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FPL Engineer Chases Gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics

August 1, 2024

Every day after work, Alonzo Russell trains for the Olympics at Joseph C. Carter Park. When he clocks out of his job as a service planner for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), where he engineers and designs solutions for the community to receive power, he swaps his steel-toed boots for sprinting shoes – in pursuit of a gold medal.

The two-time Olympic sprinter begins his daily four-hour workout at the park’s track, crouched at the starting block, with his fingertips delicately grazing the line where the red track and white line meet. Every muscle in his body is coiled like a spring ready to propel him forward. He mentally prepares like he does before every 400-meter race in the Olympic Games.

“I just take a deep breath and walk through the race in my mind before it happens. So while I'm running the race, it's almost like I've already done it,” Russell explains. “As I'm in the blocks, I'm also just thinking about all the pain I'm about to endure.”

Russell’s journey to the Olympics began in his homeland, the Bahamas, in the town of Hunter just southwest of the islands' largest city, Freeport City.

His passion for running was sparked by his twin sister, Aloniqua, who was on a traveling track team. They would race each other in the backyard to pass the time, but it wasn’t until high school that Russell began training. He quickly became a standout track-and-field student-athlete, earning him scholarships to universities in the United States.

His first Olympics representing the Bahamas, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, was a rollercoaster of emotions marked by a bronze medal win in the 400-meter relay race after overcoming a disqualification from the 4x400 race.

“I got disqualified for stepping out of my lane, so I kind of was down about that, but the next race was coming up a few days later,” he recalls. “I regrouped and got ready for the relay, and we ended up winning the bronze. It was a dream come true.”

Upon returning home with a win, Russell began training for the next Olympic Games and enrolled in Florida State University (FSU). He decided to pursue a degree in electrical engineering— a subject he fell in love with in high school after studying electrical installation.

He graduated in 2021, just before the Tokyo Olympics where he was a semifinalist in the 400-meter race. Russell’s return home also marked the beginning of his professional career as an electrical engineer for FPL. His commitment to excellence is apparent both on the track and at work, where he is part of a team that works every single day to provide reliable electricity to customers.

For the past three years, as he resumed his Olympian training by night, by day, he helped plan large-scale developments and construction within his community, like the Broward Health Urgent Care and Baptist Health Hospital. Russell engineers and designs solutions to get customers power in a fast-growing state, and ensures these new facilities are equipped to receive electricity upon completion.

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