From Walmart worker to Olympic hopeful: This is how Dylan Beard overcomes obstacles

February 11 is a date Dylan Beard will always remember. At this 12 months’s Millrose Games in New York, Beard scored a giant win within the 60-meter hurdles, setting a private best alongside the ability record with the third-fastest time within the 60-meter hurdles. world. What’s much more remarkable is that track and field is not Beard’s only activity – he works full-time behind the deli counter at Walmart.

The victory catapulted Beard onto the national stage, where he is training to compete for a spot on the U.S. Track and Field team on the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Beard sat down with ESSENCE in the midst of his busy work and training schedule to discuss his journey, goals and aspirations, and favorite Olympic moments.

“My goal was to repeat what I achieved last year, and with the Olympics this year, I obviously wanted to make the team, but I had no idea that it would be my year in 2024, so it was truly a blessing” – Olympic hopeful Dylan Beard told ESSENCE.

While TODAY In an interview, Beard said, “I think I came out a lot more relaxed, with nothing to lose and a lot to gain.”

Currently, Beard stays an unsponsored athlete, working his “day job” to support himself and proceed competing, but hopefully that can change soon. His goal is to compete “for money prizes and in addition to simply raise his status on the planet [of track and field]”

This is Beard’s tenth 12 months of hurdling. “I began training for this discipline in 2013 and competing in 2014, once I was a student at Archbishop Spalding Secondary School. My coach said, “Just try to jump hurdles,” and that is what I did. He said, ‘We can at all times fix all the pieces later, so long as you possibly can recover from the hurdles now,'” the Baltimore resident said.

Beard continued this introduction to hurdles and ran with all of it the best way to college. “I was blessed to be able to work seven years as a Division I player instead of the normal four. I started my freshman year at Wagner College in 2016, spent two years there, and transferred to Hampton University in 2018, where I earned a degree in biochemistry. But then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and Beard lost two years of competition. “At that point I decided to transfer again as a graduate student and I was able to go to Howard University and meet former Olympian David Oliver as well as the rest of the coaching staff at Howard and that really shaped me as a professional to get me to where I am today,” he stated Beard.

While there have been many changes over the past 12 months, according to Beard, “This is my first year out of school and the only difference is that instead of going to class and doing homework, I exercise and go to work. When it comes to training, there is no difference – it’s still the same goals. We are still competing to win regardless of the race, we want to lower those times and get a little better every time we race and practice. This is really the main goal; it’s just a bigger goal, and then maybe more eyes will be watching.”