Christian Miller was a high school senior last April when he became one of the fastest teenagers in track and field history. Running 9.93 seconds in the 100m a month before his 18th birthday made Miller wonder how much faster he could go.
Now, he will have the chance to find out – as a professional.
Miller signed professional contract with Puma, he said NBC News, A decision that puts him in the small club of track and field athletes who ignore the NCAA right out of high school.
Miller will continue to train in Jacksonville, Florida, where he grew up, and will focus on the 100 and 200 meters under his longtime coach, Ricky Fields. He will also take online computer science, digital media and cinematography classes through Liberty University.
Miller, who has already turned 18, isn't yet a household name, but that could change when the Olympics return to Los Angeles in 2028. Her fifth-place finish in the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in June boosted her confidence that she belongs. to professionals, she said.
“What I’m most excited about next year is definitely stamping my name as one of the most dominant track and field sprinters in the world,” Miller said. “Normally you hear names in the last few years, you hear names like Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo and things like that. I’m trying to establish myself as one of the best 100 and 200 meter runners.”
Although Miller announced in July that he would forgo his NCAA eligibility and turn pro instead of running for the University of Georgia, the shoe company he would run for was not previously informed until his interview with NBC News.
Several shoe companies vied to hire Miller over the summer before choosing the German sportswear maker whose most famous client, Usain Bolt, holds the world record in the Miller competition. Details of professional contracts in athletics are rarely made public, and Miller's terms are not. But his agent, Mario Bassani of Mezzo Management Group, described it as the most lucrative multi-year contract in sport for an athlete to make his professional debut. Miller previously signed a sponsorship deal with Oakley.
Miller considered jumping straight into a professional career after a senior season at Creekside High School near Jacksonville. Highlights include finishing fifth at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in June and becoming the sixth person under the age of 20 to run the 100 meters in under 10 seconds.
Miller said he believed he would run fast when he settled into the blocks at an April 20 meeting in Clermont, Florida. Still, he didn't expect to run 9.93 seconds, which on June 1 was the fastest time in the world. The time places Miller second on the world U20 list, behind future 2022 Olympic gold medalist Letsile Tebogo's 9.91 (a four-year ban for doping violation.)
If his races go as expected next season, “those times will definitely put the U20 world record on the clock,” Miller told NBC News.
“With each year I’ve gone through, I think I’ve made a huge leap forward. I felt like if I went to college, from the amount of time I’ve been running, I felt like I would almost take a step back,” he said. “I looked at all the resources and things I had at home and everything I would have at UGA. And I told myself that I'm trying to grow, and I'm really trying to make a mark in the world of athletics and I think this is the best way to express my talent and strike while the iron is hot. That’s why I decided to move on and become a professional.”
For many North American and international athletes, the NCAA serves as the most common channel to a professional career. Some went on to become professionals and found quick success, such as sprinters Noah Lyles, Aerion Knighton and Tamari Davis and middle-distance runner Hobbs Kessler, who won medals in track and field competitions around the world. Everyone is considered favorite to take the US team to the 2025 World Cup in Tokyo.
Miller is confident he can join them, finding his Olympic Trials experience instructive on what a professional career would look like.
“It was a good milestone for me because I was facing some of the fastest in the world,” he said. “So I was looking at that and telling myself that I can really compete with the fastest people in the world.”
