You’ll be relieved to hear that a date with Olympic sprinter Leroy Dixon will not require sneakers, but it will be active. This Los Angeles-based world-class runner doesn’t want to spend hours in a restaurant or a theater. “For a first date I don’t like to do dinner because it’s too intimate,” he said. Instead, he might arrange a casual outing with friends. The Indiana native is looking for substance. “A woman I talk to has to stand for something.”

He’s currently training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and he released a children’s book in December called Leroy Goes to the Olympics. “Instead of me fabricating my story for my kids, I want to give them a sense of how I started and how I finished, and they can read it for themselves.”
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Sabrina: Greet with a hug or a kiss?
Leroy: I would give her a hug. If I’m comfortable around her I’d give her a hug and peck her on the cheek. But if we don’t have a connection yet, it’d be more of one of those one-hand side hugs.

Sabrina: What’s one of your dating pet peeves?
Leroy: Always texting on her phone when we’re together. I don’t like that. That means she’s not taking my time seriously. Some girls just do that. I don’t know if they’re not aware that they do that. It’s like, are you aware that you’re texting a whole lot while you’re talking to me? And then I can be in the middle of a conversation and she’ll start texting. It’s like, you’re not paying attention to what I’m saying?

Sabrina: How soon after will you follow up for the next date?
Leroy: It depends. If we have that connection it could be the next day. It doesn’t really matter to me. It’s whenever [we] feel like it again.

— Sabrina M. Parker

Get more from Leroy in the January 2012 issue of Sister 2 Sister.

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