Running News Daily

American Olympic steeplechaser Colleen Quigley signs with Lululemon

American Olympic steeplechaser Colleen Quigley announced on Instagram on Wednesday that she has signed a new sponsorship deal with Lululemon. The former Nike athlete has been without a sponsor since February, and in her announcement video explained she chose Lululemon because she wanted a sponsor that “understood the whole me.”

This is the second big announcement from Quigley this year, coming a few months after she surprised the running world when, in early February, she left the Bowerman Track Club, where she’d been training for five years. Her new coach is Josh Seitz, who worked with her while she attended Florida State University.

Quigley explains her decision on her website in a post titled “Why lululemon?” In this post, she talks about the expectations that are often placed on professional runners and what they’re told they should or shouldn’t do, and explains that she no longer wants to let that dictate her actions.

“This runner does more than run. And finally this runner will no longer work with brands or people who don’t accept and even celebrate every side of her both off and on the track,” she said.

Along with her announcement, she has included a contest in which she is giving away four $150 Lululemon gift cards and four pieces of autographed Lululemon apparel. If you want to enter the contest you must first subscribe to Quigley’s newsletter.