Alex Sherman, a 2021 graduate of Newton North, will travel to Eugene, Oregon, next week to compete for a chance to represent the United States in Track and Field at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in the 400m hurdles. Sherman, now a Junior at the University of Virginia, qualified for the Olympic Trials by racing to a personal best 50.34 2nd place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Championship in May. His performance ranked 34th in the USA as of June 2.
Sherman has had a stellar year at Virginia, setting a 400m hurdles meet record of 50.93 at the Vertklasse Meeting on April 6 and winning the 400m dash at the Virgina Grand Prix in 47.67. In the winter season, he was named a First-Team NCAA All-American for his 400m leg on Virginia’s Distance Medley Relay team, which placed third in the NCAA Championships. Sherman and the relay team also set the Virginia school record for the event earlier in the year.
Sherman has improved his hurdling performances steadily over his college career, improving by 3.39 seconds from his opening performance of 54.73 in his freshman season in 2022. “My coach, Leron Bennett, who ran for Georgia and is a multi-time Olympic Trials qualifier, has been great. He’s a 48-second 400m hurdler, so he knows his stuff for sure,” said Sherman. “Most of my success, a lot of my success, is due to him. He’s just been one of the best mentors and coaches that I could ask for.”
Sherman, a Statistics major with a 3.85 GPA, has been named to the All-ACC Academic team in each of his years at Virginia. “Balancing academics and athletics has been challenging but rewarding. The support from my coaches and teammates has been incredible.”
At Newton North, Sherman captained the indoor and outdoor track teams and set the outdoor school record in the 300m dash with a time of 33.69. However, his high school outdoor track career was limited by the cancellation of his junior season due to COVID-19 and an injury in his senior year.
“I had a pretty bad hamstring strain in outdoor season of my senior year,” Sherman recalled. “It set me back for a month, and I could only compete in the 4×400 relay at the state meet. It was disappointing, but it made me more determined to succeed in college.”
Sherman’s high school coach, Shawn Wallace, praised his commitment and resilience. “Alex was clearly a hard worker, but his commitment is one of the best I have had. Losing his Junior year in the 400m Hurdles to COVID really hurt him, but he used that time to develop his speed. He came back much bigger and stronger, and his first race back [after senior year injury], we won the 4×400 at the All-State meet on the back of his 47.9 split!”
Off the track Sherman has developed his photography skills into his own business doing real estate photography. He hopes to apply his statistics training to a career in commercial real estate.
Looking ahead, Sherman has clear goals for this meet and his final year at Virginia: “ACC champion, break that 50-second barrier at the Trials or next year, and then hope to be an All-American individually.” To do that Sherman says he plans to focus on the small things—flexibility, mobility to become a more efficient hurdler.
Sherman’s Olympic quest will begin at Hayward Field, Oregon, in the preliminary round at 6:20 PM (PST) on Thursday, June 27. Sixteen athletes will advance to the semi-finals on Friday, June 28, and eight will move on to the final on Sunday, June 30. “I don’t have unrealistic expectations,” Sherman concluded. “But I do believe in pushing my limits and surprising people with what I can achieve.”
