Just after turning pro at 20 years old, Lauryn Williams signed a Nike sponsorship worth around $200,000 a year in 2004, and soon after went on to compete in three Summer Olympic Games. But even at the height of her success, at the age of 29, she decided to retire from track and field in 2013. That same year, she took an entry-level $12-an-hour job. The reason was not about money, but about understanding how her money actually worked.

When her six-figure Nike contract ended around 2010, her financial picture grew complex. But behind the medals and sponsorships, some moments made her question everything. In her early career, her finances were being handled by advisers. One day, she was told her investments had lost money in the market. Her reaction was not panic about the loss itself. It was confusion.

As she says, “I didn’t know what I was invested in or how the market worked. I didn’t know whether the loss was normal, serious, or connected to the plan I supposedly had. ..”

She realized she had been trusting others with her finances without actually understanding them herself. Around the same time, she also made decisions she later questioned, including buying more house than she needed because she was focused on her current income instead of the short length of an athlete’s career. She also came to see that agent fees, taxes, and a short earning window meant that even a six-figure income did not go as far as it appeared.

Slowly, she began to change how she thought.  In 2013, she joined Briaud Financial Advisors as an intern, earning about $12 an hour. Even though she had savings, she still chose the role on purpose so she could learn a new profession, build real financial knowledge, and start a long-term career in financial planning.

She later became a Certified Financial Planner, but the journey was not easy. She failed the CFP exam twice before finally passing on her third attempt in 2017. That experience reminded her that success in sport does not automatically make other paths easy.

Today, Lauryn Williams runs Worth Winning, a financial planning firm focused on helping millennials, athletes, and young professionals become more confident with their money. She has also expanded her work as a speaker, podcast host, author, and CFP Board Ambassador. Despite everything she went on to achieve, Lauryn Williams’ journey started simple.

Lauryn Williams made history in American Olympic sports

Lauryn Williams first began running in local youth meets and later joined the Wings of Moon Track Club in Pennsylvania, where her speed started to stand out. At school, she quickly became one of the fastest sprinters in her age group. She set strong marks in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and relay events. Still, she was not an overnight star or a heavily recruited athlete. Her progress came slowly.

Her career stepped up at the University of Miami, where things began to change. She competed for the Miami Hurricanes and balanced sport with education. She earned a degree in finance and later completed an MBA while continuing to train and compete at a high level.

In 2004, she won the NCAA 100m title. That win marked her as one of the fastest collegiate sprinters in the United States and opened the door to international competition. From there, her rise was quick. She became World Junior Champion in 2002, won the 100m at the Pan American Games in 2003, and then turned professional in 2004 after qualifying for the Olympics.

The 2004 Athens Olympics became her breakthrough moment, where she won a silver medal in the 100m in her first Olympic appearance. A year later, she reached another peak by winning gold in the 100m at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. She continued competing at the top level, winning silver in the 100m at the 2007 World Championships and competing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Her biggest Olympic success came at the 2012 London Olympics, where she won gold in the 4x100m relay. She ran in the heats and still earned a gold medal as part of the winning team. After her sprinting career, Lauryn Williams made a rare switch in sport. She moved into bobsled, inspired by other track athletes who had tried it before her.

In a short time, she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, won a World Cup race, and competed at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with pilot Elana Meyers. There, she won a silver medal in the two-woman bobsled, missing gold by just one-tenth of a second. With that, Lauryn Williams made history. She became the first American woman to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and one of the few athletes in the world to achieve success in both.