HONOLULU – It almost feels like it happened by accident. 

University of Hawai’i high jumper Lilian Turban has never had a doubt about her love for track and field. In a way, the senior was born to be a star in the sport – the question that always lingered was where it could and would take her in life. 

From an admittedly “tiny” Eastern European country located up near the polar lines named Estonia, Turban grew up in a Hall of Fame track and field house as the daughter of two stars of the sport. Her father, Marko, competed in the 1996 Olympic Games as a high jumper and holds the Estonian national record for the event to this day with a leap of 2.30 meters. Her mother, Anu Kaljurand, was a star in her prime as well, competing at BYU and winning the gold medal at the 1992 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championship for the women’s heptathlon before going on to finish 17th in the 1992 Summer Olympics in the same event. 

While her parents made their names known in the track and field world, Lilian Turban’s first sport was the opposite of both the track and field. The high jumper started her athletic career in the pool as a swimmer before attempting to play tennis, which she struggled with due to her consistent desire to have her feet off the ground. 

“So, I was swimming, mostly because my parents just wanted me to learn to swim,” Turban laughed as she talked about her early sporting careers. “I swam competitively for a few years I would say. Then I tried to play tennis, but the coaches were saying how [I] couldn’t keep [my] legs on the ground and that [I] needed to jump.” 

Around age 10, Turban’s parents relented and allowed her to full dive into the sport that had seen many of their previous successes go into the history books. Similar to her mother, Lilian wanted to live out an “American dream” by competing for a college program in the United States. 

Not as similar, the young high jumper wanted to go to a place far warmer than Utah. 

“I wanted to do the same thing [as my mom],” Turban recalled. “But I knew I wanted to go to a warm place because Estonia in winter gets really dark, it’s almost polar night, no sun and it’s really cold. I’ve always felt like a warm weather person.” 

With those parameters in mind, Turban began researching potential options to continue her track and field career while attending a university in America that resided in a warmer climate. Her first thoughts were to look into schools in California and Florida, but after finding out about a database of all the schools that have certain programs, a new place popped up. 

“I found out that there was a [Division 1] women’s track and field program in Hawai’i,” Turban recalled. “At first, I honestly thought it was a joke or like it must be fake – like there’s no way there’s a D1 college in Hawai’i in the first place.” 

After further inspection and a few messages shared back and forth with Rainbow Wahine track and field head coach Tim Boyce, the islands of Hawai’i suddenly became a real option for the track and field standout’s next step. While she planned to take visits and explore all of her options, the world had different ideas. 

The COVID-19 pandemic took away Turban’s plans to go on a trip to the United States and visit a multitude of colleges that she had talked to about potentially continuing her training at, forcing the high jumper to make a decision without stepping foot on any potential campus first. 

“My thought was if I don’t go to Hawai’i, I think I’ll regret it for the rest of my life,” Turban explained. “It worked out perfectly and now, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” 

PHOTO CREDIT: HAWAII ATHLETICS

She would join the Rainbow Wahine track and field program in 2022, making an immediate impact as she took first place in her collegiate debut in the high jump at the Beach Opener 2022. Turban elevated 5-foot-10 inches (1.78m) in her first competition to hold the top spot, a mark that stood as the best nationally for two weeks. 

That was only the beginning of her ascent up the University of Hawai’i record books, where she now holds the second-highest jumps in Rainbow Wahine program history for both the indoor (1.86m) and outdoor (1.87m) teams as she enters her senior season. Last year as a junior, Turban became the first Rainbow Wahine athlete since 2010 and just the third ever to qualify and compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

After an injury held the star high jumper out for the majority of her junior outdoor season, Turban is healthy and ready to attack another year with the Rainbow Wahine. With the gift of health, another year of high jump greatness should be on the way for Turban. 

Regardless, her dreams have become reality in her preferred warm climate, two things she could not be more grateful for.