Masai Russell is a social media influencer with 480,000 followers on TikTok. She will compete in the NCAA Championships in New Mexico this weekend. (UK Athletics Photo)
Masai Russell and Abby Steiner at Kentucky together and were roommates who still remain “great friends” even with Steiner now pursuing a professional career after a dominating senior season at Kentucky where she won the Bowerman Award given to the nation’s top collegiate track athlete.
“To see the progression Abby has had is inspiring,” Russell, a UK senior and record-setting hurdler who is on the Bowerman watch list, said. “I know my time has come. As hard as Abby worked, I work just as hard.”
Russell broke the collegiate record for the 60-meter indoor hurdles Jan. 20 in Lubbock, Texas, with a time of 7.75 seconds. She will go for an NCAA championship this weekend in New Mexico.
“Ask our coaches who have been the hardest workers and they will say Masai and Abby. I am not comparing myself to her. Your work does not always show up when you think and clearly I am a year later than her. But you just have to trust your path,” Russell said.
“I just want to stay true to myself and be me. We have a lot of season left and if I get caught up in the now I will get left in the past. You have to create success every single day. In track, it does not matter what you did yesterday. You have to continue proving what you can do. That’s what made Abby so great and relentless because she kept showing what she could do. I want to do that, too.”
Russell is also a social media superstar with 192,000 followers one Instagram along with 480,000 followers on TikTok. Her YouTube channel has 29,000 subscribers.
“None of that was ever really planned,” Russell said. “I think it was just meant to be. I love what I do on and off the track.”
She has a wide variety of sponsored posts on Instagram and TikTok as she may have benefited more from name, image and likeness changes than any athlete at Kentucky.
“I pick up followers each day. I don’t spend a crazy amount of time on it. I just post what I want. Doing NIL work does require me to work a lot from home and even at meets. Probably 50 to 60 percent of the day I am on my phone and the rest of the day I am trying to get better in the weight room or on the track,” she said.
“Social media is just a part of my life. That is who I am. I did get into trouble early recording some things I shouldn’t have. My parents have always told me once you put something out there you can’t take it back. I decided to take a clean route (with social media postings). I want people to know who I am as an athlete and as an influencer.”
