‘Beauty’ of Olympic qualification goes beyond track for Utica grad

UTICA — Every step on the track is a blessing for him.

It wasn’t long ago that 2013 Utica High School graduate Freddie Crittenden III faced the ugliest part of the relationship between athletes and their respective sports — deciding when it’s time to call it a career.

The 2013 Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state champion, four-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree at Syracuse University track and field, and two-time First Team All-American in 60-meter and 110-meter hurdles in 2016 was facing obstacle after obstacle in his efforts to reach his Olympic dream.

Crittenden, 29, hyperextended his knee prior to the 2016 Olympic trials, keeping him from competing at full strength. It was a minor setback, but Crittenden picked up steam in 2019 for the 2020 Olympic trials before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred.

Another setback, but the 2021 Olympic trials were still at the center of his focus. That was before a double hamstring strain at the Doha Diamond League in Qatar left Crittenden injured and rehabbing for eight months before falling short of another Olympic qualification and struggling overseas.

“That was just a really difficult time to try and keep going,” Crittenden said. “I ended up going overseas and ran even worse, and that was when I was really considering being done. It was just a really hard eight months. When you have an injury like a hamstring, what the body does is it tries to compensate. My healthy leg would try to take some of the load and try to get you to survive and continue, but when it’s a double hamstring it’s like, where does the compensation happen? It was a very long process of getting my body back to a point where it was able to recover, heal and function normally.”

When Crittenden crossed the finish of the 110-meter hurdles at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials June 28 in Eugene, Oregon, every ounce of blood, sweat and tears seemed well spent as he punched his ticket for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Crittenden finished second with a time of 12.93 while Adidas’ Grant Holloway finished first with a 12.83 and Nike’s Daniel Roberts took third with a 12.96, marking the first time in Olympic trials history that three runners finished sub-13 seconds.

Qualifying for the Olympics along with his close friend Roberts was a dream come true, but unfortunately for Crittenden, finishing behind Holloway was a bit of a bitter taste again from his time at Syracuse.

“I’ve been racing Grant since 2016,” Crittenden said. “I remember the 2016 Indoor NCAA Championships at Texas A&M, I thought that was going to be my NCAA title, but the young Grant Holloway came in and showed everybody how to do it.”

Crittenden, who lives in Phoenix, runs for Phoenix Track Club. He said there’s too many people to thank for helping him continue his track career, but credited the support of his coach, Tim O’Neil, and his wife, Tor Hawley Crittenden.

Sometimes you just need to see someone in your sport thrive to motivate you, and British hurdler David King, who also trains for Phoenix Track Club, reaching the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was important for Crittenden.

“A very big thing for me was although I didn’t even make it to the finals in my Olympic trials, my best friend, David King, he made his first Olympic team in 2021,” Crittenden said. “Seeing how fulfilling it was for him and how much that boosted his confidence and made him so happy, watching that in the front seat and being happy for him encouraged me.”

Not that he needed any more motivation, because he’s already running the best he’s ever run, setting a personal best at the Olympic trials, but Crittenden and his wife will also be expecting something special aside from a shot at a gold medal.

Crittenden and his wife are expecting their first child this year, solidifying one of the most memorable years that a track and field athlete could have.

“It kind of all came at the same time, and I think it happened this way for a reason,” Crittenden said. “I know that obviously with it being an Olympic year, it’s a defining moment in my career. I want to put all my eggs in this basket, and I want to focus and lock in. I want to do all the little things, but also there’s the beauty in having a little one and the investment that I have in my wife and seeing that she’s going through this pregnancy. It’s been very difficult for her with some really bad nausea and morning sickness the first three months, and despite that, she’s had an undying support and love for me as I do something that I love.”

Still currently unsponsored, Crittenden said he knows that each race carries more implications than just a medal or a qualification.

Crittenden is an inspiration not just for his family, but for runners all across the Utica High School track and field program who have kept tabs on Crittenden throughout his career, according to Utica boys track and field head coach Megan Berry.

Berry was blown away by Crittenden’s ability when he came to the school for his junior year, and even though the world is just starting to get to know Crittenden in his 29-year-old season, Berry said she feels he still has a lot left to show.

“I don’t think he’s reached his ceiling just yet,” Berry said. “I think he can run even faster. He PR’d at the Olympic Trials and broke 13 (seconds) for the first time, and he looked really good. I feel like he could run even faster. I feel like he could medal at the Olympics for how well he was running, because he wasn’t that far behind Grant Holloway, who’s going for gold. He was just a few hundredths behind him. If he’s right there with Grant Holloway, he can race anybody.”

Every race, in Crittenden’s eyes, is for his wife, for his family, for his child, and for everyone who’s ever poured an ounce of time into him to keep pursuing his dream.

Crittenden said the moment from when he flies out for Paris on July 25 and takes the line for his first race on Aug. 4, it’s all become bigger for him than just the sport he loves.

“I’m already telling the baby like, ‘You helped daddy make the team. You helped me make all this happen,’” Crittenden said.