Call it fitting, or coincidental—or both—that Will Roberts has found the 400-meter hurdles to be the best outlet for his promising athletic talent. Before even thinking of a college track career, the Xavier University freshman had already cleared real-life hurdles, ones that could have kept him from ever reaching the safe spot he found four years ago in high school in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Roberts was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, in West Africa, in 1999. His family roots are in nearby Liberia, but Liberia was ravaged by civil war for nearly 15 years, from 1989 to 2003.