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Harvard's NCAA Champion Runner Signs NIL Deal with New Balance

NCAA 5000m record holder Graham Blanks hosts New Year's Eve run in hometown

Michael Ehrlich

Harvard's NCAA Champion Runner Signs NIL Deal with New Balance
Harvard's NCAA Champion Runner Signs NIL Deal with New Balance /

Reigning NCAA cross country champion and indoor 5000m record holder Graham Blanks of Harvard is celebrating the new year in a big way: with a major NIL deal.

Blanks ends his historic - and undefeated - 2023 by signing with New Balance and together they hosted a New Year's Eve three-mile run in his hometown of Athens, GA. Collaborating with his former employer - running shoe retailer Fleet Feet - the event gathered Blanks' local community for a fun workout, New Balance shoe demos, coffee and donuts.

The cross country, indoor and outdoor All-American recently set a new NCAA 5000m record just a few weeks after winning the NCAA Cross Country Championship. Blanks is the first Ivy League male to win the individual NCAA title.

"I’m most excited to have New Balance’s headquarters only a few minutes from my dorm so that I’ll be able to visit often and work with the people and at the events over there," Blanks shared with Chris Chavez of CITIUS MAG.

"I used to work at Fleet Feet and my old boss asked if we wanted to put on a group run when I was home for the holidays and New Balance graciously offered to support this event," added Blanks. "It’s always great to get to run with people in the community."

In the new year, Blanks - a junior - is focused on defending his NCAA championships and the Olympic Trials.

“I'm just going to be focusing on running because it's not every day you get to be in the shape that I've been in," Blanks told The Harvard Crimson. "That I ran the Olympic standard is something I want to take very seriously and give a super good try at making the Olympic team this July. Just because I have the Olympic standard does not mean by any metric that I should qualify for the Olympics because it's very difficult to achieve in the U.S. However, I really want to rise to the opportunity I've been granted and go all in for that.”

Although Harvard's Cross Country and Track and Field program has included 34 Olympians, Blanks would be the first to qualify for in the 5000m.

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Michael Ehrlich
MICHAEL EHRLICH

Michael Ehrlich is a seasoned sports marketing executive with experience across the global sports brand, athlete representation, media and education sides of the business. The Founder and CEO of Playbook Marketing, Ehrlich consults with brands on all things NIL and athlete partnerships, advises student-athletes on their personal brand building endeavors and is an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the University of Southern California where he teaches a course on athlete communications and marketing. As a writer, his previous bylines include Boardroom, Business of College Sports, DIME Magazine and UPROXX, among others. You can follow him across social media at @MichaelEhrlich and reach out via michael@playbook-marketing.com

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