Fred Kerley has his eyes on the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris next Summer. He’s made a big change in order to help him reach his full potential on the track, as well as to make his vision a reality.
Kerley announced Monday night that he would be leaving his former coach Alleyne Francique, and will be training under Quincy Watts.
“Choosing to make changes is always risky, even riskier during a year like the Olympics,” he said on X (formerly known as Twitter.) “ I felt that I needed to bet on myself. I needed to prove to myself that I was all in and that meant seeking the guidance of COACH WATTS.
I’m entrusting him to bring out the best version of myself in the most important athletic year of my career. Y’all ready?”
Watts is the current head coach of USC Track and Field, and has coached the likes of Michael Norman and Rai Benjamin. Watts is one of fastest 400m runners of all time, and he is a member of the 4x400m relay team that broke the current world record in the event. He won the Olympic gold medal at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 in the men’s 400m, as well as the men’s 4x400m relay.
Kerley, who started out as a 400m specialist, has moved down to the short sprints and has excelled in the men’s 100m. He won the gold medal in the event in 2022 at the World Championships in Eugene. At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo , he finished with the silver medal in the men’s 100m. He was a member of the 2019 world championship winning 4x400m relay squad in Doha, Qatar, and he also picked up another gold medal as a member of the 4x100m relay in Budapest this past summer at the World Championships.
