Donovan Brazier Credits His NWSL Player Fiancée for ‘Huge’ Support (Exclusive)

Before Donovan Brazier won gold in the men’s 800-meter race at the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships last month, the 28-year-old runner spent nearly three years recovering from an injury that kept away from the sport he loves.

Now that he’s back in action, Brazier tells PEOPLE how his fiancée, NWSL player Ally Watt, helped him get back on track. “Her support has been huge,” says Brazier, who suffered a fractured tibia in 2021 before undergoing multiple surgeries in 2022 for a Haglund’s deformity in his right heel.

“She was very supportive and I was, not living vicariously through what she was doing, but I was just so happy and proud to see her finding her stride in soccer, so I still found happiness in sports even though I wasn’t able to compete myself,” he says of Watt, 28, who was able to support him in person at the Outdoor Championships — which determined if he would secure a spot at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, going on now in Tokyo.

Watt plays for the Orlando Pride currently, and is one of the first players signed by the league’s new expansion team in Denver, where she’ll play next year. “We’re going to be heading there next year, so I’m really excited about that,” says Brazier.

The couple got engaged in February and will tie the knot in December in Brazier’s Michigan hometown. “We got the invites out and it’s stressful, but we’re glad we’re doing it this year. We’re kind of getting it all done,” he says.

Brazier knows timing is everything, and he says he chose to propose to Watt in February because he knew they’d both have a busy year ahead. “I was like, ‘I want to propose, I want to get married, but there’s never going to be a perfect time to do it.’ I had this whole elaborate scheme to do it, this, this and that, but I was like, I need to do it before I leave, just because I know I’m not going to have much time this year.”

He planned a “going away date/early birthday date” because he’d be traveling on her birthday and popped the question at a park. “There was a photographer, and I had this whole grand speech planned out, but I got so nervous I just popped the question. Just, ‘Will you marry me?’, and she fortunately said, ‘Yes,’ ” he jokes.

Brazier says winning gold in August’s championships gave him “a sense of redemption” after being the “heartbreak” of being forced to step away from running while he recovered. “I personally never knew if I was going to get it back, so this whole year has been filled with gratitude to be racing again.”

“It was all just kind of was a rush of emotions at once, just because I was thinking of all the things it took to get back after a few years, but now it was incredible,” he says.

The fan favorite is now aiming for gold again in Tokyo, where he’ll begin his attempt with heats at 6:35 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The finals, if Brazier makes them, will go off at 9:22 a.m. ET on Saturday.

“I’m feeling good. I’m feeling kind of like the same attitude I had going to USAs,” Brazier says of his mindset going in. “Very grateful to be here, very excited and try to make the most of the opportunity, but I’m still not just happy to be here. I want to compete. I want to be the best I can. I want to make the most of the moment. You never know when it’s going to be your last one.”