Canada’s Natalia Hawthorn is now running as a Brooks-sponsored athlete as she attempts to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics
Canadian 1,500m and 5,000m runner Natalia Hawthorn has signed on to compete with Brooks Running as she works to qualify for this summer’s Tokyo Games. Hawthorn has a long history with Brooks, and it only made sense to join the company’s elite team as she continues to progress toward her Olympic dreams.
As a sixth-grader in her hometown of Bracebridge, Ont., Hawthorn began training with the Newmarket Huskies, a club more than an hour away. The Huskies happened to be affiliated with Brooks, giving Hawthorn her first encounter with the brand. Working with the Huskies, Hawthorn continued to improve as a runner, and she eventually moved to Vancouver, where she ran at UBC.
After graduating from UBC, Hawthorn stayed out west, and she found a job at Brooks in 2018. This job brought her back into the world of Brooks, although unlike her time wearing the brand with the Huskies, Hawthorn now saw the company’s inner workings.
As Hawthorn said on Instagram, the job at Brooks gave her the opportunity to “learn more about their technology, inclusivity, initiatives to minimize their environmental impact, effort to create positive social impact, transparency and most of all their mutual goal to inspire everyone to run and be active.” In her time at Brooks, Hawthorn came to truly appreciate and respect the brand, which played a big role in her eventual decision to sign with the company as an elite athlete.
Hawthorn worked at Brooks for less than a year, but the job had a lasting impact on her. She left the job in 2019 after deciding that she wanted to focus more time on running and pursuing her dream of competing in the Olympics. “I loved my job, but I was spreading myself too thin trying to give it 100 per cent in both my work as a [Brooks employee] and as an athlete,” she says.
Since leaving the job, Hawthorn has run PBs in the 1,500m (4:07.28) and 5,000m (15:31.27), both of which she hopes to lower in the coming months to meet the Olympic standards of 4:04.20 and 15:10.00. Her new partnership with Brooks is added support in that Olympic standard chase, and she says she’s thrilled to be a part of the brand’s team.
“It felt surreal to have received a call about becoming an elite athlete for Brooks Running,” she says. “To have the brand I worked for in the past, who I genuinely love and believe in, come back in my life at this point to support me in my pursuit of running is a dream come true. I feel so fortunate and appreciative to have Brooks support me in my journey and to be part of their family once again.”
posted Monday April 19th
by Ben Snider-McGrath