Erriyon Knighton is just 18 years old but has already shattered some of Usain Bolt’s junior sprint records. The Tampa native turned pro as a high schooler and signed with Adidas. Back in April, he ran a wind-legal 19.49 at a meet in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to become the fourth-fastest man in history. Only Bolt, Yohan Blake and Michael Johnson are ahead of him on the all-time list.
Knighton ran 19.84 for the previous U20 record in the semifinal of the Olympic Trials. He made the team and history as the youngest U.S. male track Olympian since Jim Ryun in the 1960s. He finished fourth at last year’s Olympics and in my podcast episode with him, you’ll hear just how much he wants a piece of hardware.
My colleague Mac Fleet and I traveled to Tampa earlier this month to spend some time with Erriyon and his coach Jonathan Terry. We will be releasing a video on our YouTube channel with some of the highlights of our time with him so subscribe and set your alerts to the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel for that and all our content from the upcoming US Championships and World Championships.
You can now listen to our conversation on The CITIUS MAG Podcast. Catch the latest episode of the podcast on Apple Podcasts. We are also on Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify.
CITIUS MAG: What’s got you excited about your potential and you as a pro in the sport?
ERRIYON KNIGHTON: Probably making the Olympic team. That got me excited. That’s making the Olympic team young. I’m going to try to make the World Championship team this year. I feel like making the team is what got me hype. It’s going and traveling across the world, being with a whole group of people and battling against other countries.
CITIUS MAG: Do you feel young at these pro races?
ERRIYON KNIGHTON: I know I’m young but my mindset I don’t take it as if I’m young. I feel like I’m on the same level as anybody else that was there. There’s a reason that I was there. I wasn’t there because someone put me there. I earned my way there. I’m definitely young but my mindset is definitely not young at all.
ERRIYON KNIGHTON: The job was not finished. The job was not finished at all. I could’ve done the interview. I won the heat. I just don’t understand why you’d get so happy if you hadn’t made the Olympic team yet. It’s only going to make you sadder when you don’t make the team and you’re in front of the camera showing out.
CITIUS MAG: You didn’t even bother celebrating the high school record that you broke. (Note: Knighton is ineligible for the official high school records because he turned pro.)
I had one of my pro members of my team just kept looking at me for like 20 minutes straight. Just kept staring at me for the longest time. We get in the car and he’s still staring at me because of what I just did. It was weird but I was laughing.