Paul Terek has made a career of clearing hurdles, the literal and figurative kinds.
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| Terek walked with athletes from all over the world at the open ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics.
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| Terek’s pole-vaulting prowess earned him a spot on Team USA for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
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| Terek learns how he performed during a 400-meter decathlon event at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
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Terek is a member of Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245, working since 2011 at Pacific Gas and Electric’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo. Before that, he had been a distinguished student-athlete who later qualified to compete with the U.S. track and field team as a decathlete at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
For Terek, the path from a promising career as a decathlete to a steady, family-supporting one as an IBEW-represented reactor operator came with a few challenges.
Terek grew up in Livonia, Mich., and excelled in track and field in high school while also distinguishing himself as a defensive back and wide receiver for the school’s football team.
“I ran track to stay in shape for football,” he said. In track, he discovered his talent for the pole vault.
“I jumped pretty well,” he said. “I was decent at it.”
Terek is being modest: The Livonia Observer notes that he once held the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s pole vault record: 16 feet, 6 inches. He still holds the school’s long jump record, at 22 feet, 0.75 inch.
He planned to continue his athletic pursuits wherever he went to college — he had appointments to both the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy.
“My dad had a heart attack,” Terek said, “so I decided to stay close to home.”
He enrolled at Michigan State University, 90 minutes away in East Lansing. The school had initially sought Terek for football, but in the end, a track-and-field scholarship got him there.
Terek excelled at MSU. In his junior year, he set a school and Big Ten Conference record for points scored in the decathlon, a grueling event that features 100-, 400- and 1,500-meter dashes, along with a 110-meter hurdle, plus pole vault, long jump, high jump, discus throw, javelin throw, and shot put.
“I wanted to be the greatest athlete,” he said, noting that his teammates motivated him to excellence.
The following year, Terek broke his own record.
He also set records in the seven-event heptathlon. In 2001 and 2002, the Big Ten named Terek its Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year. And he was hailed as MSU’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2002, the year he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Terek’s athletic activities continued, and in 2003 and 2004, he was crowned U.S. heptathlon champion. He competed with the U.S. men’s decathlon team in the 2003 world championships in Paris, too.
On the strength of his pole-vault performance at the 2004 Olympic Track and Field trials, Terek earned a bronze medal. That earned him a spot on Team USA for the Athens Games.
“It was incredible to compete at the birthplace of the Olympics,” he said, noting that something historically significant was usually nearby wherever he went.
Although Terek scored respectably among the 30 competing decathletes, he didn’t win a medal in Athens. “Having my family and friends there to experience it with me, though, is a memory I’ll never forget,” he said.
Back in the U.S., Terek eventually settled in California’s Central Coast, where he continued to train for and compete in national and world championships. He had hoped to qualify for the 2008 Games in Beijing, but he injured his knee and missed the trials.
“It was crushing,” he said. “Years of preparation, family and friends’ support, coaches’ sacrifices.” They were all just as sad for him as he was for them, he said.
Nearly 30 and with mounting injuries beginning to take their toll on his body, Terek decided to retire as a decathlete. “I had gotten married,” he said, “and I had to reevaluate where I was going and what I was going to do for a living.”
At the time, PG&E was looking for operations workers at Diablo Canyon. In 2011, “I put my application in and was hired as a nuclear operator,” Terek said. “It’s a great job with a lot of teamwork.”
Seven years in, Terek had moved up to a reactor operator position, controlling the reactor along with its turbines and support systems. “You’re always keeping an eye on things,” he said of that role. “I take pride in the fact that it’s an important job. I’m constantly thinking about it.”
Terek encountered another hurdle when PG&E announced plans in 2016 to begin decommissioning Diablo Canyon.
“There was a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety,” Terek said. “My wife and I had a lot of discussions about what our lives were going to look like, what our financial futures were going to look like.”
Fortunately for Terek, he still had a team. Years of intense lobbying by the union helped persuade state and federal authorities to fund a lifespan extension for the plant, the state’s only remaining nuclear generator of baseload power. Diablo Canyon employs more than 1,100 people, including nearly 400 Local 1245 members, along with members of San Luis Obispo Local 639 who handle the plant’s maintenance work.
More challenges lie ahead for Diablo Canyon: Although PG&E’s application to renew the plant’s license for an additional 20 years was being reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as this article was prepared, California’s Legislature had not yet finalized a plan to keep it open beyond 2030.
Helping to make a case for clean, carbon-free nuclear generation of electricity, Terek was featured recently in a video produced by the U.S. Department of Energy.
“I think the union jobs like the ones we have are important because our union is always looking to push for better, safer working conditions, better pay and better benefits,” he said in the video, which went wide on the department’s social media channels over the summer. “With that better pay and with the better benefits, they provided me an opportunity to start my family out here and build a life with my wife out here.”
Terek also was recently inducted into athletics halls of fame at MSU and Franklin High School in Livonia. He said he watched as much of this year’s Olympics as he could — although the nine-hour time difference between San Luis Obispo and Paris didn’t make it easy to see events live.
“Mostly highlights, as I was working some of the time they were going on,” he said.
Terek said he was particularly excited for Team USA in track and field, noting with pride that one of the decathletes, Heath Baldwin, is a fellow MSU graduate.
“Watching the Games always brings back a lot of emotion and excitement,” he said, “not just about my experience, but for the athletes competing.”