Nick Symmonds at the 2011 World Athletics Championships |
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 30 December 1983 Boise, Idaho, USA |
| Height | 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) |
| Weight | 165 pounds (75 kg) |
| Website | www.nicksymmonds.com |
| Sport | |
| Country | United States |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) |
400 m: 48.1 (2006) |
Nicholas "Nick" Symmonds (born December 30, 1983) is an American middle-distance track athlete from Boise, Idaho, specializing in the 800 meters and 1500 meters distances.[1] He is also the part owner of a tanning salon.[2] In college at Willamette University he won seven NCAA Division III titles in outdoor track. In 2007, he won the 800 m race at the Prefontaine Classic. On June 30, 2008, Symmonds won the 800 m run at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, in 1:44.10 and qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics team. Symmonds won his Round 1 - Heat 4 race with 1:46:01, but failed to qualify in the semifinals run on 21 August 2008: he placed 5th at 1:46:96.[3]
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Symmonds was born on December 30, 1983, in Boise, Idaho,[4] where his father Jeffrey Symmonds is a surgeon, and his mother Andrea is a teacher.[5] Raised in Boise, Nick is a 2002 graduate of Bishop Kelly High School in that city.[5] In high school he won state championships in the 800 m (PR 1:53), 1600 m (PR 4:20) and 3200 m individual races and on the 4 x 400 m relay.[5] He received little interest from college track programs in high school, and went on to Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.[5]
At Willamette, a NCAA Division III school, Symmonds would earn a degree in biochemistry in 2006 and be a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.[5] On the track outdoors, he won the 800 NCAA championship race all four years and the 1500 NCAA championship race as a freshman, junior, and senior.[1][6] Symmonds collegiate best in the 800 (1:45.83) currently ranks No. 1 in NCAA Division III history.[7][8] His 1500 collegiate best (3:40.91) ranks No. 3 all-time in NCAA Division III.[7][8]
After college the 5-10 Symmonds joined the Oregon Track Club Elite.[5] A seven time outdoor track champion at the NCAA III level, he was runner-up at the AT&T USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2006 in the 800 m race.[1] In 2007, he won the 800 m race at the Prefontaine Classic meet in Eugene, Oregon, with a then personal best 1:44.54 seconds, shocking the current Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy by beating him at his own come from behind strategy.[9]
In 2008 he won the United States Olympic Trials 800 m final held in Eugene, Oregon with a personal best time of 1:44.10.[10] Symmonds was the first of three Oregon associated athletes to finish at the top of this race before the home crowd, the other two being Andrew Wheating from the University of Oregon and Oregon Track Club training partner Christian Smith, an event referred to as the "Oregon sweep" replayed many times in television coverage of the meet.See it on a private youtube videoand as presented on TV. This qualified him (and all three) for the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, for the 800 m race.[4] At the Beijing Olympics, Symmonds finished fifth in his semifinal heat with a time of 1:46.96, 0.73 seconds behind the winner of that heat.
Symmonds continued to improve in 2009, winning the USATF Championships over Khadevis Robinson, which qualified him to represent the US at the World Championships. As part of his preparation for the championships, Symmonds ran a PR of 1:43.83 on July 29, 2009 in Monaco.[5] A few weeks later, Symmonds became the first American to qualify for the final of the men's 800 m since 1997. He finished sixth in 1:45.71.[1] In 2010, he again lowered his personal record to 1:43.76, while finishing third behind David Rudisha's 1:41.01 world record at the IAAF World Challenge track and field meet in Rieti, Italy.[11]