Meet Sam Blaskowski: The D3 Kid Who Just Ran 9.89 For 100m
About this episode
Sam Blaskowski discusses his recent achievement of running 9.89 seconds in the 100m and his journey as a Division III athlete.
“Every day you go through these mental battles — how do I keep going? You’re in a sport where you don’t just leave college and start making a million dollars. You just got to build yourself, almost by yourself.” My guest for today’s episode is Sam Blaskowski . Not a ton of you probably knew his name before this weekend. At the Music City Track Carnival in Cleveland, Tennessee last Saturday, he ran 9.89 seconds in the 100m: a wind-legal personal best that shaved 0.16 off his previous mark of 10.05, making him the fastest American of 2026 so far, and putting him at number two in the world this season. He skipped the 9.90s entirely. Sam is 23 years old. He grew up in Wisconsin, went to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — a Division III program where his grandparents live a mile from the stadium and both his parents went to school — and graduated without ever contemplating leaving for a Division I program. He has 11 individual NCAA D3 titles. He spent the off-season working at a small regional airport to save money for his move to Florida, where he now trains with Star Athletics under Dennis Mitchell alongside Kenny Bednarek, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden…
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