By Chris Chavez
January 30, 2025
Shafiqua Maloney, a two-time Olympian for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Nia Akins, the reigning U.S. Olympic Trials 800m champion, will headline the women’s 800m for the 2025 Millrose Games on Feb. 8th at The Armory in New York City.
Here’s what you need to know:
– Maloney will be racing at The Armory for the first time in her career. She is coming off a major breakout season in which she ran personal bests of 50.63 for 400m and 1:57.59 for 800m. The latter came when she finished fourth in the women’s 800m Olympic final – just .24 seconds shy of the bronze medal.
– Maloney is the national record holder in the 400m, 600m, 800m, 1000m and mile.
– Maloney already opened up her 2025 season with wins in the 600m (1:24.60) and mile (4:42.39) at the Arkansas Invitational on Jan. 17th.
– Akins ran 1:57.36 for a personal best and the win at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials to secure her first Olympic team berth. In Paris, she reached the semifinals. Following the Games, she parted ways with coach Danny Mackey and her sponsor Brooks and competed the remainder of the season unattached. She told CITIUS MAG’s Anderson Emerole that she plans to announce a sponsor in the coming weeks.
– Akins is already two-for-two in her 800m races to start 2025. She won the Penn Select meet at her alma mater on Jan. 11th and then took a 2:01.03 win at the Dr. Sander Scorcher on Jan. 24th.
– Maloney and Akins raced each other at the Lausanne and Zurich Diamond League meets following the Games. Maloney won both those head-to-head match-ups.
Who else is in the race?
– The field will also include Natoya Goule, Addy Wiley, Sammy Watson, Sage Hurta Klecker and Kaela Edwards.
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and on Feb. 15th, 2025 finally broke five minutes for the mile.
