Digital Social Hour
Olympic Gold Medalist LaShawn Merritt Reveals His Winning Mindset! | DSH #1201
24 Feb 2025
🔥 From Olympic Gold to Business Success – LaShawn Merritt’s Next Chapter! 🏆 In this episode, we sit down with LaShawn Merritt, 3x Olympic Gold Medalist & Track Legend, to talk about his journey from dominating the 400m to transitioning into business and mentorship. LaShawn shares the mindset that made him a champion, his biggest career lessons, and how he’s now helping entrepreneurs and athletes develop a winning mentality with Next Level Pros. We also dive into the science of sprinting, how track athletes are undervalued, and the importance of discipline, gratitude, and integrity. If you’re looking for high-performance insights from an elite athlete, this episode is a must-watch! Key Timestamps 00:00 - Track & Field is a Contact Sport? The Science Behind Sprinting 00:22 - LaShawn Merritt’s Olympic Gold Medals & Career Highlights 01:50 - Retirement & The Challenges of Transitioning from Sports 03:30 - The Power of Chiropractic Care & Holistic Training for Athletes 06:10 - The Hardest Race in Track & Field: 400m vs 800m Debate 07:50 - The Craziest 400m Race & Quincy Hall’s Historic Gold 09:30 - How LaShawn Used Boxing Mindset for Sprinting Success 11:15 - The 2016 Olympic Race That Still Haunts Him 14:00 - The Truth About Track Rivalries – Nike Paid Him to Beat Jeremy Wariner! 16:30 - Can Anyone Break the 43-Second 400m Barrier? 18:50 - The Evolution of Track & Why Records Are Falling Fast 21:10 - LaShawn’s Business Journey with Next Level Pros & Mindset Coaching 24:00 - The Power of Visualization & How He Mentally Prepared for Races 26:45 - Raising Champions: Why Family & Integrity Matter Most 29:00 - The Merit Mindset: How to Win in Sports, Business, & Life 📲 Follow LaShawn & Next Level Pros: ➡️ Instagram: @lashawnmerritt ➡️ Website: Next Level Pros 🔥 APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application 📩 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected]
Full Episode
Track and field is a contact sport. The amount of force that we apply through the foot. I mean, sometimes I leave practice and I feel like I got hit by a truck. Damn. Yeah. But the lactic acid and the force application, it's a lot. Did you accomplish everything you wanted to in track? Whew.
All right, guys, got Leshawn Merritt here, Olympic champ. Brought the medals. Thanks for coming on, man. Yes, sir. I appreciate you for having me, Sean. Absolutely. Brought the 08 and the 16 gold medal. Let's go.
I did. I did. I have the 08 here from Beijing with a little bit of Chinese jade in it. And I also have the last one I got from Rio. This was my 4x4, but the Beijing was my most special one. That was my individual 400. Ooh. I love that, man. Man, the real one's huge. It's like double the size of the Beijing one. It is. More work put into that also.
Later in my career, people always say, man, this is heavy. I mean, that was a lot of years, a lot of work put into that. Did you feel like you lost a step in your later years? You know, I didn't. Well, I felt like I was more experienced, actually. But the guy actually ran faster in 16 than I ran in my 08. Oh, really? Yeah. So this one, the real goal was from the four by four.
Got it. And you kind of retired New York P because you retired the next year after getting gold.
I retired. So after 16, 17, I ended up having a foot injury. And in 19, I ended up having toe surgery. So I was training. I was hurting. I wasn't enjoying it anymore. And then I retired. That's the only job I've ever had. I was a bagger at a grocery store in the 10th grade. But this has been the only thing I've ever done. Wow, so you were all in.
That transition must have been tough, then. Really tough. Because you're so used to having a coach every day, right? Man, the discipline, the accountability, the purpose that I live for. I was the guy who fell in love with the process. And when I was finished, I didn't have much to turn to. No wife, no kids, no daily responsibility and accountability. And it got tough.
Right, because you probably had to sacrifice dating while you were an athlete, right? Absolutely. Because you're traveling everywhere. Absolutely. It was tough. You were locked in on work. Wow. Yeah, so how did you get through that time? Did it take some years?
It took about two years. It took about two years, and I ended up calling my chiropractor, who I took around the world with me for 17 years. He was the first guy I would see off of a plane, last guy I would see before I ran a competition. So I trusted him a lot, spent a lot of time with him. And he suggested that I go into commentating.
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