Over the years, the greatness that track star Krissy Gear has been able to achieve just keeps on building. She’s a six-time state champion with Fort Myers High School. She set school records at Furman University, raced for the University of Arkansas, and just recently — she became a national champion.

“Definitely surreal,” said Gear. “I put myself in a good spot, like going into a lap to go. Then there’s like another part of me that was like, ‘No you have more. You should see what that more is.’”

Gear had a top-three spot secured within the last couple hundred meters in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase at the USA Track and Field Nationals, but why not go for first? She put her foot on the gas and crept up on ten-time national steeplechase winner Emma Coburn.

“It’s like weird to think like if anyone’s gonna take her down, it was me. That’s what I like about racing. You never know what someone has on a given day and just go out there and working with what you have,” she said.

Crossing that finish line in Eugene, Oregon, Gear punched her ticket to the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

“My biggest goal is just to make it to the final… but yeah, nothing’s ever given,” she said.

While physically training to jump over hurdles, Gear has had to do the same thing with mental preparation to maintain her A-game.

“Fortunately I had a lot of people in my corner so just being very reassuring and encouraging. [I’m] treating it like it’s an ‘I get to do this,’ not ‘I have to do this.’ I did have goals and I knew that they were lofty but also even if these big A-goals don’t come true, there’s still other ways to know that I succeeded,” she said.

The World Championship starts on Saturday, August 19, and Gear will race in her first event — the steeplechase — on August 23.