‘My heart stopped’: Robert Martin died on a Hoopfest court, 30 years later he can still tell the story

The heart of this champion has missed a few beats, none more dramatically than in the summer of 1993.

Robert Martin of Spokane was competing on the second day of Hoopfest when he went into cardiac arrest.

“My heart stopped,” Martin said. “I basically flat-lined.”

A bystander performed CPR, saved Martin’s life and posed a bigger question for the rest of it: What now?

Martin was a star athlete at Lewis and Clark High School, playing basketball for the Tigers in the late 1980s.

He also excelled in track and field and was one of the top triple jumpers in the United States, with a realistic shot at the Olympics.

Suddenly, those dreams had receded. But what would take their place?

Then 23 years old, Martin spent the next three months in the hospital receiving treatment for his heart and for third-degree burns on his legs after he lay on the hot pavement after his collapse.

During those three months, Martin considered the future.

“I honestly think the message is not to give up on yourself,” Martin said last week as another Hoopfest loomed.

Martin had several chances to do so: Divorce, career challenges and the final reckoning that his Olympic dreams were just that.

“There was definitely some adversity,” Martin said. “But what I wanted most was to not sit on a couch.”

Thirty years later, Martin is the director of development and engagement for United Health Care. Part of the job is helping people obtain health care – “to get access and get engaged,” Martin said.

“It’s very rewarding to work with people who are in a different situation, especially with the lower-income and marginalized community,” said Martin, who’s also done some public speaking.

The subject is perseverance, and few know it better than Martin.

His triple jump and long jump marks were good enough to earn a scholarship to the University of Oregon, but he felt burdened by the pressure and soon was back in Spokane.

“But I learned a lot about myself,” said Martin, whose involvement in Hoopfest since then has included officiating and playing.

Mostly, he learned that he couldn’t give up on himself. Competing unattached, he chased his 1992 Olympic dreams around the country in a 20-year-old Toyota Corolla.

Though shorter than most elite triple jumpers, Martin turned in a leap of 53 feet, 11 inches and qualified for the 1992 Olympic Trials in New Orleans.

During a game of pickup basketball with friends, however, Martin collapsed.

“I remember this feeling that my heart was being overwhelmed, and that I felt clammy and cold,” said Martin, who also recalled face-planting onto the pavement, cutting his lip and waking up to the experience of being placed on a gurney.

Martin was placed on a heart monitor but couldn’t recover in time for the Olympic Trials.

“But I planned to come back in 1996,” Martin said.

The new year brought fresh misfortunes. In January, Martin accidentally shot himself in the foot. A few months later, another driver ran a red light and struck Martin’s vehicle, sending him back to the hospital.

Unfazed, Martin competed that summer in Hoopfest. It was the most consequential moment of his life. On the second day of the competition, Martin collapsed onto the pavement and woke up at the hospital, essentially brought back from the dead.

“When I woke up, my pastor was there,” Martin said. “They still don’t know what happened, but people still tell me stories from that day.”