Nico Young is done with his college career and onto the Olympic trials!
The incredible distance runner, who won two NCAA Division 1 National Championships this year, finished second in the 5,000-meter Friday at the Outdoor Championships. He posted a time of 14:54.65 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Though Young didn’t win, he was still pleased with his performance. In a celebratory post on Instagram, he reflected on his weekend, and time at Northern Arizona University. “Very proud of how I executed this race, my last race for NAU. Choosing NAU was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 💛💙,” he wrote.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The U.S. Olympic track and field trials begin June 21 in Eugene. We know that Young will be there!
One of the best distance runners in college, Young is a strong contender to make his first Olympics. Back in January, he set the NCAA record in the 5,000-meter with a time of 12:57.17. He’s the only college runner in history to break the 13-minute threshold.
Even more impressively, Young was battling knee pain in the lead-up to his record-setting performance.
A couple of months later, Young followed up his triumph with two wins at the NCAA Division 1 National Championships in Boston. In the 5,000-meter, a grueling race in which runners complete 12.5 laps before finishing, Young ran his final quarter in just 54.3 seconds. It was his first NCAA title.
Nico Young wins his first NCAA title closing in 54.3‼️‼️pic.twitter.com/2mywzs5zWi
— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) March 8, 2024
As an encore performance, Young dominated the 3,000-meter the next day, winning the race in record time.
But wait… there’s more! Just two weeks after that, Young set the 10,000-meter record at the Sound Running’s THE TEN. And just last month, he lowered his 1,500-meter personal best in Southern California.
Suffice to say, Young enjoyed a senior season for the ages.
Young’s been building towards this moment for years, ever since he was a top track and field recruit out of high school. The California native earned a prestigious First-Team All-American spot last year, and finished second individually in the NCAA Cross Country Championships. In 2022, He led his team, the Lumberjacks, to their sixth national title in seven years.
With multiple NCAA records to his name, it’s fair to say that Young is one of the most important out athletes today. He publicly came out as gay in August 2022.
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Young is all but guaranteed to compete in this year’s Summer Olympics.
More than anything, he’s proud to be visible.
“Anyone who tells you that being gay is a choice is wrong,” he wrote in his coming out post. “I am living proof that it is not a choice, it is something I have always known and been aware of, but have kept silent out of fear of rejection. I have struggled to accept myself, but I am becoming more proud and happy with who I am.”
Like other star out college athletes, Young has taken full advantage of the NCAA’s new rules governing name, image and likeness (NIL). He enjoys a partnership with Adidas, one of the premier athletic brands in the world.
Young’s post announcing the deal garnered more than 18,360 “likes.”
“Excited to announce my NIL partnership with@adidasand@adidasrunning! Grateful to be part of the Adidas family!,” he posted.
Whenever Young is running, Adidas’ iconic logo isn’t far behind (and T-Swift is often blaring in the background)…
With his two younger brothers at Stanford (Leo and Lex), the Young family seems poised to dominate the NCAA track and field landscape for years to come. And in just a couple of weeks, we’ll likely see Nico take the family name straight to Team USA!
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Athletes used to fear that being publicly out would make them unmarketable. That’s not the case anymore.
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