Donavan Brazier Runs Stunning 1:44.70 to Win 800m in Nashville in First Race Since 2022

In one of the most stunning results of the 2025 track season, American middle-distance star Donavan Brazier returned to racing for the first time in almost three years by running 1:44.70 to dominate the men’s 800 meters at TOAD Fest in Nashville on Saturday. Brazier ran splits of 52.09-52.61 and won by more than two seconds over runner-up Shane Streich (1:47.20). 2023 NCAA champ Will Sumner, who himself is on the comeback trail from injury, was only 5th in 1:49.80.

Brazier has run 1:44 many times before, but had not run this fast since his 1:44.21 at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in February 2021. His personal best is 1:42.34, which he ran to win gold at the 2019 World Championships and which stood as the American record until last year. His run on Saturday was more than two seconds slower than that, but still ranks as one of the most impressive of Brazier’s career. Seldom — perhaps never? — has someone run so fast in their first race back after such a lengthy layoff.

Brazier’s last race before today came on July 20, 2022 — the first round of the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, where he ran 1:46.72 and was eliminated. Shortly after that race, he underwent Achilles surgery to repair a Haglund’s deformity; that surgery required a follow-up in February 2023 to clear out scar tissue. In July 2023, with his foot still bothering him, Brazier underwent a second Achilles surgery — a more complete version of the one that had been performed a year earlier. At the end of 2023, still barely training, he parted ways with coach Pete Julian and left the Nike Union Athletics Club.

Brazier, 28, did not race at all in 2024 either. And even when he had raced in 2021 and 2022, he was often managing injuries. He ran the 2021 Olympic Trials final on what was later revealed to be a fractured tibia, which also required surgery. He was healthy enough to run an indoor season in 2022, where he focused on the 400m, but barely raced outdoors that year as he battled a case of bursitis. Brazier maintained it was worth taking risks to compete both years with an Olympics in 2021 and a home World Championship in 2022.

No one would have faulted Brazier for retiring after last year, but Brazier always held out hope of a comeback, and in 2025 he has spent two stints at altitude in Flagstaff, where he has received workouts from Northern Arizona University/Nike Swoosh TC coach Mike Smith. For now, Smith said they do not have a formal coach-athlete arrangement, but it is possible that could change. Because Brazier is a Nike athlete, he would be free to work with Smith, who is leaving NAU after next week’s NCAA championships to become a full-time professional coach.

Brazier’s time of 1:44.70 ranks him #6 in the US in 2025 and came just shy of the World Championship auto standard of 1:44.50. His time did qualify him for the USATF Outdoor Championships, which run from July 31-August 3. The men’s 800 suddenly looks like one of the marquee events at that meet as American record holder Bryce Hoppel, World Indoor champion Josh Hoey, Jonah Koech, and Brandon Miller have all run 1:43.52 or faster in 2025.

Brazier still has work to do to get to that level — and he must stay healthy — but his run on Saturday was a very, very encouraging start after years of injury hell. He is scheduled to run another 800 next weekend at the Portland Track Festival.

You can view clips from the race here and here. There is a full race video here.

Brazier also did an interview with FloTrack afterwards.

Brazier said, “It felt pretty good. First one back in a few years, I didn’t have too much expectations so it’s just kind of about going through the motions again, you know not even just the race itself, but just the travel and the pre-race routine, and all that stuff I had to kind of relearn a little bit so this is just another stepping stone.”

Talk about Brazier’s comeback on the world-famous LRC messageboard: Donny braz is back baby! Brazier 1:44.7.

Results

More on Brazier’s comeback:

From 2023: LRC After Another Surgery in Feb., Donavan Brazier Is Hoping He Gets A Chance to Compete in 2023: “All I Really Want Is a Shot”
From 2024: LRC Donavan Brazier Has Left the Nike Union Athletics Club; Had 4th Surgery on Foot in July