By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
For Jayla Kirkland, sprinting has never been only about speed. It has always been about possibility.
Every morning before sunrise, Kirkland arrives at the track at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to train for some of the biggest competitions in track and field, including the 2027 World Championships and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. For the Birmingham native, the work is grueling — hours of sprint training, weightlifting, physical therapy and recovery before heading into an evening shift at Hibbett Sports.
Still, the 26-year-old professional sprinter keeps showing up.
“Some days I feel like, dang, you know, it’s hard,” Kirkland admitted. “Maybe it’s still blurry sometimes. But when you surround yourself with people who keep you grounded and remind you, ‘Yes, you can do it,’ that helps.”
The World Championships, organized by World Athletics, are one of the sport’s premier global events, bringing together the best athletes from around the world to compete for world titles every two years. The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will represent the highest stage in international sports, where athletes compete not only for medals but for national pride and Olympic history. For Kirkland, qualifying for either event would place her among the elite sprinters in the world.
The former Woodlawn High School standout has spent most of her life chasing elite competition. A multi-time NCAA All-American and ACC champion at Florida State University, Kirkland’s résumé already includes 16 state championships, four national titles and two national records earned during her dominant high school career.
But today, her purpose stretches far beyond medals.
Kirkland is determined to become the kind of athlete she rarely saw growing up — someone visibly pouring back into Birmingham’s underserved communities while pursuing greatness on the world stage.
“I wanted to stay at home in Birmingham to train because I’m big on place plus proximity plus possibilities,” she said. “I want the kids in underserved communities to see somebody training up close for something so big because when they see that, their imaginations expand. They realize, ‘Oh, I can do that too.’”
From Birmingham’s East Side to the National Stage
Raised on Birmingham’s east side in Tom Brown Village, also known as the Avondale Projects, Kirkland says much of her motivation comes from the realities she witnessed growing up.
“I used to always be outside running with my brothers and running with the boys,” she said, laughing. “The boys always wanted to race me because they used to always get beat.”
Her natural athleticism quickly became impossible to ignore.
Kirkland first started running track competitively at 13 years old after a basketball coach noticed her speed and encouraged her to try out for the track team.
By eighth grade, she was already competing against high school athletes.
That same year, she won her first state championship at Birmingham’s CrossPlex.
“I was competing with high schoolers,” Kirkland recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, I can really do this.’”
From there, her rise accelerated quickly.
By the time she graduated from Woodlawn High School in 2017, Kirkland had become one of Alabama’s most decorated young sprinters. She earned a scholarship to Florida State University, where she later became an 11-time NCAA All-American and four-time ACC champion before transferring to the University of Georgia to complete her master’s certificate in project management.
Rebuilding Beyond the Sport
Collegiate athletics, she says, came with emotional challenges few people openly discuss.
“In college, it’s kind of a business,” Kirkland said. “They look at athletes as numbers. If you’re not performing, it’s like, ‘Who’s next?’
As a result, much of her self-worth became deeply tied to her performance on the track.
“When I was doing well, I felt like I was on top of the world,” she said. “But if I wasn’t doing well, I felt like I just was not valuable.”
That pressure intensified in 2022 when Kirkland suffered a rare knee injury during her final season at Georgia — an LCL strain that nearly became significantly worse.
“The doctor told me I was really blessed because I was two centimeters away from tearing everything,” she said.
Though the injury did not require surgery, the timing devastated her emotionally.
“I honestly didn’t want to run anymore,” Kirkland admitted. “I felt worthless. My identity was so tied into the sport because I had been doing it my whole life.”
For a while, her Olympic dreams felt distant.
Then her former Florida State coach reached out and encouraged her not to quit.
“He told me, ‘Don’t give up on your dreams,’” she said.
Kirkland eventually returned to Florida State to continue training professionally, but balancing adulthood, employment and elite athletics proved difficult.
“It was tough,” she said. “Fresh out of college, doing all this on my own — it wasn’t what I imagined it would be.”
Eventually, she returned home to Birmingham.
Now training under a two-time Olympian coach Mina Leeat UAB, Kirkland says rebuilding her confidence has required learning how to separate her identity from her accomplishments.
“After college, I definitely had to unlearn a lot,” she said. “I had to understand that my voice still is valuable and I can still make impact whether I’m on a track or not.”
That mindset shift has shaped the way she approaches both community work and athletics today.
Using Her Platform Beyond Track
Alongside training full-time, Kirkland also works at Hibbett Sports, where she recently earned the company’s Woman of the Year honor — an achievement she says meant more than many athletic awards she has received.
“I’ve won a lot of accolades,” she said, “but this award was a testament of me continuing and not giving up.”
The recognition came through nominations from coworkers and leaders within the company. When executives surprised her with flowers and the news in-store, Kirkland says she could barely contain her excitement.
“I was jumping up and down,” she said. “I’m still soaking it in.”
For Kirkland, the award validated something deeper than athletic success.
“It showed me that my voice is valued outside of track and outside of accolades,” she said.
Her work with Hibbett has also created opportunities to invest directly into Birmingham youth. This summer, Kirkland plans to host a job-shadowing initiative connecting students from underserved communities with Hibbett’s corporate headquarters.
“A lot of athletes come back and host camps and events,” she said. “But I’m big on these kids learning skills. They need to know the opportunities they have at home.”
That mission is deeply personal.
As a teenager traveling internationally for track competitions, Kirkland remembers noticing the difference between the opportunities she experienced abroad and what many children back home lacked.
“I was traveling to places like Poland and South America,” she said. “Then I’d come back home and see there weren’t the same opportunities for kids in underserved communities.”
Today, she hopes visibility can become a tool for change.
“There are people out here that actually want to see them succeed,” Kirkland said. “And I’m one of them.”
That commitment to Birmingham is intentional — and increasingly rare among young elite athletes who often leave home to pursue bigger training markets and sponsorship opportunities.
But Kirkland believes the city deserves investment from people who understand it firsthand.
“I think Birmingham is cool,” she said. “We’re growing. It’s all about who you put yourself around.”
Chasing Greatness While Giving Back
For now, her life revolves around discipline.
Her schedule begins Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. on the track at UAB, followed by hours of lifting, recovery work and physical therapy before heading to work until evening.
“Girl, I be tired,” she said with a laugh.
Still, she remains committed to the process.
“I think balance is a myth when you’re chasing something so big,” Kirkland said. “You kind of have to be obsessive if you want to be the best.”
Even so, she has learned the importance of boundaries, rest and protecting her mental health.
“If you say yes to everybody and yes to everything, then you’ll be drained,” she said.
As she looks toward the future, Kirkland envisions more than simply making Olympic teams.
She sees herself building something lasting within Birmingham.
“I see myself having something established in the community,” she said. “Just continuing to pour into the community.”
And while the Olympics remain the dream, Kirkland says the impact she leaves behind matters just as much as the races she hopes to win.
Because for her, success is no longer measured only in medals or championships.
It is measured in visibility.
In representation.
In the young kids from Birmingham neighborhoods seeing someone who looks like them daring to dream bigger.
“I want them to understand,” Kirkland said, “that there’s more.”
