When Nya Browne was three years old, her mother signed her up for swimming lessons hoping it would help her daughter burn energy instead of running around the house all day.
Seven years later, Browne was still as energetic as ever. Her mother was tired of the ruckus and signed her up for track when she was 10. Brown spent the next eight years running for fun — it wasn’t until she was 15 that she realized she had a special talent, and she was already running for the Barbados national team.
“I started doing hurdles, and this was during COVID,” Browne said. “There wasn’t really much of anything happening. But then the following year, this was 2022, that was my second national team and I was doing the event for like two years and I came third. That was when I realized like, ‘damn, I could actually be good and go places.’”
Browne honed her skills and eventually joined Temple as a sprinter in 2023. Despite the success she had in her home country, she felt the pressure of the college level and struggled during her freshman campaign.
Now as a sophomore, Browne has taken a big step forward during the indoor season. That success has helped Browne feel like her past self, and she’s now focused on carrying the momentum into the outdoor season.
“Success breeds a lot of things,” said Temple head coach Elvis Forde. “You start to do good, you realize it and then it relays confidence. She has been that this year because she’s having success. Last year, everything was just a struggle.”
Browne grew up admiring other athletes who ran for her country and Forde was one of them. Forde, who grew up in Saint Andrew, Barbados, recruited Browne to North Broad Street for two years before she officially committed. The selling point was Forde’s pedigree, as he performed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic games for Barbados.
“He was really taking care of me, making sure I settled in, so that was really important,” Browne said. “Because we grew up the same and we were both athletes growing up in Barbados, he understands more on a deeper level.”
Forde helped Browne find her footing when she struggled out of the gate during her freshman season. Despite ending 2024 with eight top-five finishes, Browne felt like her performance left much to be desired which prompted her to go back to the drawing board during the offseason.
Browne and Forde worked together individually to help the runner get past the mental fog because she wasn’t always able to get the coaching she needed while working in groups. She spent her off days tirelessly working to improve so she could hit the ground running once the winter hit.
Browne raced out to a third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles in her first meet of the season. She followed it up with another third-place finish in the finals of the event that same day and she hasn’t looked back since.
Browne has continued her success since her performance at the Penn Opener. She picked up a 200-meter victory at the Penn Select on Jan. 11 and earned another third-placed finish in the 60-meter hurdles that same day.
The sophomore continuously made her way to the podium with ease, finishing in the top three of every event she’s run in this season. With the hard work paying off, Browne has picked up seven wins at the 60-meter hurdles.
“I think it was a big jump, instead of just working her way into it,” said sprinter Jade Pope. “I feel like her freshman year, she kind of just had to feel things out for what they were, especially her not being from America. I think this year was just a big shift for her.”
Temple’s last meet of the indoor season is on Feb. 28 at the American Athletic Conference Championships before the Owls transition to the outdoor campaign on March 22. Browne is focused on continuing her hot stretch into the spring — while also aiming at attaching her name to history.
Her goal for the upcoming season is to break Temple’s 100-meter hurdles record of 13.45 seconds. The record was set by Bridgette Hayes in 1987 and is just .13 seconds away from Brownes’ personal best, which she set in July 2023.
However, her main goal is still three years away.
Browne hopes to compete for her native country once again; this time during the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Barbados sent two track athletes to Paris in 2024 and she hopes to add to the list when her time comes. While there is still time to go, Browne is focused on making that dream come true while not letting the hope of making it to the world’s greatest stage consume her.
“It is definitely hard to focus on a long term goal,” Browne said. “I break it down. Every day I’m practicing, I don’t think about too far ahead. I just think about what’s coming up next. While you do know it’s gonna affect what you do later. I feel like focusing on small goals in order to reach that big goal is what helps.”
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