A few years ago, the fastest high schooler in the country was told he was too slow. Micah Williams wasn’t on a track. Instead, he was working for Amazon.
Williams was a three-time Gatorade Boy’s Track and Field Runner of the Year in Oregon and had broken state records in the 100 meters and 200 meters. But when it came to putting boxes in trucks, he was told he didn’t move quickly enough.
Williams’ former coach at Benson High School, Leon McKenzie, who’s known him for a decade, tells the rest of the story like this:
It was Williams’ first job, and he saved the money to buy his own Subaru sports car. He saw his co-workers stay long hours to provide for their families. As a junior in high school, bringing in money wasn’t as serious for him as it was for others. But it made Williams realize he wanted to steer his own financial gains, someday start his own business and be his own boss.
The same can be said about Williams’ mindset on the track, where he strives to control his future by working with unparalleled attention to detail. He’s so invested in daily improvement that he brings his own meals of salmon, yams and salad on road trips so that he doesn’t stray from his normal diet. Over last winter break, he came home to Portland for only a few days, mostly staying on campus to get in individual work.
“He wants to know how good he can be,” McKenzie said. “He doesn’t want to be 35 and say ‘I could’ve done this and I could’ve done that.’ He still wants to know: ‘Where can I go?’”
Williams is now a freshman phenom at Oregon, where he’s already won a national indoor championship after tying a school record with a 60-meter time of 6.49 seconds. On Wednesday at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Williams punched his ticket to Friday’s 100-meter final by clocking the fastest semifinal time: 10.11 seconds.
Williams has a sprinter’s physique now, but things used to be starkly different. When he was 9 years old, Williams’ mother wanted him to get out of the house because he was on the computer too much. He tried baseball, but it was too slow for him.
Williams settled on track. He met McKenzie and was first described as a “pudgy kid.” He was quick, but flailed his limbs when he accelerated. His strides were choppy. He wasn’t flexible. Still, McKenzie saw potential.
The following year, Williams told McKenzie he wanted to invest himself in track.
Williams started going to a physical therapist to help his flexibility and open his hip mobility. He learned how to have a low foot level coming off of the block to create force. Every rep had to be done precisely. He started going to national meets to experience racing under pressure.
Williams would frequently arrive at practices early, greeting McKenzie with “Where have you been, Coach? I’m ready to go.” When they ran hills, Williams asked to do more reps. If they were recording daily drills, Williams always watched the video to critique himself.
By early in his high school career, Williams had become a polished sprinter.
But there were times when Williams would get frustrated because he wasn’t picking up a skill quickly. He’d worry about getting off to slow starts and perfecting his form. After a race at Oregon this season, Williams was being hard on himself after not having his best performance.
“You’re not a robot,” McKenzie reminded him. “You’re a human being.”
“It sometimes gets in his way because he tries to perfect everything,” McKenzie said.
In high school, Williams ran just two full seasons. As a junior, his outdoor track season was cut short due to injuries. As a senior, COVID-19 abruptly ended his prep career.
But even then, Williams established himself as one of the top track stars in the country. He won the 60-meter event at the 2019 New Balance Indoor Nationals. He was a six-time Portland Interscholastic League champion in relays and individual events. In January of his senior year, Williams signed with Oregon.
Amid his rise, McKenzie had a three-word motto that he helped ingrain in Williams: Healthy, hungry and humble.
The ambition is there. Just last month Williams challenged NFL stars DK Metcalf and Tyreek Hill to a race on Twitter.
But Williams has also been able to balance his confidence with selflessness, McKenzie said. When Williams won Oregon Athlete of the Year, Williams immediately met the second-place finisher on the stage and expressed his respect. After recording a blazing time at a race in high school, Williams helped up a competitor who tripped. During practices, he offered rides and gave pairs of cleats to his teammates. He also held a 4.0 GPA, McKenzie says.
“We’ve always talked about that,” McKenzie said. “Be a hell of a competitor, but at the end of the day be human, too.”
At Oregon this season, Williams has quickly become a star. After winning the indoor championship, he placed first in the 200 meters at San Diego State in late March. He’s part of the Ducks’ 4x100 relay team that competed in the NCAA championships Wednesday, although the team failed to qualify for the final. At the Pac-12 championships in mid-May, Williams finished second in the 100.
In the days leading up to the NCAA championships, McKenzie has heard questions: “Is he worried about the spring storm coming from the South?”
Although Oregon is a powerhouse, the Ducks are not the favorites. That label belongs to LSU. And Williams is just a freshman. He’s competing against more experienced and developed sprinters. But Williams’ lofty expectations and unflinching ambitions remain.
Through rain and a slick track, Williams showed out in the 100 semifinals. He exploded out of the blocks and carried his momentum through the finish line.
“I just needed to focus,” Williams said after the race. “I’m from Oregon, so (the rain) was nothing new to me. I just needed to go out there and run my race. It’ll be the same for the final … just run my race and execute and that will take me wherever I need to go.”
There’s also the realization that the margin for error in sprinting is minuscule. One bad start, one false step can throw off the entire race. On Friday, rain is predicted again.
To win a national championship on Friday, Williams might need to approach an impossible standard: perfection.
It’s almost as if Williams is trying to control the uncontrollable. But maybe it’s a good thing. Williams knows something about that.
-- Tyler Tachman