Meet U.S. Runner Donavan Brazier, 22, Potential Breakthrough Star At 2020 Summer Olympics – Forbes

After winning the 800 meters at the 2016 NCAA outdoor track and field championships, Donavan Brazier was as elated as he had ever been. Brazier, a freshman at Texas A&M University, had finished first in a remarkable time of 1:43.55, breaking the collegiate record that had stood for 50 years. The former record-holder, Jim Ryun, had gone on to become one of the best middle-distance runners in U.S. history.

Minutes later, as Brazier stood on the podium, the second- and third-place finishers, both seniors, asked Brazier if he planned on turning professional. The question caught Brazier off guard.

“I was just like, ‘What do you mean go pro?’,” Brazier recalled this week. “They were like, ‘You can run for money for a shoe company.’ I thought that was the craziest idea.”

Turns out, that indeed was Brazier’s last amateur race, as he signed a deal with Nike 10 days following the meet. And now, four years later, Brazier has become one of the faces of a sport that will start receiving more attention with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo beginning in July.

On Saturday afternoon, Brazier, 22, races in the 800 meters at the 113th NYRR Millrose Games, a prestigious indoor meet at the famous Armory track in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. The meet will be televised on NBC and feature 31 athletes who have competed in the Olympics. It will also be a chance for sports fans to become accustomed to Brazier and other track stars who typically fall under the national radar.

It likely won’t be that way much longer as Brazier will be favored to become the first American man since 1972 to win an Olympics gold medal in the 800 meters. In September, he was the first American (male or female) to win the 800 meters at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships. He won that race by more than a second, finishing in 1:42.34 and breaking Johnny Gray’s U.S. record that had stood since 1985.

“To finally break his record was a big deal to me,” said Brazier, who trained with Gray for a few months earlier in his career. “He’s one of the few runners I could say I actually knew about because I’m not too knowledgeable about the sport.”

Brazier can joke about his ignorance of track’s history, but his path to the top wasn’t always a foregone conclusion as he didn’t ever dream about becoming an Olympian as his peers did when they were growing up. His father had run at Ferris State University in Michigan, but no one else in his family had ever run competitively. In fact, Brazier was a football player as a child in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“I thought I was going to be a pro football player, to be honest,” Brazier said, laughing. “That was my dream. I thought I was going to be a wide receiver or running back.”

Still, Brazier quit football as a sophomore in high school because he was smaller than most kids his age. He then decided to join the cross country and track teams. 

“I just got into it for the main reason everybody else ran, for the social aspect of it,” Brazier said. “A lot of my friends did it. I never thought it would open as many doors as it did.”

By the time Brazier was a junior in high school, he was among the nation’s best high school runners and started receiving scholarship offers. He ended up signing with Texas A&M because of the school’s status as among the five to 10 best programs in the country. He also liked the chance to train under Aggies’ head coach Pat Henry and assistant Alleyne Francique, who had placed fourth in the 400 meters at the 2004 Olympics.

After turning professional in June 2016, Brazier continued training with Francique. But a month later, Brazier didn’t make it out of the first round of the Olympics Trials. He struggled for most of that year, but he improved in 2017, placing among the top three in most races and winning the 800 at the USATF outdoor championships.

Early in 2018, Brazier sustained an Achilles tendon injury, forcing him to miss several months. Later that year, he decided to leave Texas and join the Nike Oregon Project, a team of elite runners that trained at Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.

“It was definitely hard because I knew the weather wasn’t the best in Oregon and I fell in love with Texas and the southern hospitality,” Brazier said. “But it was a move I knew I had to make if I really wanted to get to that next level in running. I felt I got everything I could out of my college coaches.”

In October, shortly after Brazier won the 800 at the World Outdoor Championships, Nike disbanded the Oregon Project after its longtime head coach, Alberto Salazar, was banned from the sport for four years for doping violations.

Brazier said he never worked with Salazar and was trained by Pete Julian, an assistant at the Oregon Project. He has continued to work with Julian during the past few months in Oregon and Arizona.

The two have implemented a plan in which Brazier will peak this summer for the Olympics. Still, that’s not to say Brazier won’t post fast times until then. At last month’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, his first race since the world championships, Brazier won the 600 meters in 1:14.39, just 0.62 seconds off the world record he set last year and six seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

On Saturday, he will be motivated to win his first Millrose Games event. At last year’s meet, he finished second in the 800 but his time of 1:44.41 set an American indoor record.

Next weekend, Brazier plans on competing in the 800 at the USATF indoor championships in Albuquerque, N.M. He will then take off a few weeks and possibly go on a fishing trip in Texas or Florida before resuming training in the middle of March. In June, he will compete in the Olympics Trials in Eugene, Ore., on the same track he set the U.S. collegiate record four years ago. To qualify for the Olympics, he must place in the top three at the Trials.

“It’s definitely a lot of pressure,” Brazier said. “We have world championships every couple of years, but I think everybody really only pays attention to the Olympics.”

He added: “You never know for the Olympics Trials. It’s just a cutthroat, top three make it. You just have to be ready on that one day.”

Brazier doesn’t turn 23 until April 15, so he has several more years to compete at the elite level. He plans on returning to Texas A&M someday and earning his degree. He’d like to teach physical education and coach high school track when he gets older, but that can wait. He’s enjoying being able to run professionally and chase records and medals.

“It’s hard work,” Brazier said. “It’s more of a lifestyle you have to live when it comes to treating your body with recovery and what you put into your body. You’ve always got to be disciplined and on at all times.”

“But just to travel the world and see it the way we do, it’s an incredible blessing,” he added. “It’s the best job I could possibly ever have. That’s why I’m just trying to do it as long as possible.”