Daniel Brady ‘14 Visits Elite Athletes Class

Following your passion is totally worth it. A lot of the opportunities I found in life whether it was academics, career, or personal achievements, was owed a lot to pursuing athletics. - Daniel Brady ‘14

Daniel Brady ‘14 joined Ms. Watson’s Elite Athlete class on Friday, February 5 to talk about his journey as a track athlete. Daniel shared his experiences from the time he was a track athlete at Greenwood to his time as the captain of the track team at Stanford University.

When Daniel was in Grade 9 at Greenwood he made his first OFSAA championship for track and field, but came nearly dead last in his race. Instead of turning to another sport, he trained even harder in Grade 10 and began running track competitively. “I started out as nothing special and people didn’t expect much when they saw me. I just gave it everything I had,” says Daniel. With many hours of training and hard work, he won five OFSAA medals throughout his high school career.

When it came time to decide what life would look like after Greenwood, Daniel contacted several postsecondary institutions in both Canada and the United States to express his interest in their track and field teams. As much as he loved track, he also knew academics was the most important factor when it came to deciding which school he wanted to attend. 

Daniel ended up making his way to Stanford University where he studied Engineering and Product Design and was the captain of the track team. 

University was tough for Daniel. He had to figure out how to manage 20-35 hours a week of training, balance his academics and maintain personal relationships. In Daniel’s first two years of university he also went through a traumatic injury that resulted in him having to take months off of track to recover. Daniel had inner ear nerve damage and lost total hearing and balance on one side of his body. He went from being in the top 2-3 runners in the country to not being able to walk, sit up, or do anything like he could before.

After months of recovery, Daniel was back on track (literally). Throughout his track career, he was a 4x National Team member, placed 3rd in the Canadian Nationals, and was in the Top 5 of Canadian track athletes for four years. 

In 2017, Daniel got an internship at Nike which he described as ‘a wakeup call’. “I realized I had so much more to offer the world other than my ability as a track athlete,” he says. From there, Daniel dove head first into the world of design and tried to learn as much as he could. 

“Realize when you’re not getting what you want from something. It’s not a failure, it’s a note that you should adapt your goals and figure out how you define success,” says Daniel. 

Daniel is now working as a Product Designer at Brilliant Smart Home Technology. His current work is focused on shaping the mobile experience. He spends his time conducting user research, working on a design tool called Figma, and collaborating with engineering and product managers to push products forward.

“I would not be where I am today from a career standpoint and an educational perspective if it wasn’t for my athletics experience. My innate being developed from track,” he says. Daniel encouraged all of Ms. Watson’s students to keep athletics in their lives as long as they can and to participate in sports because they like it and are passionate about it.