Nia Akins balancing music and track as she aims for 800-metre glory at Paris 2024

Nia Akins will make her Olympic debut on the world’s biggest sporting stage at Paris 2024. But it’s on a smaller stage where she admits she’s the most nervous.

The Team USA 800m runner lives something of a double life: track & field athlete by day, singer-songwriter by night.

“Performing live is the most terrifying,” the 26-year-old told The Athletic. “I’ve been running track for like 10 years now. So it’s like, ‘Why am I so scared of the sport? Why am I so scared of, you know, competing?'”

How music helps Nia Akins on and off the athletics track

Akins' Olympic debut comes only months after her musical debut, as in 2023 she took to the stage for her first-ever solo performance.

Now ranked number five in the world for the 800m, she admits that she’s “just naturally more humble because I’m naturally just not that confident.”

However, despite her struggles with self-belief, the 26-year-old is finding her peak right on time for Paris 2024.

Akins hit a personal best of 1:57.36 at the US trials in Oregon earlier this year, taking home gold.

With current Olympic champion Athing Mu failing to qualify for Paris 2024, Team USA hasn’t been tipped to perform well in the 800m, but there’s no doubt that Akins will be looking to make her mark.

Favoured for the 800m is Team GB’s Keely Hodgkinson who ran a world-leading time of 1:54.61 seconds just last month at the London Diamond League. Akins came up against Hodgkinson in May 2024 and finished in fourth, just over two seconds behind the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist.

After winning only one 800m race in 2022, Akins' training with coach Danny Mackey propelled her to success in 2023, as she won the 800m in the USA indoor championships as well as the U.S. track & field championships at Hayward Field.

A new, more confident Akins representing Team USA at Paris 2024

The going hasn't always been easy for Akins. However, in times of hardship, the 26-year-old has turned to music as a coping mechanism and she often finds solace in a music studio, with a guitar, or writing lyrics.

She released her most recent single, Petals to the Fire, a mere three weeks before she took to the Seine river with Team USA for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony.

But music hasn’t just helped Akins cope with challenges in her life outside of track & field - it’s given her a newfound confidence within it.

“I want to medal next year in Paris,” she told her coach in 2023. There’s no doubt that Akins’ confidence experienced a seismic shift.

“I definitely gained some confidence from just the way last year played out for me,” she explained.

“I definitely think the confidence matters, for sure. I feel like something that people kind of forget is you have to practise both being humble and being confident. There’s a balance to it, for sure.”

Akins’ journey to Paris 2024 prompts us to remember that Olympians are human and that professional athletes are also susceptible to nervousness, knock-downs and self-doubt.

But the journey Atkins has taken should also serve as a reminder that perseverance pays off and big dreams are always worth chasing.