Tayleb Willis is famous, but for the wrong thing. “People on the street, when they come up to me, they say, ‘Oh, my God, you’re the TikToker’, not ‘you’re the athlete’,” he says.
The hurdler has 620,000 fans on TikTok, 170,000 more followers on Instagram. His sharp, quirky, personable videos – often making the most of his model good looks – have won him tickets to exclusive parties and helped him earn a living as he finds his way in the world of athletics.
But all the content has caused the 21-year-old more than a little discontent. “That’s really played on my mind. I’m putting in blood, sweat and tears onto the track, but then being known as a TikToker, that’s the same as ‘influencer’,” he says with an air of exasperation.
“I knew I needed to work hard to get my athletics to the level where that takes over, and I’m known as an athlete.”
He’s getting there. The Melbourne resident has cracked the top 40 in the world rankings for 110m hurdles this year, and is in line to be selected in Australia’s Olympic team for Paris when athletes are named on 8 July.
One of Australian athletics’ big improvers has set four personal bests in 2024 already, trimming almost half a second off his time in the event, in which he is now the third-fastest Australian of all time.
Willis credits newfound maturity and the right mix of people around him for his success. He has been working with coaches Kyle Vander-Kuyp – Australia’s fastest ever in the event – and Sam Leslie, as well as Olympic medal-winning runner John Steffensen as a mentor and commercial rep since midway through last year.
While Willis was a consistent winner in juniors, he admits he found the increase in hurdle height from 99cm to 106cm at senior level challenging. His frustration culminated in a disappointing performance at last year’s nationals. “I went out there, gave it my all, finished fourth, and I was not happy one bit,” he says. “I went into the toilet, cried, and said to myself: this is never happening again.”
He approached Vander-Kuyp, Leslie and Steffensen in July, imploring them to work with him. “We created a group chat called Dream Team, and I stated my goals I wanted to make in there,” he says. “They committed that they’ll be there 24/7, they’re going to help me achieve these dreams, and from that moment, I just had so much confidence.”
Less than 12 months later, Willis is starting to reward their faith in him, not only with his results but his disciplined approach to his sport, which he described previously as “messy”. At a disorganised Oceania Championships earlier this month, several athletes were distracted by the meet in Suva, Fiji, that did not have the organisation they were used to.
Leslie says Willis – who ran another PB at the meet – didn’t let it get to him. “There’s something very deep about his drive, which I think has a lot to do with his upbringing,” the respected coach says.
Asked what Leslie means, Willis pauses briefly. “I definitely agree. I was raised in a not-so-fortunate household: my mum, single parent, raising all of us, four kids on her own,” he says. “When I had my first national champs, we didn’t have enough money, so I had to go door knocking to try and sell raffle tickets. All those little things are the chips that I have on my shoulders,” he says.
Despite his family’s financial limitations, he is grateful for the commitment of his mother Christine to help him find his sporting calling. A young Willis first tried swimming, karate, ballet and gymnastics before attending Little Athletics. “I was good at hurdles because you need flexibility and speed,” he says. “I can’t thank her enough, because that enabled me to love hurdling.”
Willis – who has a mix of Ghanaian and Australian heritage – also played Australian rules football growing up, and was in Hawthorn’s academy before giving it up when he was 15. He played alongside the likes of emerging senior players Judson Clarke, Connor MacDonald and Tyler Sonsie in Melbourne’s east as a teen.
After abandoning his AFL aspirations due to injuries that were hampering his athletics, Willis has no regrets about his choice. “So many people say when you’re starting out, you should go to footy, that’s where the money is, but in reality, my big dream is to be the best in the world,” he says. “In athletics, you get paid good money if you’re the best of the best, and that’s where I want to be.”
Willis recognises he has been fortunate that through his social media prominence he has been able to earn enough to support his travelling and training without having to work a regular job. And he acknowledges it has opened doors for him that few others can even find. But on reflection, he suspects he has done things backward: achieved fame online before he has proven himself in the real world.
“If you look my name up on Google it says internet personality,” he says. “You look up other athletes it says ‘Australian athlete’. So that’s the goal: to be called an Australian athlete, not a social media star.”