Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #164: Gill1918 Presents Kevin Quadrozzi-ON (Rekortan Penn Relays Speaker Series)

Transcript

#164: Gill1918 Presents Kevin Quadrozzi-ON (Rekortan Penn Relays Speaker Series) · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Hey Yang, welcome back here to the Guild 1918 project special
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  series here. Got a few kind of short clips
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  coming up over the next few days, few weeks.
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  The great team over at record Tan surfacing, shout out to Tim
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  Jordan and Mary Beth Price. They put on a speakers series, a
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  coaches speaker series at the Penn Relays this year 2026.
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  And you know me, if there's any value to bring to coaches, I
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  want to bring to all of you here listening on the Gill
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  Connections podcast. So we've got all of the speakers
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  and we've chopped them up to where their individuals will
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  have the individual episodes. Again, grateful for record Tan.
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  Go check them out. You know how to Google.
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  So go check out Record Tan servicing and hope you enjoy the
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  Gill 1918 Project. Welcome to the Gill 1918
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  Project, a podcast series by coaches for coaches powered by
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  Gill Athletics. Think of this as the Ted Talks
• 0:49
  of track and field coaching. Short, insightful and packed
• 0:52
  with valuable strategies to help you grow as a coach.
• 0:55
  We're bringing the once a year track clinic straight to your
• 0:57
  ears daily. Interested in creating your own
• 1:00
  episode? Everyone's welcome to
• 1:02
  participate. Check out the show notes below
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  For more information. Now let's get into today's
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  topic. I think the most pressing part
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  that I would want to share relative to our relationship
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  with our customers is it is a true partnership with our
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  company. Our brand stands for that and we
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  very much value every installation at every level to
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  know how we can support the program and support the sport.
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  The sport of track and field is very much important to us
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  obviously as a supplier, but we don't want to just be your
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  vendor or or installer or tract supplier.
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  We want to be your partner very much so as as we move forward.
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  The only other thing I'd add is that our jail series that is
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  constantly being kind of brought up as we're having this series
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  is not a new concept per SE. So I don't want you to think
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  that this is something that is new to the marketplace and it's
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  been around for almost a decade now.
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  But it is getting more prominence, More people are
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  beginning to understand that it is it is the innovation of the
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  industry, as you all know that are in the industry.
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  Track and field has not changed much over the years.
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  And so this innovation is going to be able to take all of the
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  worry of a hard track in terms of its safety relative to the
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  athlete out of the equation and still have the application of
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  being a track that you can run fast on.
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  That is a game changer and we are super excited about it.
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  But if you're thinking about buying a track or you're
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  thinking about investing in it, I would say that that series is
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  the innovation that will lead the marketplace and and will be
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  prominent even more so than it is today.
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  So without further ado, our next speaker is another professional
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  athlete from on. This gentleman has run the 3000
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  meters and 5000 is that. Correct.
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  Yeah, I'm not a professional anymore.
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  OK, well, that's OK. He's a professional anyway,
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  right? He's coming up here and
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  speaking. You're a professional in my room
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  and I just am grateful for him to be here.
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  I want to very much introduce Kevin Quidos.
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  Did I? Get it right.
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  Oh, you're good. Yeah.
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  Everyone, thank you for coming out.
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  I'd like to make it clear that I am not an Olympian or a medalist
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  like our previous guests. I'm also not a coach, but I am
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  the head of sprints here at on. As you guys are familiar with
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  our brand, we're the sponsor here of Penn Relays.
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  I'm willing to bet that most of you probably never heard of our
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  brand about five years ago. We're only about 16 years old as
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  a brand in total. We've been with the Penn Relays
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  now for four years, I believe, and we're looking forward to the
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  future, future sponsorships as well.
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  So you guys, if you guys know our brand, you're probably
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  familiar with our distance success.
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  We've had multiple wins in major marathons.
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  We had American record holder in the mile with yard and a goose.
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  Helen O Beer is our marathoner. Hopefully she wins London this
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  weekend. But with all the success that
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  we've had on the distance side, we really thought it was time to
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  break into sprints. We felt like our innovation and
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  our drive to perform and help athletes out really bode well
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  for us to get into the space. So I'd like to say we're doing
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  so pretty nicely. We started in 2023 on the Sprint
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  side where we had only two sprinters as professionals and
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  they're wearing a prototype spike.
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  And to be quite honest, it was it was a rough start, but we
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  need to start somewhere. And now Fast forward a little
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  bit, 2024, we had a few, a few more Olympians on the on the
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  team and we had a spike that we thought was in a pretty good
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  spot. And then Fast forward to last
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  year, 2025, we were able to gain a couple medals at the World
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  Championships. We were able to sign athletes
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  like Bella Whitaker here. We were able to sign a lot of
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  NIL athletes. We've really taken an NIL
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  athlete approach to our sprints group.
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  Just trying to start young, trying to start fresh, kind of
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  work towards 2028 and 302032. We are able to not only win a
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  few NCAA championships as well, but we had a couple relay, we
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  had a gold medal in the relay, silver medal in the relay.
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  We also had DD Kombungi who won the 100 meter hurdles last year
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  at World Championships. So we had a ton of success, more
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  success than we thought we were going to have in 2025.
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  Fast forward to this year, I'm sure some of you guys have seen
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  some of our spikes indoors now. Guys like Akeem Blake from
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  Jamaica, one of the world champ running in the World
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  Championships, indoor DD running well indoors.
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  We had guys like Derek Kalen, the NCAA's break, the American
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  record in the 200. So right now we have a really,
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  really strong roster on the NIL side that we're hoping to
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  convert to professional athletes.
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  And just so you guys know as well a little bit more about us
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  and the pen relays for most part, you know, our brand skewed
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  a little bit older when we first started.
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  We got into sprints to become a little more exciting, a little
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  faster, a little younger. And that's really what this
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  event embodies. We're really excited to kind of
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  keep moving towards perfection. We're hoping to hopefully get a
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  gold medal here in A10022028. That's the goal.
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  You'll see a big announcement from us for us coming up in the
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  next month or so. We're signing quite a few more
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  athletes this year. Our professional roster is now
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  up to about 13, though it's not a huge number.
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  But we're we're quite elite. We try to keep things small, try
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  to keep things elite. All of our athletes we feel like
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  can win medals. You'll see one of our 400 guys
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  out here running tomorrow, Genoa McKeever, former Florida guy.
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  But yeah, ultimately, you know, really trying to push forward.
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  I know we've had a lot of coaches come by our boots down
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  here asking for when the spikes are going to be available.
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  Our Sprint spike V, which is what Bella has worn, what she
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  she won her gold medal, the relay in what DD won the 100m
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  hurdles in at World Championships.
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  That's fight. That Sprint spike actually was
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  for sale on our website, sold out very, very fast.
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  You'll you probably saw, I don't know if you guys are watching
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  the Excelsior guys from Jamaica. They all wore it this weekend
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  and the relay. So it's tested extremely well
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  from all the way from the 60 where Lisa Bray broke down the
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  60, the 60 meters last year indoors, high school record, all
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  the way to the 400 meters where guys like Nathaniel Ezekiel got
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  4th place last year World Championships in the 400
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  hurdles. So it's a great spike.
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  We have a few new spikes that are coming.
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  A lot of our athletes are testing those spikes out now,
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  trying to perfect them. So Please be patient, but we'd
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  like to think we're making some of the best products in the
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  world. As you guys might be able to
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  tell, a lot of the athletes we're working with have come
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  from other brands, whether it be Puma, Adidas, Nike from their
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  schools and college. And be honestly, the the
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  transition couldn't have gone better for a lot of these
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  athletes. Some of the athletes are testing
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  it much better in our product, which we're super excited about,
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  but we're really on, you know, trying to strive to make sort of
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  the best Sprint spike in the world.
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  We're trying to use as much technology as we can into it
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  based on what World Athletics will let us use.
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  But we've done already 3 rounds of testing on the new products.
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  We're working a lot with a lot of bio mechanics, a lot of
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  engineers. So we're super excited about it.
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  But Needless to say, you're going to see a lot more product
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  from us on the Sprint side coming out in the next year or
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  so. So we're excited to hopefully
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  roll it out here next year and hopefully you'll see a lot more
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  athletes out here on the track, you know, wearing it next year
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  at all the way from the high school level to the professional
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  level. We're also hoping to make this
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  stage a little bit bigger for our professional athletes in the
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  100 and the 200. You guys probably know on the
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  Olympic development side, we this year the lowest event was
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  the 400, but we're working with the Penn Relay staff to
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  hopefully bring some more entertainment to this meet next
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  year and be able to showcase some of our best athletes in the
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  world to give you guys a little bit more, you know, background
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  on some of the other athletes that we do sponsor.
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  I'm not sure if you guys tuned into either the Florida Relays
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  or Tom Jones, but guys like Max Thomas ran 990 at at Florida
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  Relays, almost beat no allows at Tom Jones last week.
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  He's actually out here signing autographs today.
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  He's heading out for World Relays on Saturday or tomorrow
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  night, as well as Samira Moody, former NCAA champion, got, you
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  know, obviously brought out Bella here and Johnny Brackens,
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  who's also AUS champion. So we're really excited to be
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  working with some amazing athletes.
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  We're hoping the roster continues to grow.
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  And like I said, we're hoping to be able to bring a bit more of
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  the professional flair to this meet next year.
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  So yeah, happy to answer any questions anyone has.
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  And yeah, we're excited that you guys are all came out to hear us
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  speak today. Thank you.
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  If I was to buy a shoe, what? Would I buy?
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  It's a good question, honestly, you know, I'm biased.
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  I get paid for the company, but I do think, you know, our our
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  attention to detail and quality is, you know, far surpasses what
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  you'll see at typical most stores.
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  I'd, you know, ask everyone of you guys to go check, check out.
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  We have two booths, one in the athletes zone and the mix zone
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  and athlete warm up zone, as well as the carnival area just
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  outside here. I think you can immediately feel
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  it when you put it on. It just fits different, feels
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  different. I actually came from another
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  shoe brand for the last 10 years.
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  Not going to lie to you, I was pretty skeptical 4 years ago
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  when I started here. But the to see the success that
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  we've had that doesn't come with just having good athletes.
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  That has to come with having good products.
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  To give you guys a quick antidote, we are the fastest
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  growing athletic brands in history.
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  Give you guys a quick tidbit and I won't get into numbers on our
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  stock price and all that stuff, but in 2021 we had 9 Olympians.
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  Not a single one was running our spike because we didn't have a
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  super spike at the time. Fast forward three years later,
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  2024, we had 65 Olympians and we ended up walking away with seven
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  medals. So I don't think any brand
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  history has been able to claim that.
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  And we're hoping to take continue to take market share
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  leading up to 2028. And like I said, that leaves
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  that starts with having a good product and then followed up by
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  amazing athletes such as Bella back there.
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  Thank you guys. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project series. It's really my mission, my
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  passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
• 11:37
  one hit the mark. The Gill 1918 Project is really
• 11:41
  dependent on you if for you to build your own episode, to hear
• 11:45
  your voice, to have your voice heard you have something to say
• 11:48
  and teach other coaches out there.
• 11:50
  So please get a hold of me, e-mail, text message, Twitter,
• 11:55
  smoke signals, get a hold of me and let's help create your
• 11:58
  episode of the Gil 1918 Project. Hope you enjoy the day, they
• 12:01
  will see you tomorrow.