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Now, a ticket to Tokyo is Brazier's number-one
priority.
"I have some things to redeem, I’m looking for some good
redemption here at the trials," Brazier told reporters on
Monday, with this year's Olympic trials set to kick off on
Friday.
"(The year) 2016 was a hell of a lot different than what 2019
was," said Brazier. "I feel like I was ignorant (of) everything,
which was a pro and kind of a con at the same time."
A favorite to dominate the men's 800 in Tokyo, Brazier picked up
his 10th straight win in the event at August's Diamond League in
Monaco, when many other American athletes stayed stateside amid
a chaotic competition schedule.
"We didn’t really find what our purpose was, we were losing
motivation by the day, like we were training but we didn’t know
what we were training for and (coach Pete Julian) saw that we
were all fit enough to kind of compete and he didn’t want to
waste that time," said Brazier.
He credits the team environment created by Julian, a former
assistant coach of the Nike Oregon Project, with helping deliver
him through the "ups and downs" between 2019 and the starting
line this week.
"It wasn’t up until I finally had a group I could surround
myself with and kind of have more structure and kind of have
somewhat of a comparison to what I had in college that (I felt
I) had the biggest progression," said Brazier.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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