make our own bread and pastries. I’ve recently been wearing crop tops at work, too, so I’m really giving “gay, queer, tatted, septum piercing barista.”
You have all of that! I understand you’re also a plant dad…
That’s another thing! I have all of those plants back there, 20 plants? It’s hard to count. I have 20-30. I have all of the lights on an automated system [for the plants]. I also have two fish tanks. I used to have three fish tanks. They’re all on an automatic system, too. The plant lights and the fish lights are on timers.
You got your masters in nutrition and told me you have a particular interest in fiber. What do the guys get wrong about the oft-discussed nutrient?
You want to eat whole foods. You can take meta mucil—I sometimes take it. It’s a different kind of fiber. That’s psyllium husk, which is in Pure for Men. But Pure for Men is so expensive. I’m not paying for Pure for Men! I get another one that you can get from Costco or cheaper—it’s a different type of fiber and it feeds your gut bacteria. But I would say, whole foods are better. They reduce bloating and stuff like that too. If you just take fiber supplements, you still have to find other sources of food. Sprinkle in some fiber. You only need 25 grams a day for women and 32 grams a day for men. That’s the recommended dose.
What do you do for fun?
I like cooking. I like finding different recipes and stuff like that. I cook different things and try to find ways to make them cheap. If there were more lakes here, I would love to go swimming. But in Kansas, the lakes are muddy and disgusting. But back home in Idaho, I love to swim. Hiking. I used to camp a bunch when I was a kid. This August, I have the whole month off from work, and I’m going to take a road trip, hopefully to the West Coast. That’s what I’ll be doing! Other than that, I like to get tattoos. I’ve gotten six in the last three months. One of my tattoos is an outline of snakes. I got that touched up. Then I added Pride dots behind my ear. And then, I have a potato on my thigh, kind of like an Idaho potato type of thing. Then I have a bee on my knee for the bee’s knees. Then I got my birthday on my side in Roman numerals. I’ve gotten all of that within the last couple of months!
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