ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida sprinter Hannah Douglas will head to Louisiana State University, one of the nation’s elite college track and field programs, to run track starting in spring 2022.

"I decided LSU because the atmosphere there is amazing,” Douglas says. “They produce amazing athletes that turn pro, and that is my dream, to become a pro athlete. The pro athletes they have made there, especially on the female side like Sha’Carri Richardson, Aleia Hobbs, Mikiah Brisco, so being a part of that family and dynamic will allow for me to reach that pro level."

Multiple former LSU track and field athletes are competing in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The family had some influence on deciding the school to which Douglas should commit, but the final decision was all hers.

"She is 18, she is a grown-up now,” says Harry Douglas, Hannah’s father. “It’s her first major decision where she wanted to go, so we were both proud. Me and her mom are proud of her."

Boris Jackson, Hannah’s speed coach, says, "I was blown away. If you think about the history LSU has with track and field, I felt like that was a dream come true, only because we have been working so long together."

Douglas says she has been working on a track and field future since she was 7 years old.  

"When I first started working with Hannah, I was very excited,” Jackson says. “I started seeing how dedicated she was."

Hannah’s talent showed up when she was young, her father says.

"It was the speed that we saw just naturally when she was growing up, when she was 4, 5, 6 years old,” Harry Douglas says. “So we found a small track club in Altamonte Springs, and we tried it out.  We noticed that she was a little bit different as far as the level she was on at a very young age."