Chris Belcher is a professional track runner born and raised in Sayville. He is a sprinter, one of the top-tier runners from Long Island who primarily runs the 100- and 200-meter races. Belcher made varsity track and field in all three seasons he ran spring track. His senior year, he won the prestigious honor of fastest runner in New York State in the 55-yard dash.

Post high school, he took his talents to Monroe College in New Rochelle, then attended North Carolina A&T, running track and field for the Aggies. As an Aggie Belcher broke school records and the sky was the limit at that point for the speedy young man from Sayville. In NCAA track, Belcher was a three-time All American; then after graduating North Carolina A&T, he began running professionally and started a contract with Nike. Belcher has run in numerous professional races.

In the 2017 USA Outdoor Championships, he won a bronze medal and in 2019 at the World Relays in Japan, he won a gold medal and another bronze. Belcher currently has a contract with Adidas, is coaching at North Carolina Wesleyan University, and plans on competing in many more meets and will continue to make the Sayville community proud on all his lavish accomplishments.   

Suffolk County News: Growing up, who were your biggest supporters and influences?

Belcher: My family. Coaches, too. Starting off with Reade Sands and Ryan Cox the baseball coach at the time. They were the first people to really notice how fast I was and really encouraged [me]. I was doing baseball because I really liked baseball and Mr. Cox was like, “Yeah I want you to be in shape for baseball,” etc., “you should try track and field,” and at the time I had no idea what it was. I just knew that Usain Bolt ran the 108. That’s the only person I had ever heard of. I didn’t know what any other event was, I didn’t know what the long jump, I didn’t know the high jump, the 55 or the 60, I didn’t know any of that stuff, but Mr. Cox told me to go to John Haggert (Sayville varsity football running back). I want to be in shape with him. So, I worked out with Haggert and the rest is history. I started running and everyone started seeing how fast I was. And it really just took off, to be honest. Tenth grade, that was my first year doing track. 

SCN: Talk about some of the people that in either high school or college helped the most to inspire you to run track professionally, whether it be a coach, teammate, etc.

Belcher: My Division 1 coach at North Carolina A&T, Duane Ross. I was running at a junior college for a little bit and I ran about 102 and a 100 meters and then he reached out to me and said, “Yeah, I want you to come down.” So, I come down there and he took me around campus, took me around the program and stuff, and he was new to the program, too, and he said, “Yeah I’m trying to rebuild this program, I want you to be the main set of this,” and I had a bunch of other coaches looking in and checking in on me wanting to go to other schools, but I never had a coach sit me down and promise me this and that. He promised he would make me a conference champion, he would make me an NCAA champion, and make me a professional, regardless of where the shoes fall. So, he made me a conference champion. He made me run under nine seconds. We came close to the NCAA title. I got third, but he did promise me the Nike contract. And getting all that stuff, we talked it out, and saying it becomes a truth. So, he promised me all that stuff and I’ve never looked back since.

SCN: A lot of people have an innate talent they were born with. Looking back in your youth years, whether it was playing Little League or anything as a kid, do you think there ever were any signs that may have pointed to the future, such as where you are today, to how you really found your calling as a runner?

Belcher: Yeah, I knew it was going to be something between baseball, football, and then at the end, track, of course. I really wanted to do baseball and football because Coach Cox was even telling me you’re as fast as Jose Reyes and at the time, I loved Jose Reyes; he was the fastest player in baseball at the time. He said, “You’re in high school and you’re running as fast as he is,” so that kind of made me open my eyes like, yeah, I got a little talent here. And even when I was younger and I was running faster than anyone, I was wondering, why isn’t everybody as fast as I was? Like, why are some people really slow? I never got to understand that, but as I got older I really  started to develop a talent and realizing, thanks to those coaches in the beginning, they helped clean my form up a little bit, get me stronger, got me faster, and they put me in the right direction from where I was going because in high school, I really had no idea what I wanted to be. I didn’t know if I wanted to just run track or just get a job after school, or go to Suffolk and then figure something out after that, so I didn’t really have a direction until they really put me in a situation to do that.   

SCN: You were a state champion your senior year of high school, broke records in college, obviously had a ton of success in 2017 and 2019. Do you have a favorite tournament or a favorite memory from any tournament that you’ve participated in your life?

Belcher: My favorite moment was probably when I went 9-3 at NCAA to show the world what I could really do. But my most memorable moment was probably my first world championship in 2017 and we got on that track and I kid you not, I looked up and saw nothing but lights. There were about 40,000 to 60,000 people there yelling, screaming, and I took it in and that’s probably the only moment in track and field where I stopped and was like, wow this is it! And I looked up to Usain Bolt. I’m looking behind me and I see him! And my third memorable moment, my first professional race was against Usain Bolt and we’re warming up together and I got to speak to him and say, “Yeah, I looked up to you when I was little,” and he is one of the coolest. He’s not one of those that’s like, I’m a celebrity; he’s one of the guys, and being in this game I’ve realized all these people we see on TV are just normal people. They just have a bigger platform because they’re so good at what they do and they’re on TV all the time. So, getting to see him and getting the experience and I was like, wow I’m really here, and those are some of the memories that I’ll probably never forget coming into this sport.

SCN: What are you most proud of in your life?

Belcher: Next to my son, probably everyone was saying I wasn’t going to make it. Even people in Sayville said I wasn’t going to make it and just really showing people my story coming from Sayville High School, where nobody really comes out of for track and field or Long Island usually professional-wise, and being able to go to junior college and overcome the struggles there at classes and stress, and then going over to North Carolina A&T. I went from, I think my first year there I had a 1.8 GPA, and then within a year and a half I ended up graduating with a 3.7. And I’m where I’m at today because I did put track and field first. You really have to put your priorities first. You really just have to focus up. It’s tough out here, nobody’s going to care besides you. So just being able to tell my story and North Carolina A&T, they tell that story to every recruitment that comes in—that story is repeated over and over and over on campus. Track and field-wise, that is what I’m the proudest of. I even tell my son that story and anybody else that is struggling in school or college or anything, regardless of its family, class, track whatever it may be, you could always do it, you just have to have to try yourself and stay committed. You can ask any athlete in the world. I guarantee that athlete has failed more than they’ve succeeded. I promise you that. I always tell people that. And a lot of people thought I would never apply myself properly to get to that point.