What happens to HS sprinters who go pro in track?
Erriyon Knighton won the USA track and field championships in 2023, in the 200 meter dash. He is only 19 years old and clearly one of the best sprinters in the entire world. He’s actually been running professionally since he was 16, after signing with Adidas, and hasn’t looked back ever since. As an Olympic finalist, and World Championship medalist, it is safe to say that things are working out well for him. But he is just one of a pretty long line of high school sprinters to skip college entirely. The truth is that Erriyon is the exception, and not the rule. Because choosing to turn pro in track and field is one of the hardest things that any athlete can do. For any high school sprinter who does it, you should be careful what you wish for.
So what really happens to sprinters who skip college to run professionally? They definitely don’t all turn out as well as Erriyon Knighton. The real reason people don’t know what happens to them, is because you’ve probably already forgotten about most of them by now. Since 2015 there have been ten young men and women who have already made the jump, and they all fit into three categories. The superstars, the contenders, and the contestants who some might even go so far as to call the failures.
The Superstars
The only reason to go pro out of high school is because you have proven yourself already to be one of the fastest in the entire nation. If you make a national championship final competing against the pros then it is safe to say you are a legitimate sprinter. The only two superstars we’ve seen from 2015 until now are Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton. They first showed up at the USA championships before they turned 18, and made it look like they belong there. As professionals they validated that by winning Diamond league events, and making the finals at the Olympics and World Championships, before they turned 20 years old! The age on the calendar matters, because if it takes you any longer than that, you might as well do a year or two of college at least. Sha’carri Richardson, Abby Steiner, Michael Norman, and Rai Benjamin were all collegiate stars before they turned pro!
The Contenders
Four more of the ten high schoolers were actually legitimate contenders. They didn’t quite accomplish anything at the World Championships or Olympics before they turned 20, but right around there is when they all started to perform amongst the best. Tamari Davis is proof of this because she finished third in the 100 meter dash at the 2023 USA meet, qualifying her for her first World Championship. She was 20 years old at the time, and is nowhere near the favorite to win it all when she goes. However, she is one of America’s fastest women and there’s no denying that. But Tia Jones is a 100 hurdler whom at 22 years old has still failed to make even one USA team for the major international meets, although she keeps on making it into the final. So we know that she could do it, but time will tell if she ever actually will. Briana Williams turned pro and runs for Jamaica. Outside of the relays, she has never represented Jamaica in her main events at the worlds or Olympics. Which makes sense, because we all know how hard it is to qualify for anything over there. Yet she is still unlike Kaylin Whitney, who turned pro way back in 2016. She was a 100 meter and 200 meter sprinter, who realized she was never going to win anything in either event. She switched to the 400 and has run relays for America in major championships. Which is a success depending on how you look at it.
It is clear that when a high school athlete turns pro you are basically playing Russian roulette with your track career. This is because qualifying to run at a championship event, is nowhere near the same thing as winning it. When I was in college I sprinted in Division 1 and raced against future All Americans, World Champions, and Olympians. But all that really means is that I was good enough to check into the meet, get assigned a lane and a hip number, and run when the gun went off. I was never a real threat to beat anybody who was that good. Furthermore, nobody including most of them, even remember that I was in the race. This is why the remaining sprinters who turned pro are basically “contestants”.
The Contestants
Jaylen Slade, Khalifa St. Fort, Josephus Lyles, and Candace Hill all turned professional without ever running in college. At this point in time you have likely forgotten about them because they have never won anything since they did. They aren’t threats in the Diamond League, and they’ve never gotten close to qualifying for any major international team. Best case scenario, they are fast enough to show up to the national championship and lose. I’m not saying that they aren’t good, but you might as well go to college if that’s what you are going to do. If you watch the USA championship meet, you will see unattached athletes, who have no sponsor at all, and collegiate athletes from all three divisions of the NCAA! Turning professional is not what you do to simply run at the USA meet, you make that move because you intend to win. The Diamond League only has but so many spots, and any sprinter who can’t even make the final in their own country, isn’t getting invited to their world-wide circuit.
The Bottom Line
Mia Brahe-Pedersen qualified for the finals of the USA track and field championships in 2023, and she is a high school athlete. No doubt she, along with Shawnti Jackson are next up in a line of great young sprinters to come through the high school ranks. But I couldn’t help but notice that she was wearing a Nike uniform in the meet. Courtesy of a name, image, and likeness, deal she signed. Unlike most of the athletes on this list, she can make endorsement money and run in college if she chooses, a luxury that the contestants wish they could have cashed in on. This is because Track and Field is a sport where nobody cares about whoever comes in second place. Even the most die-hard of track fans couldn’t tell you who got the silver medal in the Olympics when Bolt broke the World Record. Notice I didn’t even tell you which event or which year. Because they probably wouldn’t know the answer either way. Ricky Bobbi said it best, if you’re not first you’re last. If we’re going with that logic then track and field has a lot of sprinters who might as well be in last place. You can turn pro early if you want to, but my advice is to same advice that Walter Dix gave years ago. “Just go to college”. And don’t leave early until you’ve proven that you can finish your season in first place when you’re there. He is the man who actually lost to Usain Bolt getting third in the Olympics in 2008, both in the 100 and the 200 meter dashes. I bring this up because by now you’ve already forgotten that we has ever there.
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