A six-time First-Team All-American and the 2022 NCAA Indoor 800m champion during her time at Virginia Tech, Lindsey Butler has joined Bandit’s Unsponsored Project ahead of the 2026 U.S. Outdoor Championships – her first as a post-collegiate athlete.

Started in 2023, the Unsponsored Project is Bandit’s aim to support athletes without major shoe contracts, providing them an unbranded race kit and funding for travel, lodging, and a wide range of other needs. To date, 12 athletes in the Unsponsored Project have gone on to sign pro contracts.

Butler first grabbed attention on the professional scene at the 2026 U.S. Indoor Championships, where she took a commanding lead in the women’s 1500m final with a lap-and-a-half to go, eventually missing a spot on Team USA by just .13 seconds. Butler, who still trains with coach Ben Thomas, has carried that form into the outdoor season, running a PB of 4:06.20 for third at the Portland Track Festival last month.

Butler sat down with CITIUS MAG to give insight on why she was wearing a branded kit for that big indoor showing, what she’s learning early in her post-collegiate experience, and how much pride she has in being part of the Unsponsored Project.

The following interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.

CITIUS MAG: You’re a little over midway through your first post-collegiate season right now, having just finished third in the 1500m at the Prefontaine Classic Friday night. How are you finding your first season as a post-collegiate athlete?

Lindsey Butler: It’s definitely a whole new world. I feel like I got a little bit of a test run in my last year in the NCAA. I did not have indoor eligibility, so I ran unattached indoors, traveling by myself and setting up meets, and now it’s kind of full-blown on my own in that sense. It can be a bit overwhelming at times. I think the NCAA served me very well, it served me for six years, but now it’s time to move up in the ranks.

How beneficial was the experience of competing unattached last indoor season while still being an athlete in the NCAA?

It was huge, it was a great experience. I got the experience of running unattached, but I also kind of got the experience of being a pro runner in that time because I had my On NIL. I was able to experience how important it is to be backed by a brand when you’re going to these meets when it comes to coughing up the money for the flights, the hotels, and having an identity when you step on the line. I was also able to see that even when you have all those things, that doesn’t automatically translate to ‘you’re gonna run so much faster.’ In a positive way and a negative way, it was a great test run.

You were still wearing your On kit through the end of this season, did you have any ties to the brand still?

My NIL deal ended on the final day of NCAAs last year. I wouldn’t say I had ties to the brand when I was wearing the kit, I had ties to the colors on the kit — it was orange and maroon, so VT colors. I just liked it for that sense. I’m sure every post-collegiate athlete hits this realization when they’re done with the NCAA of ‘What do I wear now?’ It’s a really weird feeling, so it was a little more comfortable for me and a better transition to wear the orange and maroon even if I wasn’t racing for the name on the jersey.

After USAs when I had some big results, that was when my agent and my coach were like, ‘Lindsey, I think it’s time to find a different jersey for you to wear. The free promos are done.’

Your final race in the On kit was one that I feel like so many people relearned your name from, where you ran so bravely at U.S. Indoors and finished third in the 1500m. How important was that race as a cap to your first season of professional racing?

I think that race mentally changed a lot for me. Back in college, I was on top of the world when I won my NCAA title, got injured immediately following or during the race, and it took me three years to claw my way back up in the NCAA to feeling confident, but I don’t know if I ever quite reached that level of confidence.

This past indoors finishing out at USAs, I finally got back to believing I could get to that level. Obviously I did not come out with the win — almost did if the race ended 50m earlier — but the confidence it instilled in me was the biggest change.

You’re now part of the Bandit Unsponsored Project ahead of the 2026 U.S. Championships. When did you get connected with Bandit and what has that partnership looked like so far?

Bandit has been really great to a lot of Ben Thomas’ [Butler’s coach] runners in the past. They’ve offered support in various different ways to my teammates, so we had a little bit of a conversation during the indoor season. If USPS wasn’t running so far behind in February, I would’ve been in a Bandit kit at USAs, which if I could go back and change things I would’ve loved for that package to come in time.

That was just out of the goodness of their heart, and then after USAs we did decide to make it a little bit more of an official partnership. I feel really proud to wear the kit. They just do so much for the athletes in our sport.

Since you’ve entered your post-collegiate career, is there anything that’s stood out to you as harder to deal with as an unsponsored athlete than you thought it might be?

I think the decisions of what meets to go to, that’s been a pretty tough decision to make as an unsponsored athlete. I am funding this hobby, for all intents and purposes, because if it’s a job I’d be making money off of it. I have to think more about if I want to go to this big meet in LA where it’s probably going to cost me $1K-2K, I’m gonna have to take time off of work, I’m gonna have to figure out how to work remotely while I’m there. The travel has definitely been a lot more stressful, especially coming from the NCAA where all that stuff is planned out.

I also think since I am paying for any medical care that I choose to get, I really have to think very seriously about what kind of care do I need. Do I need to see a PT? A massage therapist? Do I need to buy any recovery tools or supplements, and making sure that I’m not cheaping out just because it is coming out of my own pocket. Ultimately, I’m in a position where, if I do get injured, my chances of getting sponsored at all tank down to zero.

Another big reality of competing unsponsored can be seen in the fact that we’re doing this call on your lunch break. What is your job?

I work in town as an industrial engineer. I work part-time so can’t claim that I’m fitting in doubles every day working 40 hours per week. I work five hours per day, five days per week, and I am never bored, because I never have free time to be bored.

Because of the Unsponsored Project, Bandit is going to be one of the most represented brands at the U.S. Championships later this month. How excited are you to be on that stage alongside so many athletes that are chasing the same thing as you?

I’m feeling very proud to rep the Bandit jersey. I know when I step on the line, I think the sponsored girls are a lot more scared of me than I am of them. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It’s amazing to feel supported by Bandit, and they’re really selflessly supporting us. They’re not in it for the financial gain they want to get out of us, they just want to help support us and see us do the best that they believe we can do. I’m excited, I’ve kind of got a team I can root for now. I wouldn’t necessarily call us the underdogs because there’s a lot of people that have had a lot of success, but maybe we’ll call them the dark horses or something.

What would a successful USAs look like for you?

If I can match my finish, match it or better it would be successful. The funny thing about specifically the U.S. Championships is that you have no idea what it’s going to look like on the day. You have no idea how fast it’s going to be, how tactical it’s going to be. And that’s why, as I learned indoors, you can never count yourself out. All it needs is one big day, one brave day, and it could be anybody’s race.

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