The USATF Foundation — Crucial Athlete Lifeline

ON HIS WAY to his first World Championships in August 2023, Freddie Crittenden was filled with both pride and anxiety. Making the team at age 29 was a hard-earned high point in his career as a hurdler, but the financially precarious life of a professional track & field athlete was weighing on the Syracuse grad.

Sitting in the airport waiting for his flight to Budapest, Crittenden checked his bank balance, which was, he says, “almost negative.” He had finally established his place as one of the best in the world, but economic realities had him questioning his future in the sport.

“If I’m going to last in this sport, this was my moment,” said Crittenden, who had finished 3rd at the USATF Championships a month earlier to book his spot in Hungary. “This was my first team, I’m 29 years old and in the latter half of my career, and if I don’t maximize this opportunity things could look very different for me next year, the Olympic year.”

Before despair could set in at the airport, however, Crittenden received a message that he had been approved for a grant from the USATF Foundation, the non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to American track & field athletes across the sport.

“I got $30K,” he says. “Before that I was having all this stress and pressure about having to perform… To get that grant in that moment it was a huge weight off my shoulders. I had some reprieve.”

That’s a common feeling among the many athletes who have benefited from the Foundation, which was formed in ’02 to aid those whose sponsorships and prize money just aren’t enough to cover their many expenses, including coaching, medical care, physical therapy, travel and accommodations. The Foundation operates independently of USA Track & Field, though federation CEO Max Siegel is a board member.

“We receive several hundred applications every year from elite athletes,” says Foundation CEO Tom Jackovic. “I would say that almost every [elite] athlete, with a few exceptions, applies. Our highest level of grant is our Stephen Schwarzman grants. And that is 100% performance-based and goes to our top 100 athletes.”

For ’25, the top 65 of those athletes will be awarded $40,000 (up from $30,000 last year) and the next 35 receive $30,000 (up from $20,000). The Foundation also offers…