DES MOINES, Iowa — While the world's best athletes are competing for gold at the Paris Olympics, a Des Moines native is trying to bring home some hardware of his own this week at the Dodgeball World Championships in Austria.
Derek Johnson's introduction to competitive dodgeball came almost a decade ago at the Iowa Games.
"I ran into a group of individuals from Minneapolis, Minnesota who came down to play in the Iowa Games and became good friends with them, ended up travelling to tournaments with them and discovered a whole world of dodgeball that I never knew existed before," said Johnson.
Johnson became one of the top players in the country thanks to his natural ability and dedication.
"He can throw really hard," his friend Zack Olthoff said jokingly. "He can throw really hard but there's also the dedication piece too. He'll have us come out just to throw balls at him so he can work on skills. Without having a professional to train you, you just have to be self-directed."
That self-direction paid off in 2018 when Johnson was selected to represent the United States at the Dodgeball World Championships. There, he helped Team USA bring home the silver.
Johnson will be competing at the championships again this year in Austria and he's hoping to bring home the gold this time around.
"Once I had that chance in 2023 to try out and to have that opportunity, once again, I just jumped at it," Johnson said. "I told myself that maybe my time was done with dodgeball, but I just love it so much that it's hard to walk away."
While the sport is often associated with the 2004 comedy "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," the competition is no joke.
"When people see dodgeball, they associate it with the movie, and it being you know, kind of fun and games and it certainly is and there are certainly those moments," Johnson said. "But dodgeball is competitive. There are people out there who really want to win and there are competitive leagues, and they exist. So, it's grown in a way that I've been super excited about."
Johnson has been hard at work trying to foster that growth right here in the metro by starting leagues and hosting open gyms. Whether he's competing on the world stage or growing the game locally, it all comes back to one common goal.
"To just show everybody you know, how fun and enjoyable it is, how much it is just a great sport for people to come together and show their skills," said Johnson.
The 2024 Dodgeball World Championships run from Aug. 11-17.