Utah's first Olympic gold medalist subject of new film

SALT LAKE CITY — A new film focuses on the young man who became the first gold medalist from Utah. It was the high jump, and the year was 1912.

In the film's trailer, a young man asks, "Who's that?" A man answers, "One of the most gifted and natural athletes to come along in years, a high schooler."

I sat down with writer and director T.C. Christensen, who surprised me with his answer to how long he had been thinking about making this film.

"I've known about Alma Richards my whole life. My grandmother, who lived with us, is the sister of Alma Richards and so she would tell stories about him," he said.

He said he and his brothers all wanted to be athletes because of those stories.

So now it's Christensen's turn to tell those stories of his great-uncle as director of "Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story."

We talked with him and his lead actor in the old schoolhouse at This is the Place Heritage Park. Paul Wuthrich, who starred in Christensen's film, "Escape from Germany," has the lead once again.

"T.C. called me and said, 'Hey, come over, I have this part.' I got all excited, I go down, and he said, 'Run up and down the street for me.' So I ran up and down the street. 'Jump up and down for me.' So I started jumping up and down. 'OK, not too bad, here's the movie.' … I'm reading the script, and I just thought, 'This is one of T.C.'s classic greatest stories that have never been told.'"

The film's trailer has a scene at school when a new coach asks Richards, "Have you ever thought about the track? It's a new sport here."

Richards grew up on a farm in Parowan in Iron County, where he developed his unusual jumping style. Christensen explains that Richards had never played sports.

"He spent his early years, he said, chasing jackrabbits and jumping fences … Alma didn't even know what they were talking about. But he came out, two years later, he's at the Olympics," Christensen said.

Both director and lead actor believe the first part of the Richards story is universal as the question "what am I going to do with my life?" resonates with so many young people.

Wuthrich said, "As I struggled to find my path in life and my calling, what I was supposed to be doing, that I really connected with Alma on that level."

Christensen understands the challenges young people face today. "It's a problem, trying to figure out what you want to do. And the journey that he took I think makes for a good story for young people today."

A teammate in the trailer says, "Have you ever seen anybody jump like that? He's a freak." The coach replies, "You got that right, but he keeps raising the bar."

Wuthrich says this is what he admires about Richards: "He didn't know what track and field was, he didn't know what the Olympics were, but it took people to say, 'Hey, do you know what? There's something special about you, and I believe in you.' And that helps us believe in ourselves."

And, he says, the film takes us full circle in Richards' life. "I love, at the end of the film, how everything comes together and how everything's tied together and how all of those things come back, and it's very satisfying."

The Olympic Games of 1912 were not smooth for Richards. The other American track stars and the Europeans were so skeptical of him that they were nasty. Richards was actually only an alternate, but the coach believed in him.

From the film trailer, "High jump, same as life. You got an obstacle, you've got to learn to go over it. You've got wings, you show them, you show them all."

Richards was the first Utahn to become an Olympic champion in any sport. Christensen said, "He was really the one that got us on any kind of map about athletics, achievement in the world's point of view, it's Alma Richards."

"Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story " opens in theaters throughout Utah on April 24.

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