San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Former RB star Akins charts her own path
When the COVID-19 pandemic shackled the world to its couches and fears, Nia Akins picked up a guitar. She’d always thought about learning the instrument and a period of global isolation seemed as good a time as any.
A virus from the other side of the planet placed her unique life on hold, slamming the brakes on a promising track career and training to become a nurse.
“I didn’t have any clinical rotations anymore, no races,” said Akins, who attended Rancho Bernardo High School. “Always been a goal of mine. I was like, ‘I might as well do it.’ ”
Once she grew comfortable with finger positioning and chords, Akins drifted into songwriting. She began to stitch together something meaningful, something personal in January of 2021.
There it sat. Life returned, on the track and in hospital hallways. She began leaving a sizable mark at Penn University, as an NCAA runner-up in the outdoor and indoor 800 while being named college athlete of the meet at the storied Penn Relays.
Fast forward to July 9, when the 25-year-old became the national champion at that distance during the USA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Along the way to shaping herself into an Olympic contender, Akins ran cross country and locked down a nursing degree at Penn, one of the more prestigious programs in the country.
“When she’s got a task in front of her, it’s blinders,” said Terry Dockery, a Rancho Bernardo assistant who coached Akins in the 800. “When she decides she wants something, she sees it through until it happens.”
That came a week ago, when Akins roared back from sixth in the final, grabbed the lead with 50 meters to go and outkicked the field to win in 1:59.50 — just under 2 minutes, a fraction of a second, but differentiator of true stars.
Ready. Set. Sprint onto the big stage.
Akins will compete in the world championships, beginning with the women’s 800 heats on Aug. 23 in Budapest, Hungary. American
Athing Mu, the reigning U.S. and Olympic champ, leads a list of formidable contenders.
But she’s thrust herself into the conversation.
“She continues to get better and better,” said Don Jones, the former track coach at Rando Bernardo. “It’s crazy thinking what she’ll run in Budapest. It’s going to be much faster, just the competition.
“How she does at worlds this year is a tell-tale to see where she might be for the Olympics.”
Signs hinted at Akins’ ability early on.
When Rancho Bernardo needed a late replacement for the 4x100-meter relay heading into a race at famed Mt. Carmel, coaches added Akins. She had not trained in the starting blocks, so was the only competitor to stand up.
They won anyway, despite Akins giving up fractions of time in races decided by just that.
“I was in the stands and some said, ‘Look at that one girl. She doesn’t even know how to start,’ ” Dockery said with a chuckle. “Then she blew by everybody. It was pretty classic. We made these jokes, starting blocks are overrated.”
Akins laughed, too.
“I still don’t know how to use the blocks,” she said. “But I’m going to learn.”
When it comes to Akins, however, the athletic slice is rivaled by other peels of the onion. Who signs up for taxing medical rotations, for up to 12 hours some days, while chasing an Olympics-sized, time-gobbling dream?
It’s all part of the glorious adventure, she reasoned.
“It was tough, but I was so happy I didn’t really notice,” Akins said of the juggle. “Lots of nights of little sleep, some races didn’t go great because of school and some classes didn’t go great because of track. But I loved it.”
Both kept her on her talented toes.
“We’d walk through the door for a class at 8 a.m. and one of the professors was running around with a fake baby bump, ‘I’m in labor! What do you do?’ You had to drop everything and react. It was like role playing.
“They had smoke machines out, saying something was wrong at the hospital. It was these crazy scenarios. It’s like running. When you practice that much it looks easy when you do it, even though it’s hard.”
Sometimes, Akins’ diverse worlds overlap.
It’s common for her to take the guitar on competition trips. When a window opens, she’ll cradle it and begin to play. She was so caught up with her quest to become the U.S. champion in the 800 that she forgot a song was being released Thursday on her Youtube channel.
That shelved 2021 song. “I only finished it this year,” Akins said of “Of This I’m Sure.” “It’s tied to running, but it never felt cheesy to me.”
Is there a favorite lyric? “Yeah,” she said. “‘I’ll run this town like there’s no tomorrows, until my legs give out and my story’s been told.’ ”
Akins paused as a bolt of realization hit.
“Wow, I’m living those words,” she said.
One sprint, one strum, one stitch at a time.