SURPRISE, Ariz. — The West Valley is home to a budding athlete whose hard work on the track has paid off in other aspects of his life.
Seven-year-old C.J. Flowers has had Olympic dreams since his first running event three years ago.
“Well, it's actually a big deal. A long time coming from us as training in offseason and with the COVID and just working hard to get to this point,” said Chris Flowers, C.J. Flowers' father and trainer.
The self-described ‘fastest boy alive’ has qualified for the National Junior Olympics, which will be held in Jacksonville, Florida.
“So, I’m like fast and my dad trained me in California,” said C.J. Flowers in their Surprise home.
The Flowers family moved from California, where his father still works, to Surprise.
“Oh, practices. Practice was really kind of upside-down because we started in with the COVID, with the pandemic,” recalled Chris Flowers. “So, a lot of things were locked. We had to squeeze through gates and hop gates and go to parks and it was tough, but we made it happen.”
Chris Flowers said that he has seen his son's hard work on the track manifest into hard work in the classroom.
“Now I'm noticing he wants to do extracurricular work and extra reading and extra stuff on the map and stuff like that,” said Chris Flowers. “So, it's all kind of transcending into like, everything of just working hard.”
C.J. Flowers still has some competitions between now and the Junior Olympics on July 26, and the travel expenses really add up.
C.J. Flowers' mother, Rashanda Jones, is working two jobs and Chris Flowers splits his time between Arizona and his small business still based in California to keep up with the expenses.
To help cover some of the expenses for C.J. Flowers to fulfill his dream, the family set up a GoFundMe.
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