It is difficult to earn a livelihood as a summer – just ask the national hero who worked in UPS

After winning the title of 400 meters in the US Championship for the Parliament and the Square on Saturday in Eugene, Oregon, Jaccori Patterson returned to find his phone full of congratulations.

Among the well was some of the former Patterson colleagues. He saw him working under pressure at a rapid pace before – at the UPS distribution center in South Carolina.

Patterson, 25, also showed in Oregon after wandering in one roll in 44.16 seconds to win his first individual national title, his speed is unique. However, his decision to finance his training through the cemetery packing boxes at the back of UPS trucks is rooted in a common fact during his sport.

It is difficult to gain living in the path and the field.

“I can definitely say it is a little difficult to be disposed of for sure, because you do not have money,” Patterson said in an interview on Sunday. “Everything comes out of your pockets. Then, having to balance this with meeting, paying the price of the equipment, and paying the price of nails and all the things that enter the path?

In many major professional sports in North America, one entity such as NBA, NFL or MLB revenue from the rights of the media, licensing and other licensing and pays a share for its athletes under the terms of agreement that has collectively negotiating with their union. However, Track and Field did not have the Premier League, and athletes also did not have a federation. This mixture makes the confirmary and aspirations of both the fastest independent in the world, whose income depends on a gradual group that can include approvals and appearance fees, money prizes and money gained from social media and grants.

As Patterson can also witness, not all these flows of revenue are guaranteed.

In the United States Championship last week, it was not uncommon to see some of the most profitable and most organized athletes, including hostility to the hero Nuh Lailes, and compete alongside their peers scratching a livelihood. On Sunday, Dylan Bird created the American team that will compete in the World Championship in September in Tokyo at 110 meters. However, to go to the meeting, it will need an unimaginable obstacle to a vacation from his daily function in North Carolina foods. Wall Mart.

Patterson left the University of Florida Poworus in 2023 with a pair of NCAA deportation championship, but his times were not fast enough to earn an important sponsorship contract with a shoe company. The shoe companies provide the largest part of the money for the athletes, although some companies, but not all, use the so -called “reduction items” to reduce the athlete’s profits if certain signs are not fulfilled.

These contracts never arise. The most profitable, like one Adidas holds with LilisAnd A five -year deal, 11 million dollars The site by former Olympic champion André de Grass with Puma is the exception, not the rule, and even then will make it a middle class firmly according to the American Professional League standards, MLB and NFL.

The 2024 Olympic Olympic trials have made a great opportunity for Botterson to clarify the case for the brands, but he did not advance from the first round. He did not shake his confidence in his capabilities, but he asked about his cost from his pocket to realize.

Therefore, when the world watched the Paris Olympics, Patterson moved to his hometown in Colombia, South Carolina, and began last August at UPS. From 10:45 pm until about 5 am, Patterson stood next to the transport belt, picking up boxes containing everything from sofas to refrigerators and loading them in delivery trucks. He said he could pack up to four trucks in a working attack.

Patterson did not find the encouraging work, instead, convinced himself that while his peers were literally sleeping, he became stronger. His mother joined Patterson that his night night was like his second exercise of the day. It was because, hours ago, he had already first.

After sleeping for three hours after his toll with UPS, Patterson was waking up and training started from around 8:30 am until after lunch. Then, he slept until the evening, and the process started.

“I will be on the trucks late at night, download the boxes, and I didn’t think once,” I want to stop this, this is very much. “I haven’t left this thought before, I have always learned that I was going to continue to do so, because in my heart,” Patterson said.

He added: “You must have a belief in the size of mustard seed, and keep the rolling ball.”

The injection of new money in sport was supposed to make the path easier. Several new competitions announced their intentions to organize new meetings in 2025, which was the most SAM Grand path. The department was faced by former Olympic champion Michael Johnson, with the support of 30 million dollars in financing, the department announced that it will host four meetings and will not only pay 3 million dollars of the prize funds, but it also pays a basic group that agreed to sign a six -digit contract.

He said that when Patterson opened his season in April by operating 44.27 seconds in a meeting in Florida, potential sponsors began calling his agent. This helped him to earn a Berri cards later to a big meeting in Florida, Florida, where he was running the best 43 years. Only two men in the world are faster in the three months, making Patterson a legitimate threat to win a gold medal in the world championship in September in Tokyo.

Better, that the race also got $ 50,000-a professional variable amount in a sport longer than its establishment, and The highest circle circle Relatively Patterson is one of this amount to win 400 in one of its meetings in late May.

However, months after earning money, the amount of $ 50,000 was not paid to Patterson by Grand Slam Track, adding that he believed that the money would arrive in September. Under the lack of funding, the department ended its season after only three meetings, and has not yet paid any athletes for money prizes from its first two competitions, in Jamaica and Florida. “It expects the investor’s money to reach our account unlimited, and the athletes are our maximum priority. Once you receive this money at our end, we will immediately work on its athletes immediately.”

What Patterson’s performance at Grand Slam, immediately, was overnight in the interest of potential sponsors. By late May, Patterson was quietly put in his notification for two weeks with the UPS director. On June 5, a day after Patterson announced his long -awaited sponsorship with the sportswear giant, he worked on the download boxes on his last day.

“Everyone (in UPS) was like a man, go to chase this dream,” Patterson said.

Part of this dream was achieved when he won the US title on Saturday while crossing the finish line in the singular Nike.

“It will not always be easy,” he said. “If so, as you know, everyone will be the US champion.”

Patterson said he understood the reason for attracting his time to a lot of attention. A sporting idea needs a second job to finance the first love that has not heard of great in the major local championships. However, he said he wanted to be more than just what he did in his previous workplace. It will be in the World Championship in September, if Patterson delivered goods, again.