Good News, Track Fans: Donavan Brazier Enters Olympic Trials And Is Turning Pro
by LetsRun.com
June 20, 2016
Brazier made Texas A&M proud at NCAAs
Good news track and field fans. Donavan Brazier will be running the Olympic Trials.
Texas A&M’s Brazier, who shocked the NCAA world with his 1:43.55 NCAA record to win the NCAA 800m as a freshman, has entered the Olympic Trials and Flotrack is reporting that multiple sources have told them he is turning professional.
After the first round of NCAAs where he ran 1:45, Brazier said he wanted to make a US team, and did not want to run two weekends in a row (the Olympic Trials are a week after USA Juniors), so he would run USA Juniors instead of the Olympic Trials because he did not want to miss out on representing Team USA this year.
After Brazier’s 1:43.55 final, Brazier changed his tune a little bit on the Olympic Trials, “I don’t know. It depends on what my coach says.”
QT: Brazier made the sensible decision
LetsRun.com spoke to numerous professional and former professional runners in the last week: Alan Webb, Nick Symmonds, Duane Solomon, and Khadevis Robinson were the heavyweights, and only one, Solomon, said Brazier shouldn’t take the money and run. There was almost no hesitation from them on what the right decision was. Solomon said Brazier could benefit from one more season in the collegiate ranks.
Ten days ago, Brazier was just a freshman hoping to score at his first NCAA meet. Now he’ll be guaranteed over a million dollars to run for the next four years. Texas A&M hopefully lets him keep training in College Station because they should celebrate this as well: they prepared one of their students for a better future.
Discuss: Donavan Brazier turning pro