The Lap Count: Going back to what you said about the Diamond League. That prize money is laughable compared to the appearance fees. Are you as an athlete opposed to the idea of that being switched around? What if the Rome Diamond League started giving $100,000 for the win with no appearance fee?

Marvin Bracy: I’d be perfectly fine with that. Because that would make people actually have to race the field. I just started getting appearance fees and if they called me to say we’re not doing that and instead it’s first place gets $100K; second place gets $75K and third place, etc. Okay, cool. I’ll see you there.

Now, what's going to happen is that lanes will get more scarce because everybody is going to try to go to every race. How can you tell Fred Kerley, Christian Coleman, Marvin Bracy, Noah Lyles, Michael Norman, or Trayvon Bromell, “hey, we don’t really want you here.” You can’t. Marcell Jacobs or Andre De Grasse? How can you tell these people who have been winning medals and running fast times no? They’re going to want to go to every race to get money.

The Lap Count: From a fan's perspective, though, is that not the goal?

Marvin Bracy: Yes. But it will hurt anybody else who is upcoming and trying to get there. If every time, every race, you see the same eight guys, it will put a damper on the sport. Because now those other athletes have to go to like, the B-Circuit meets and maybe race for $2K or $3K with no appearance fee.

The Lap Count: Yeah, I hear you. But wouldn't that be a little bit more relatable to other sports in the sense of like, you have to prove yourselves in the minor leagues before you get called up to the majors. You have your opportunity at the U.S. Championships and at Worlds to prove that you belong there next season.

Marvin Bracy: I am with you on this. I'm on your side. I'm just playing devil's advocate.

Like you said, you get the opportunity at a U.S. Championship or something like that. Now, when it comes to the difference in money, I’m running for $100K and you’re running for a lot less. So if you’re not winning and killing that circuit, when it comes to certain amenities you still can’t afford certain stuff that I can. I can go get third place at a Diamond League, get $50K and go to Germany or somewhere in Europe to find the best doctors to make sure my body is always in tune. I have the best everything.

The Lap Count: I think that's the difference between our sport and others. We're very concerned with this idea of fairness and not just what's the most entertaining thing possible.

Marvin Bracy: Yeah, I'm with you.

The Lap Count: From my perspective, I want to see you, Fred and Tray, race every other weekend all year. But it might not be fair to a guy who can't get a lane and keeps going to the B-level circuit. He might be running 9.8, but because he doesn't have a medal for an entire year – we won't see that match up.

Marvin Bracy: The Rome Diamond League is not going to be exciting. I can tell you that off the bat.

The Lap Count: Well maybe after that…

Marvin Bracy: They already told us they don't have enough to pay for the match-up that we're trying to get. Obviously, Jacobs has to be there. To get me, Fred, Tray or De Grasse on the track, all of us command an appearance fee. So you got to have a whole lot of money. And you have other events like the women’s 200m or 100m. You have so many people that you would have to dish out money toward.

The Lap Count: So how does the sport break this cycle, in your opinion? Is it just athletes deciding, “Hey, we want to race each other” and that's it?

Marvin Bracy: The athletes are going to have to come together. The management companies are going to come together to get some kind of deal. Or they're going to have to do away with appearances and turn it into a bigger pot. And like you said, there will be a set pecking order. You’ll see all the same matchups all the way through to Worlds or Olympics. You’ll have to eat what you kill and earn your keep. If you go to your national championship, make the team and you get a medal, then you are now in that pecking order.

The Lap Count: Now another example: Akani Simbine is running 9.92 this early. Is that the secret hack? On the distance side of things, that’s what you could do. You could just open up with a really quick time in March and you'll get your way into the big races. The appearance fees are pennies comparatively. Is that an option in the 100m or you have to wait until August?

Marvin Bracy: You’ve got eight lanes or sometimes nine lanes on a track for a Diamond League. Let’s use Rome as an example. Rome has, say nine lanes. Jacobs already has one. That’s one gone. So now we’re at 8.

This sport is all about: What have you done for me lately? Who can sell some tickets?

So what have you done for me lately? As of right now, there's just an American sweep in the most recent championships. So if there's an American sweep, we are automatically going to get a lane if we want it. If me, Fred or Tray want that lane, we’re going to get it. So let's just say two of us get in and the other one doesn’t. So let's just say that me and Fred decide to run in Rome. OK. That’s two other ones gone.

You've got Michael Norman coming down to the 100m. He’s a 400 meter champion. He's still a champion and the crowd loves that guy. So if Michael Norman wants a lane, he’s probably going to get a lane.

But these Diamond League promoters don't always want to overly do it with Americans so they’ll probably throw in somebody from one of the commonwealth countries. They're probably going to throw in somebody from Jamaica. They're probably going to throw in Ferdinand Omanyala. You got Andre De Grasse. If he wants a lane, he’s going to get a lane.

You’ve got so many guys who can get these lanes that it's going to make it hard for other people. Even if you run fast early, it’s like, “OK…That shit is cute but can you do it when it matters?” But you won’t get many opportunities because of the pecking order. If you’ve got guys ahead of you who have medals and credentials, there’s nothing you can do about it.

The Lap Count: What’s your schedule looking like right now?

Marvin Bracy: A lot is up in the air right now. I’m still waiting to hear back from that meet Botswana. I’ve never been in this position before. I’ve got to wait and hear back to see what they think of what we’re asking for. If that doesn’t happen, there’s an LSU track meet that’s actually supposed to be very good. I still have Nairobi on May 13 so that could be my first potential big meet of the season. I'm looking forward to it. This will be my best season I’ve ever had from start to finish.

I came onto the scene at 19, which is crazy because I was actually making some money before I ever ran a pro event. I was 19 and I didn’t really know the lingo, what to ask for or what not to say. I didn’t know the ins and outs. I never had to negotiate because the representation I was with already had everything stapled and put together before I ever even signed. They got me a good deal but still… I’m 19.

At that point, I'm thinking I'm going to get medals and I'm going to make teams. Then it gets off to a rocky start. The first two years of my career didn't go great. But then what happens? In the nick of time and in the last year of my first contract that I was under, I made the Olympic team in the 100m. I ran under 10 seconds a couple times. I'm thinking: “Okay, you already paid me this for just signing the paper and being a good athlete. I'm pretty sure I should be making this, now that I’ve ran 9-seconds legally and made the Olympic team.” I finished like, 14th overall. I thought I ran myself into a nice payday and that didn’t happen.

That’s when I realized this sport is not what I thought it was. So then, I made an executive decision to go play football. I believed that if I get on a practice squad, I’d make more money than some of the top track athletes. That's just on a practice squad. I tried that and failed.

I came back knowing that if I do some things differently, I'll run better and I'll be better. And that's exactly what happened. I changed so many things on the fly. I'm still making progress, which is why I said this season will be the best I’ve had. I'm still slowly figuring it out. I revamped and re-started my entire career from scratch. I got to do a lot of things differently. With maturity and with time, I stayed active. I got stronger. I got more fit. I got more mature in a number of ways. So once everything started to come together, this is the result. They say men hit their prime right around now. I’m 29 now. But I’m not 29 on the track because I took four years off.

The Lap Count: You feel 25. Well, there's not that many places that you can go up right now. If you're more fit this year and running faster, then I think there’s only one more medal.

Marvin Bracy: That’s what it's about. I was so close to capping off everything that I thought I could have. Now it’s just time to do it. It’s time to get me one. In every athlete's career, especially in track and field, everybody wants to be that one. What people don't understand is that it is extremely hard. It's as hard as it looks. We run fast and we make it look pretty, but it's a lot harder because it's the top guys in the world fighting for one spot. It's not like football where everybody can be the cream of the crop.

The Lap Count: And it's not like you have many tries. You get one try.

Marvin Bracy: You get one in and then it takes a year to try again. Yeah it’s kind of like the Super Bowl. You can throw for 500 yards one week, lose and still be on ESPN.

The Lap Count: Not in track. They’ll forget you real quick.

Marvin Bracy: It’s what you signed up for.

The Lap Count: Another thing I want to hear about is your sports hernia surgery. I got a sports hernia surgery myself. It ruined my career. I should have gone to your guy. My speed was done after it.

Marvin Bracy: So in 2016, Adidas had a race in Nuremberg, Germany. I woke up the day of the race and my stomach was hurting around the abdomen area so bad. I come from that football-gladiator mindset where I think I can overcome and can practice through anything. I can do anything. Injury is not real in the football mentality. They are real but you're supposed to be tough enough to overcome them. So I go there anyway. It was me, Yohan Blake, Keston Bledman, Akani Simbine, and Warren Weir. I get dead last in that race and run like 10.32.

I knew something was wrong with me. I go tell our coach that something is wrong with me. He sent me to get a medical opinion. They said it was some sort of inflammation in my groin that would go away over time. I ended up taking a cortisone shot. That was the first time I ever had one. That had me feeling like I was superman. I thought I was on top of the world. No pain whatsoever. I had to get a TUE for it. I took one and then I went to a meet in Claremont and I ran 9.94, which at the time was my second-fastest time ever.

Then, look at how God works. The very next weekend, Adidas has a street race in 2016 in Boston. The lineup was me, Yohan Blake, Keston Bledman, Akani Simbine and Warren Weir – the same people as the race in German. I win in like 10.22.

The Lap Count: That doesn't count on the floating track so who knows what that time is.

Marvin Bracy: That track was fucking terrible. I can say that. They were my sponsor. I beat the guys. You know what my next track meet was? The Olympic Trials. I went and made the team.

The Lap Count: And then you got the surgery after the season.

Marvin Bracy: I did it after the season. The craziest thing happened. I’m still kicking myself in the ass for this. I was due one more cortisone shot before the Olympics, but I was still feeling so good that I didn't take it. I was like, “No, I'm cool.” I go to the Olympics. I get through the rounds. And the day I woke up for the relay to run a relay in practice, it started hurting again.I was supposed to be the first leg on the 4x100m relay. And then we put Mike Rogers on and disqualified. We got disqualified for the first handoff.

The Lap Count: That’s what happens when you think you're invincible. What was the 2020 surgery?

Marvin Bracy: So it’s 2020. I had just come back to track and field in 2019. Most people don't know I was training with Lance Brauman, who is an Adidas-sponsored coach. He was my coach before and so I went back to him. I ended up running really well indoors and got second to Christian at the U.S. championships. I ran 6.49 but I had just come back from being three years removed from the sport. I came back and ran my second-fastest time ever. So Nike came in, game me the deal, but I had to leave Lance Brauman.

The Lap Count: This is when I'm making more money than you.

Marvin Bracy: Exactly. So they come in, they give me a deal. My son was just born and I needed it. Beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll take it and I’ll flip it. All I need is the opportunity.

In 2020, I moved up to Jacksonville and I ended up training with Rana Reider. We went down to Claremont in 2020 at Dennis Mitchell’s track meet and I ran through it but I knew my body was out of whack. I knew something was wrong with me.

Come Monday, I told my coach that something was wrong. The worst time of my life… I was in the hospital the next day and I learned that my appendix had burst.

But that's just the start. COVID has kicked in so all the track meets have been canceled. The Olympics were postponed. I’m not all that mad. This is in July of 2020. I get the surgery and something still wasn't right.

I go back to the hospital and come to find out I have a blockage the size of a golf ball in my lower intestine. So they had to do what's called an exploratory laparotomy. They had to cut me open about two inches above my belly button to where my public area starts. It was a good incision that had to cut straight down and open me up, take the blockage out and staple me back together.

The Lap Count: How long are you out?

Marvin Bracy: Needless to say, that ended my season. I didn’t leave my house until like, late September. I didn’t really feel like myself until October. But I was back at practice on Nov. 18. I told my coach I was coming back and planning to run indoors. Then, my season’s best was 6.65. Clearly, I wasn't okay but I had to run through it. But then again, the same season I previously ran 6.65, I went on to run 9.85 for 100m.

The Lap Count: And then at the trials. What was it? A hamstring injury?

Marvin Bracy: Yep. It was unrelated. At the time, I was taking a pre-workout about 45 minutes before the race. Every morning, I also drink coffee. When it’s time to compete, I naturally just get really amped up. I'm very happy to be there. I love the opportunity to be able to go out there and compete and to do something that I love and get paid for it. This isn't a job to me. You’re telling me that the better I get, the faster I get, the more money you're going to give me? For 9 seconds of running? You’re gonna pay me $40K, $50K, $60K in 9 seconds? Sign me up. I will gladly do that.

I was just so happy to be there. The pre-workout plus the coffee plus just my natural adrenaline was making my body spasm.

The Lap Count: So you stopped taking the pre-workout?

Marvin Bracy: No, it wasn’t my last time because we didn't know at the time that's what caused it. Were you at the NYC Grand Prix last year?

The Lap Count: I was not.

Marvin Bracy: OK. So go back and watch the race. This is going to be funny. Coleman won the race with a 9.92. I just knew that day I was going to drop a 9.7. I warmed up hard as shit and I took that pre-workout right before the race goes off. I set the blocks for the race. I took off and my right calf cramped up. So if you look at the tape, I never have a drink at the starting line. I took my electrolytes to the starting line because I realized my calf was cramping. I was on national TV. I had to make a decision: Do I run? What do I do?

I was like “I'll just run through it. I'll be alright.” I was downing those electrolytes. But it’s too late once you start cramping up.The race goes off. My right calf is already cramped. My left leg cramps. I'm like, “Oh my God, this is fucking terrible.” I'm running and I'm just trying to stay within striking distance. I was cycling. My legs were locked. I ran 10.02 – a season’s best.

I started thinking: What about what am I doing wrong? What's going on? My coach asked me if I was taking the pre-workout again and he pointed out that was the problem. I haven't taken it and I haven’t had a problem since.

The Lap Count: Do you sleep well the night before meets?

Marvin Bracy: Honestly, every night of my life feels like the best sleep I’ve ever gotten. I sleep like a fucking king. I only need like six or seven hours. I get up every day at 6:00 a.m. Every day. I don’t need an alarm. And I'm ready for the day.

But I also now have two kids. My son is in school and there’s a two-month-old baby in the house. I think it works for me. Even on race day, I get up at like 6 or 7 a.m.

The Lap Count: See, I could never sleep when I was competing because I was too amped up the day before.

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