LaShawn Merritt claimed his third consecutive crown at the U.S. Olympic Trials earlier this month, but the Virginia native isn’t stopping there as he looks forward to the Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
“Somebody’s got to be the big dog—prime time, lights on, big prize money, people in the stands, one shot, when the gun goes off, you’ve got to go,” LaShawn said in a recent video series for FloTrack.com. “This is big dog business.”
LaShawn holds the world leading time in both the 200m and the 400m in 2016—and so far he’s the only man to have run a sub-44 second 400m dash—putting him in prime position to capture his second gold medal with the Olympics just a few weeks away.
To hear the Nike sprinter’s full story—from his Olympic dreams in high school to his run at 400m history, check out FloTrack.com’s two-part video series Driven: LaShawn Merritt. In the can’t-miss mini-documentary, LaShawn details his goal for Rio: taking down Michael Johnson’s world record 43.18-second 400m time.
“I want to go there and defend my title,” LaShawn said. “I ran 43.6 last year. I might as well attempted 43.18. It’s going to be tough. But I’m up for the challenge.”