Britton Wilson is on fire this season. For the fourth time this year, the University of Arkansas senior shattered the collegiate record in the women’s 400 meters.
During the 2023 SEC Outdoor Track Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Wilson broke the record twice, first in the preliminary round on Friday, May 12, and again in the final on Saturday, May 13. She kicked off the conference meet by lowering her collegiate record to 49.40 from 49.51. To win the SEC title, she blazed around the track in 49.13, by far the fastest time in the world so far this year.
Just 90 minutes later, the NCAA champion went on to win the 400-meter hurdles in 53.28, the fourth-fastest performance in collegiate history.
It’s the latest in a series of breakthroughs for Wilson. On April 15, she broke the outdoor 400-meter collegiate record for the first time at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida. The day after running a world lead in the 400-meter hurdles, Wilson blazed around the track once again to win the 400 meters in 49.51. At the time, the performance improved on the previous 49.57 collegiate record set by Athing Mu in 2021.
In March, she shattered the indoor American record and the absolute collegiate record by running 49.48 to win the 400-meter title at the NCAA Indoor Championships. An hour later, she contributed more points to the Razorbacks’ NCAA indoor team title with a stunning performance in the 4x400-meter relay. Her anchor leg split of 49.19 is the fastest indoor split in world history.
As Wilson shared in a virtual media event on Wednesday, April 19, the 22-year-old navigated a months-long physical and mental battle to reach this point. In the beginning of the indoor season, she dealt with injuries in her shins. To maintain her fitness and manage the pain, she cross-trained. As the weeks went on, it became difficult to watch her teammates progress while she felt behind in workouts. But with consistent therapy and by opening up to her support system, including reassuring conversations with Arkansas associate head coach Chris Johnson, Wilson brought herself into a good headspace.
“[In therapy] I was just making sure that I wasn’t putting all the pressure and hardship on myself, and I was able to have outlets to express it and not bottle it up and let it affect me at practice,” Wilson said.
In the past, the sprinter from Henrico, Virginia, has been outspoken about the importance of collegiate coaches and athletes prioritizing mental health. In a 2022 interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she shared her experience navigating a low point of her own before transferring from the University of Tennessee to Arkansas. “A lot of staff members, coaches and assistants, they are very quick to agree, mental health is important,” she told the outlet. “But it’s kind of just something we say nowadays because of the stuff they see in the news. Sometimes they don’t actually take into account what goes into your mental health.”
For Wilson, a pivot helped lead to major improvements on the track. Weeks after winning the 400-meter hurdles at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, she ran 49.39 on the third leg of the United States’ 4x400-meter relay that won gold at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. In the same meet, she finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.02, more than three seconds faster than her fastest time a year prior.
Despite navigating the injury setback, Wilson still managed to post several standout runs earlier this year. In January, she opened her season by breaking the collegiate record in the 600 meters, another mark previously held by Mu. Holding two collegiate records that were set by an Olympic gold medalist in the 800 meters makes Wilson feel hopeful, she said. “Obviously my goal is to become an Olympian one day, so it’s pretty cool to break records of someone that has done a lot of big things,” Wilson said. “It makes me feel like I’m on the right track.”
She and Johnson also experimented with the 800 meters during the indoor season. In February, she finished second in 2:02:13 at the SEC Indoor Championships.
By the time she opened her outdoor season in Gainesville, Wilson was poised for more big performances in her signature events. On Friday, April 14, she blasted a 53.23 world lead in the 400-meter hurdles and returned for an encore on Saturday in a race filled with heavy hitters, including NCAA runner-up Rhasidat Adeleke of Texas.
“To break that record and to have athletes in that race who also ran pretty fast, it’s fantastic and it speaks to her hard work, but more importantly, her level of execution under stress,” Johnson said.
Looking back, Wilson said she didn’t expect to break the record so early, but she’s happy to see her efforts continue to pay off in her final collegiate season.
“I’ve worked really hard and I know that I’ve done a lot the past few years to get to where I’m at now,” she said. “I feel like everything is falling into place."
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
