Nick Christie began race walk like most others, a random chance encounter. Throughout high school he played baseball and football until settling on track and field where he competed in the pole vault and hurdles. From there he would meet his pole vault coach, Lyle Barton. After high school Coach Barton suggested he compete at Cuyamaca College.

At Cuyamaca College two time Olympian Tim Seaman needed a final cross country runner and Nick Christie the happy go lucky guy that he is, agreed to run on the team. Upon the end of the season Tim Seaman had Nick try the race walk where he succeeded in a 400m and 200m time trial. With a full season of track left, Tim allowed Nick to continue competing in his other events before giving the walk a more formal introduction.

With the track and field season over Nick contested his first race walk, a 5km in 24:17. He would then go on to work the next few months with no involvement in race walk until coming back to win the California State Games 5km race walk in 22:50. With his next Cross Country season on tap, Nick made the final commitment to race walk after breaking his collarbone in the velodrome from track cycling and then again in a gymnastics class. His sights were now set on the 2012 Olympic Trials and 2012 World Race Walking Cup.

A couple months later Nick raced his first 20km in 1:39:05 at the USA 30km Nationals. A disappointment at first as he had sought to break the 1:36:00 mark required for Olympic Trials on his first go, however, he quickly pushed forward as he knew it was only the beginning. A couple months later he would walk 1:31:33 to achieve his first race walk goal of qualifying for the 2012 World Race Walking Cup in Saransk Russia. Following his trip to Russia he would place a surprise 3rd at the 2012 USA Olympic Trials in the 20km Walk in 1:29:47.48.

His debut season proved successful and ended with a scholarship to Missouri Baptist University in St Louis, Missouri, an NAIA school. There Nick would join Molly Josephs, Alex Chavez, and Nirvana Zalba as he sought to bring the mentorship he had from Tim Seaman to a young crew of walkers in St Louis. Coach Tish Hanna had assembled what would be one of the most dominate walk teams in the NAIA the next few years with Nick Christie at the helm. He would go on to set the NAIA Indoor Record in 11:46.20 en route to collecting two NAIA Indoor titles and one NAIA Outdoor title during his stay in Missouri.

While in Missouri, Nick would go on to his 50km debut in 2014 in a 2nd place finish behind John Nunn then follow it with a 20km personal best in 2015 in 1:26:59. Upon graduation he would move back to San Diego and begin training with Tim Seaman. With his first season out of college Nick would represent upstart company Run Gum in their guerilla campaign at 2015 USA Outdoor Nationals. He would then finish 2nd place again at USA Outdoor Nationals for the second year in a row.

Going into 2016 Nick placed 2nd at the 2015 USA 50km Nationals in a personal best of 4:11:48. His first shot at the Olympics proved a disappointment as he missed the Olympic standard at 2016 USA 50km Olympic Trials. Following the race Tim Seaman and Nick Christie parted ways. Now coachless Nick joined Canadian Evan Dunfee and Olympic Medalist Jared Tallent among others in Flagstaff for a pre World Race Walking Team Champs training camp. In an attempt to leave no stone unturned he braced himself for a new training mentality as he entered his last chance to qualify for the 50km in Rio. He would not succeed.

A final attempt for the 2016 Olympics came in the 20km at USA Olympic Trials in Salem Oregon. After a strong first 10km he fell off pace only to be consumed by John Nunn and Trevor Barron. Again he would finish third.

Entering 2017 Nick flew to Australia to train with the world’s best as he entered a nutrition study observing High Fat Low Carbohydrate, Periodized Carbohydrate and High Carbohydrate diets. 2017 would be a season of testing limits. His results were strong but nothing spectacular. He worked on his consistency and took a year off from the 50km. He would go on to finish another 2nd place at Outdoor Nationals this time to Emmanuel Corvera.

After an encounter in China with Australian Dave Smith, Nick would move away from self coaching and begin training under the coach of 2016 Bronze Medalist Dane Bird Smith. His 2018 season would show new found confidence as he would dominate the USA with seven National titles including the trifecta of USA Walking, 50km Nationals, 3000m Indoor Nationals, and 20km Outdoor Nationals. He would go undefeated in the USA and close the season with a 4th place finish in London in the Muller Anniversary Games over 3000m and 2nd place finish in Toronto at NACAC Area Championships.

With a spirit quest in Nepal of sorts and a trip to Bermuda Nick entered his 2019 season again coachless but under the guidance of his college coach Tish Hanna and seeking to return to his 2018 form. An American record in the Indoor 10000m, the oldest record in USA Track and Field saw the season to a strong start. USA 50km Nationals a month later proved tragic as he would drop out just after 40km. However his resilience would show with dominate wins at the Millrose Games and USA Indoor Nationals. At the latter he would set a new Meet Record.

Nick is currently based in San Diego and trains all over the USA and the World as he seeks training camps to better improve. He is currently sponsored by Decathlon wearing Newfeel/Kalenji in races. With training weeks of 160-200km (100-125 miles) Nick is currently training full time. He will frequently put in 20-30 hours of training a week.along with gym sessions 3-4 days a week. His heart is in the the 50km, but he loves the spectator appeal of the Mile and Indoors. His favorite workout is a good pump in the gym, though he also loves testing his fitness with 3x2km hard/1km easy after a solid morning morning session. But nothing compares to stepping on the starting line.

After having positioned himself the best in the USA his goals are to expand on his results by chasing American Records and becoming more competitive on a Pan American and World Stage. “The Olympics is always at the forefront, but it would be pretty cool to win a challenge or take Mexican Nationals one year, gotta start somewhere right.”

20K US Ranking by Track and Field News

                                                2018 – 1st
                                                2017 – 3rd
                                                2016 – 3rd
                                                2015 – 2nd
                                                2014 – 3rd
                                                2013 – 7th
                                                2012 – 4th

50K US Ranking by Track and Field News

                                                2018 – 1st
                                                2016 – 2nd
                                                2015 – 2nd
                                                2014 – 2nd

Major U.S. Championships (Indoors)

2019 - 3000m
2018 - 3000m
2018 - 5000m
2015 - 2 Mile

Major U.S. Championships (Outdoors)

2019 - Mile
2018 - 50km
2018 - 1 Mile
2018 - 15km
2018 - 10km
2018 - 20km
2017 - 30km
2016 - 15km
2016 - 30km
2015 - 15km

2018 World Race Walking Team Championships Taicang, China
2018 NACAC Championships Toronto, Canada, Silver Medal
2017 Pan American Race Walking Cup Lima, Peru
2016 World Race Walking Team Championships Rome, Italy
2015 Pan American Race Walking Cup Arica, Chile
2014 World Race Walking Cup Taicang, China
2012 World Race Walking Cup, Saransk, Russia
2012 NACAC U-23 Irapuato, Mexico 4th

"If you want to get better train. Simple, sweet, no excuses."