When the pandemic forced Nia Akins to abruptly end her track career at the University of Pennsylvania in 2020, she found solace in something quite different: The 800-meter specialist started playing the guitar and writing songs.
Eventually, running and racing came back in time for the 2021 US Olympic Track and Field Team Trials, but Akins’s event didn’t go as planned. She ended up tripping and falling in the 800-meter final, ultimately coming in last place and dashing her dreams for Tokyo. As she processed her emotions, she leaned hard into her newfound hobby, releasing her first singles, “Paper Boats” (under the pseudonym Teddy Oliver) and “Smoke,” followed up by another EP of four songs in 2022.
“I just kind of took it to my guitar and started writing about it, which helped me learn a lot about myself,” Akins, 26, who trains with the Brooks Beasts professional track club in Seattle, tells SELF. “As athletes, we’re used to being strong and tough and suppressing some of those emotions, so what happened in 2021 helped me embrace all of my emotions, which made it easier to move on and grow from it.”
So it’s not really a surprise that Akins continued to lean into singing and songwriting heading into arguably the most important racing season to date in her career. In June, she had the chance to redeem her 2021 performance at the 2024 Olympic Trials—and she not only earned a spot in Paris, but ended up winning the whole thing, taking first place in the 800-meter final with a new personal best of 1:57.36.
After the Trials, Akins felt she wanted to reconnect with the non-athlete part of herself in order to ease stress and practice self-care. This led her to release her latest single, “Petals to the Fire,” on Spotify, which she wrote last year heading into the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where she ultimately set a then personal best to finish sixth in the 800-meter final.
“In the song, there are two conflicting voices, and one is super confident, while the other one is just very doubtful, listening and taking feedback from everybody to kind of survive,” Akins explains. “With me, I feel like those two voices are kind of going back and forth, and then the confident one ends up winning over in the end.”
And she hopes to tap into that self-assurance when she toes the start line in Paris. To help it along, she’s planning on bringing a ukulele to the Games in case inspiration and the songwriting mood strikes. After all, she says music is key for keeping herself centered and stress-free leading into big races, especially as part of her presleep routine.
Akins caught up with SELF while wrapping up a stint of altitude training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before briefly returning to her home base in Seattle and then flying abroad. Before Paris, she shares the top three songs that have her hyped up as she works toward a big goal, and which she’ll definitely be tuning into before lining up on the track.
1. “Yeshua” by UpperRoom
This is a worship song, and the title roughly translates to “God delivers.” The first time I heard it was at a worship night performance where it was just a girl and a rock-style guitar; I just recorded it on my phone’s voice memos and that’s the one I listen to. I just have that playing on a loop.