Two years ago, Jamal Britt lay in his apartment in the hot summer — with no power as he struggled to pay bills — and wondered if it was time to quit track.
“A lot of people that live this life like me, sometimes they just decide to throw it all away and just give up,” he told NBC Sports research. “I decided to keep going regardless of what the situation was.”
Now, Britt, a 27-year-old who has never competed at an Olympics or World Championships, is the second-hottest 110m hurdler on the planet. He began 2026 with a personal best of 13.07 seconds, ranking outside the 40 fastest men in history.
He goes into the Toyota USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships — where the 110m hurdles are on Sunday, the last day of the four-day meet in New York City — as the fifth-fastest man in history and the top seed.
He seeks a first national title at an age where most track athletes already achieved that kind of success, or left the sport because of a lack of it.
In the 110m hurdles, the 13-second barrier separates the good pros from the medal favorites. Britt has broken 13 seconds on four wind-legal occasions this year, lowering his personal best each time in a three-week span in June and July.
He won races this season in Miramar, Florida; Greensboro, North Carolina; Des Moines; Shaoxing and Xiamen, China; Bydgoszcz, Poland; Prague; Los Angeles; Zagreb, Croatia; Paris; Eugene, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee.
On June 28, Britt returned to his hotel in Paris after his third victory in five races on the top-level Diamond League circuit and got a phone call.
His agent needed to know his uniform size. Britt was going to start being sponsored by Nike for his next race at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on July 4.
“Most of my career I’ve been unsponsored,” Britt said.
Britt previously paid for training and travel with jobs at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Scheels and, most recently, FedEx.
It was still difficult to make ends meet. It got really bad in 2024, the year he was eliminated in the semifinals at the Olympic Trials.
Britt said he almost got evicted from his apartment and spent two days without power because he was late on a payment.
“There’s been plenty of times that I just wanted to be like, ‘OK, this is probably not it for me because I can’t live like this anymore,’” he said. “Then one day I decided to really think about everything. I was like, ‘All right, if I decided to go this route and change everything. I’m going to give it one last chance.’ And since then, October of 2024, it’s been going uphill for me. It led to this.”
Britt, who trains in North Carolina, also credits 1996 Olympic 110m hurdles gold medalist Allen Johnson, his coach for the last two seasons.
“He told me, ‘Look, you can break the world record. You’re that talented,’” Britt said after winning the Prefontaine Classic in 12.86, beating newly crowned world record holder Ja’Kobe Tharp (who isn’t competing at nationals on Sunday).
Britt’s best time is 11 hundredths off Tharp’s world record of 12.75, not that he’s chasing it.
“The one thing that’s truly missing is being able to make a team and also having a medal to my name,” he said.
Britt’s next chances to make teams for global championships will come in 2027 (World Championships in Beijing) and 2028 (Los Angeles Olympics).
To achieve that goal, he’ll stick with the mindset that got him this far.
“I’m most likely still going to act like I’m unsponsored,” Britt said.
NBC Sports’ Owen Corbett contributed to this report.
