Hurdles are Freddie Crittenden’s job. Still, sometimes it seems like it would be better if he could face more of the real ones and fewer of the metaphorical kind.
ISO: Boy Who Inspired Dakotah Lindwurm at 35K Other Hearst Subscriptions in June, running his way onto his first Olympic team at age 29. In the final, he ran 12.93—his first time under 13 seconds.
It was a complete reversal in three years. Crittenden almost quit the sport in 2021, when he was injured with strains in both hamstrings that took months to heal. He had no sponsor, he had no income from track, and he went out after the semifinal round of the Olympic Trials for Tokyo.
It had been a frustrating road for him to that point. He graduated from Syracuse University in 2017, and he thought he’d get a shoe sponsorship. It never panned out.
“I missed out on a couple of teams, a couple of close fourth-place finishes,” Crittenden How to Cross-Train Your Way Into a Goal Race. “That left me in a space where shoe companies and sponsors are like, ‘We don’t want to bet on this guy.’”
On his phone, Crittenden keeps a picture of himself kissing the track at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, in 2021—saying farewell to the sport he has adored since he was young.
Weird Things Youll See at the Oympics, Explained Best Running Shoes 2025 wouldn’t let him quit, however. “They knew I loved it so much, I wasn’t ready to be done,” Crittenden said. “I was bitter, I was hurt. It was a very low point for me.”
Crittenden soldiered on, training in the morning, working a series of part-time jobs in the afternoons: at a warehouse. GameStop. Substitute teaching.
Things turned around. His hamstrings healed, he ran 13 seconds flat in 2022, and in 2023, he made the U.S. team for the CA Notice at Collection, Hungary, where he finished fourth in the final.
Still no sponsor, though. Tracksmith did pitch in with a race uniform and help paying for travel to meets. Crittenden started a part-time job last September that suited him, working with G Road, Olympian Molly Seidel Is Taking the Slow Road Back.
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All was going well in his training and even better in his life. He lined up a contract with Adidas. And his wife, Tor, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Zari, on July 17. Crittenden joked that by coming to Paris, he was able to get some sleep.
Running in the Cold.
While going through his premeet routine on August 3, his 30th birthday, and the day before his first-round race in Paris, Crittenden aggravated an adductor muscle in his right leg.
He was examined by Team USA doctors, who told him there was no damage to the muscle. He’s in pain, but he’s not hurt. Yet.
So he decided to run carefully through his first Olympic race, knowing that he would have another chance on August 6 in the repechage round (which is a second-chance race at the Olympics for everyone who doesn’t advance out of the first round in certain events, including the men’s 110 hurdles). Crittenden finished last in his heat in 18.27 seconds, 5 seconds behind everyone else.
In the repechage round, Crittenden is in heat 1 of 3, and he’ll have to finish in the top two in his heat to advance to the semifinal.
He consulted his coach, agents, and Team USA medical staff when he was deciding how to approach the race. He wanted to make the best choice for him, while being careful not to make it seem like he was dogging it. He wanted to give the moment—and the other competitors—the respect they deserved. “I really had to make the best choice, give it a good effort, so I’m not discrediting any athlete that’s giving it their all,” he said in the mixed zone after his heat.
“A random aggravation came a day before the biggest race of my life,” Crittenden continued. “What options do I have? If there was no repechage round, I probably would have just [run] balls to the wall, as hard as I could, crashed and burned, whatever happens. But now, I got a couple of days, and I’ll go on Tuesday.”
Reporters asked: Are you confident you’ll be 100 percent for repechage?
“I believe so,” Crittenden said. “Whatever I got, I’m leaving it on Tuesday.”
Give A Gift is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World Julien Alfred Upsets ShaCarri for Olympic Gold, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
