Nick Symmonds

At 40 years old, Nick Symmonds has this physical status:

While at Willamette, he won the 800 m NCAA championship race all four years and 1500 m NCAA championship race as a freshman, junior, and senior. Symmonds collegiate best in the 800m (1:45.83) currently ranks No. 1 in NCAA Division III history. His 1500m collegiate best (3:40.91) ranks No. 3 all-time in NCAA Division III. Though Symmonds is widely regarded as Willamette's most decorated athlete, his poor relationship with Head Coach Matt McGuirk have prevented wide celebration of his athletic achievements at his alma mater.

After college Symmonds joined the Oregon Track Club Elite. 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 800m race. In 2007, he won the 800m race at the Prefontaine Classic meet in Eugene, Oregon, with a then personal best time of 1:44.54, shocking the current Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy by beating him with his own come-from-behind strategy. See the video.

In 2008, Symmonds won the United States Olympic Trials 800m final held in Eugene, Oregon with a personal best time of 1:44.10. He 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" and replayed many times in television coverage of the meet. 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. At the Beijing Olympics, Symmonds won his first-round heat, then finished a non-qualifying fifth place 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 United States at the World Championships. As part of his preparation for the championships, Symmonds ran a personal best of 1:43.83 on July 29, 2009, in Monaco. A few weeks later, Symmonds became the first American to qualify for the final of the men's 800m since 1997. He finished sixth in 1:45.71. In 2010, he lowered his personal record again, 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.

On June 25, 2012, Symmonds returned to the 2012 United States Olympic Trials again on his home track in Eugene, Oregon. The race went out fast, with Charles Jock leading Duane Solomon through a sub-50 second first lap. Atypically, Symmonds was not far off that pace. As Jock faded, Solomon charged off to a big lead through the final turn. Symmonds ran around the field and sprinted past Solomon on the homestretch to make his second Olympic team.

At the London Olympics, Symmonds was one of the two time qualifiers for the final of the 800m. He placed fifth in the final with a new personal best of 1:42.95; David Rudisha placed first in the world record time of 1:40.91., with Nijel Amos of Botswana second, Timothy Kitum of Kenya third, and Symmonds' teammate Duane Solomon fourth.

In 2013, Symmonds achieved his highest placing at an international championship, winning a silver medal at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Athletics by running a season's best of 1:43.55, 2nd only to Ethiopia's Mohammed Aman. At the time, this was the highest an American had ever finished in the men's 800 meters at the World Championships.

Symmonds was removed from the U.S. team at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics due to a sponsorship rights conflict between personal sponsor Brooks and U.S. sponsor Nike.

Symmonds had to forego racing the 2016 Olympic Trials due to an injured ankle. He retired after being eliminated in the heats of the 2017 US Championships.

YouTube career

Symmonds' YouTube channel broke out in late 2019, and currently has over 900 thousand subscribers and 142 million views. In his YouTube videos he often refers to himself as "The Bison". His content focuses on challenges involving fitness and running. He is good friends with fellow YouTuber A.J. Lapray. Sometime in 2020 he signed a deal with Gymshark. In June–July 2020, Symmonds became a topic of controversy in the running community when he organized events ignoring social distancing guidance for his videos. In March 2020, one of Symmonds' YouTube videos led to the suspension of three NCAA college athletes from his alma mater, Willamette University, when he gifted them Run Gum prizes for participating in his video.

Beginning in 2020, Nick has started a second YouTube channel named 'Nick Symmonds Too', consisting of many reaction, tutorial and challenge videos of shorter length. As of 2022, the channel has 49.2 thousand subscribers, and 4.8 million views.

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