Nicole Yeargin believes pressure to perform will bring out the best in her as she eyes a place at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The 26-year-old made her Olympic debut in a near-empty stadium in Tokyo, but lots has changed for the Scot since then, not least the return of crowds.

The 400m specialist has graduated from the US college programme at the University of Southern California into the world of progressional athletics, where she has teamed up with legendary coach Vince Anderson.

That, alongside the pair of World Championship relay bronze medals she has earned since, has raised expectations that she will be on the train to Paris this summer for her second Olympics.

Yeargin will race for her place at the upcoming UK Athletics Championships at the end of June and admitted it has taken some adjustment to go from hunter to hunted having established herself as one of the best Brits over one lap of the track.

“This time around I’m professional, so I’m building my own schedule, my own way to the Olympics,” she said.

“There is definitely more pressure. Tokyo was my first year so whatever happened, happened.

“Especially being in Covid year, we didn’t have any fans it felt like a regular track meet essentially.

“This time around it’s going to be crazy to experience an actual Olympic environment and be around the other athletes without the Covid rules and experience the city. Paris, of all places, is beautiful.

“This year I feel like everyone has stepped up so much in the 400, especially the ladies. I’m a professional now, a grown adult so I should make the team, I have to make the team. 

“Now it’s the pressure of don’t get beat by people you’ve beat before. I didn’t know anyone before, now I know everyone so it’s crazy.

“It’s the big one, it’s Olympic trials it’s not just champs. It’s make or break, you either execute a good season with it or go back to the drawing board with it.

“It could be anyone’s game. When we come together in Manchester the weather is what it is, so we’ll see who can execute the best race.”

Yeargin’s Olympic bow in Tokyo came after a whirlwind few years that saw her only begin athletics in the final year of high school before rising rapidly through the ranks over 400m.

The Maryland-born athlete had previously tried her hand at gymnastics and football before finding her feet on the track aged 18 and made up for lost time while studying for a degree in real estate development in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old, whose mother is from Dunfermline, has continued her upward trajectory largely as part of the exciting women’s 4x400m relay team that boasts consecutive podium finishes at the World Championships alongside a bronze at the 2022 European Championships.

They will aim to medal at the latter competition once more in Rome in June as they tune up for the Olympics, where Yeargin has eyes on starring in the individual event as well as the relay after disappointment in Tokyo.

“I definitely want to achieve the individual,” she added.

“Last time I was disqualified in the heats, so I’m hoping to improve my Olympic experience and make it to semis, make it to an Olympic final and really represent my country as best I can.

“I’m really excited about where the trajectory is going.”

That trajectory is being mapped out by hard yards in Houston, Texas where Yeargin is working under her new coach Anderson.

The American has almost decades of experience under his belt and boasts the likes of 2017 400m world champion Phyllis Francis amongst his former tutees.

“Everyone knows him, he’s a legend, definitely knows his stuff,” said Yeargin. “I think we just had to take a little time to get to know each other and how I train and how he coaches, but he’s great.

“He’s definitely more of a details guy, a numbers guy. We’ve been working on the little stuff, my start, kind of simplifying my race plan.

“He said it was too complicated, so it was hard to follow, and I’d get confused, so it was nice to get a simplified race plan and execute it better.”

Yeargin is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing her to train full-time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.

She may have been born and bred across the pond but has felt at home in the Great Britain vest since making her debut in 2021.

The sprinter is looking forward to putting Pitreavie on the map should she make it to Paris and will also have her eyes on breaking Allison Curbishley’s Scottish record of 50.71s that has stood since 1998.

And Yeargin, whose personal best remains the 50.96s she clocked in June 2021, revealed flying the flag for her maternal roots is one of the few things able to turn down the heat in the cauldron of elite athletics.

“I feel good about it, I know there’s only a select few who make the [British] team from Scotland every year,” she said. 

“I’m really happy to be able to represent, especially being one of the only black Scottish athletes, I’m happy to represent the women. 

“I’m excited to be able to represent Scotland, represent Pitreavie, the small town my mum is from.

“It’s the opposite of adding pressure, representing Scotland is such an honour. I love it. Especially as there’s only a few athletes to make it, it gives me chills to think about it. 

“It’s so great to be able to inspire the kids and youth there. We might not have the biggest team in Scotland, but we can still make it up there and represent.”

Yeargin took a big step towards Paris in the Bahamas last week, where she was part of the 4x400m relay team that booked Team GB’s place at the Games with a second-place finish in their heat at the World Athletics Relays event.

Great Britain ultimately missed out on a medal in Nassau, as they finished fourth in the final in which Yeargin didn’t run, but the main aim of Olympic qualification was achieved.

The task for Yeargin is now to ensure her place in the quartet come August, and the 26-year-old is confident of retaining her role on the anchor leg as Team GB seek a first medal in the event since 2016 and potentially a first-ever gold.

“We’ve still got Olympic trials but being on this relay to stamp our ticket to make it means a lot and I think it honestly takes a little bit of pressure off myself,” she said.

“Knowing that if I’m on this winning team, then I have a chance of making the Olympic team - it’s exciting.

“I love the relay, if anyone asks me I love the relay more than I love the individual.

“I think it’s because I’m such a team environment person, I want to run for the people next to me and what better way than to do it.

“In the individual, I’m still on a team, I’m still representing Great Britain but it’s just something else. That’s why I like to anchor, I anchored last year.

“I like to be in the mix for the relay because I know I cannot let the people behind me down and I can’t let the person in front of me down.

“The beauty of it is it’s straight up competition, that’s why I love it. The individual you’re in your lane, there is no mess you’re just executing your race.

“For the relay - it’s everybody’s game. It’s just competition. I'm taking your head and I’m holding my position!”

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