Canadian sprinter Morales Williams relieved to be 'on right path' for Olympic success

Things have gone according to plan so far for Christopher Morales Williams.

The 19-year-old from Vaughan, Ont., is headed to his first Olympics to compete in the men's 400 metres. After wrapping up his sophomore season at the University of Georgia, where he clinched both the indoor and outdoor NCAA national titles, Morales Williams turned professional and signed a sponsorship deal with Adidas.

"Feels almost a bit of a relief," he said of his NCAA season. "It feels good that the progress is showing and that the plan that coach Karim [Abdel Wahab] and I planned out, worked.

"It just feels good to know that I'm on the right path with everything. It's nice knowing that indoor went well, outdoor went well and it just makes me excited for Olympics and next year and all the years to come."

The path forward was designed in 2023 when Morales Williams and Abdel Wahab — an assistant on the staff of Caryl Smith Gilbert, who also coached sprinter Andre De Grasse at the University of Southern California — came together upon the teen's return to campus to discuss his goals for this past season.

"He said, 'I wanna break the school record,"' Abdel Wahab said. "I said, 'OK, this is a great goal. It's not an easy goal, it will require a lot of hard work, let's put our head down and work the process and try to perfect our craft and ace every practice, one practice at a time, one day at a time."'

"I said, 'Well if you're in the 44 [second range], that means you can make the Olympic finals. So, let's make our goal to go to the Olympic finals and if we make the Olympic finals, all the possibilities will be open.' And that's how it started."

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Morales Williams ran an