Baylor Olympian finds gold beyond the track running own business

Nearly a decade since his last Olympic gold at the Beijing games, former Baylor sprinter Jeremy Wariner has called it a career, trading in his track shoes for a business card. But he’s still staying true to working fast, owning a Jimmy John’s with his wife in Dallas.

The sandwich chain is almost too good a fit for Wariner who could have lived the “freaky fast” slogan, delivering your order in 43.45 seconds if your order was 400m away in 2007. That was Wariner’s personal record set in 2007, winning the world championships in Osaka, Japan.

But the sprinter that broke Michael Johnson’s school record at the 2004 Athen Games has slowed down too much after two knee surgeries before turning 30. He was fully committed to running even without his Adidas sponsorship last year but unable to meet the qualifications his fourth Olympics, the 32-year-old has officially called it a career.

“Last year, I was 100 percent dedicated to running and I made a couple sacrifices to try and make one more Olympics. Because of these injuries, toward the end of my career, running became a routine and it wasn’t fun anymore,” Wariner told Sports Illustrated. “I knew deep down that I still had it but I was just doing so much to try and stay healthy that I was fatiguing. My body just wasn’t recovering. That’s when I knew the 44s and 43s were long gone.”

Wariner said he realized the end was near once his Adidas sponsorship didn’t renew in 2013 and he’d have to think about his future beyond running.

“I had money that I saved up but there’s athletes out there that aren’t fortunate enough to have made what I did at the beginning of my career,” Wariner said. “If you’re not running fast now, you’re not even getting into meets. If you are lucky to get in, sometimes they won’t pay anything except maybe the hotel and some food. For U.S. athletes it’s not cheap to get out to Europe so you have to pay your travel and hope to win back what you’re investing to chase fast times. Sometimes you lose money. The prize money now isn’t what it used to be.”

After spending a couple years balancing running with his business, Wariner is now completely focused on overseeing his 20-plus employees. Wariner said he plans on finishing his education at Baylor as well.