A Mix of New and Familiar Faces for the Men’s Olympic Marathon Team – runnersworld.com
A Mix of New and Familiar Faces for the Men’s Olympic Marathon Team runnersworld.com
The U.S. Olympic marathon team headed to Japan will be a mix of familiar faces along with a first-time Olympian.
Defending champion Galen Rupp won the Marathon Trials on Saturday in 2:09:20. Rupp, 33, made his fourth Olympic team; he was the 2016 Olympic marathon bronze medalist. Jacob Riley, 32, based in Boulder, Colorado, finished second in a personal best of 2:10:02.
Abdi Abdirahman—now a five-time Olympian—rounds out the team and, at age 43, is the oldest U.S. Olympic marathoner ever. Leonard Korir, a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program who ran the fastest marathon debut ever by an American last year in Amsterdam, took fourth.
In the race, surprise first half leader Brian Shrader covered the first 13.1 in 1:04:53, but he started looking slightly more fatigued at that point and later dropped from the race. From 13.1 on, Rupp and Abdirahman led the chase pack in an attempt to close the gap between themselves and the leader.
By mile 15, Rupp made up a significant amount of ground with just 23 seconds separating him from Shrader. Rupp caught Shrader just before the 16-mile mark, and built a lead of his own.
“I knew that everybody wasn’t just going to let someone run away for so long,” Rupp told reporters in the mixed zone. “It’s just about staying relaxed and running your race.”
In the process, Korir, Augustus Maiyo, Abdirahman, and Matt McDonald formed a new lead pack with Rupp. The gradual move to the front left several top contenders behind, including 2016 Olympian Jared Ward, who finished 27th in 2:15:55.
At mile 20, Rupp started to break away from his competitors to close his second Olympic Marathon Trials victory. Rupp won the 2016 Trials in 2:11:13, more than a minute ahead of runner-up Meb Keflezighi.
Rupp’s victory was his first completed marathon in a year and a half. In 2018, he had major surgery on his left foot to repair a frayed Achilles tendon and a Haglund’s deformity, a bony protrusion on his heel. In October 2019, he dropped out at mile 23 of the Chicago Marathon. But he ran 1:01:19 at a tuneup half marathon three weeks ago, which was a positive sign for his fitness heading into the Trials.
“I’m on a great track right now,” Rupp said after Saturday’s win. “This was a really big race for me, and I’m just relieved to get it done, and now I have several more months to keep getting stronger and get ready for the Olympics.”
Around mile 24, Riley caught the chase pack of Abdirahman, Maiyo, and Korir. His late move brought him into second place at mile 25, ahead of Abdirahman and Korir. Maiyo had faded to fifth in the previous mile.
Riley, the most unknown of the top three, was in awe after the super close finish in Centennial Olympic Park.
Kevin Morris
“This whole race, I didn’t want to leave any regrets,” Riley said. “So I decided to push the pain away as much as possible and I kind of left my body for a little bit at the end there and it worked out.”
For Riley, making the Olympic team was the culmination of an impressive comeback to the sport. Like Rupp, Riley also underwent surgery in 2018 to repair Haglund’s deformity. He also left Michigan and the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project to move to Boulder, where he now trains under coach Lee Troop, an Australian Olympian.
After finishing as the top American in Chicago last October, Riley said that he had contemplated quitting the sport because of his injury problems. Troop encouraged a slow, steady return starting in the spring of 2019.
Abdirahman took a more casual approach to his strategy for the championship.
“I didn’t know what I was capable of until we got to the starting lineup,” he said. “I didn’t see the course, I didn’t study it, I just ran the course. I didn’t know what the first lap was, what the second lap was. I was just running.”
Kevin Morris
Abdirahman said he wasn’t aware that he was about to make his fifth Olympic team until he saw the finish line.
“I never take anything for granted,” he said. “It feels amazing [to make my fifth Olympic team]. It’s a dream of mine and I accomplished it….there’s no secret to it–hard work pays off.”
Rupp wins $80,00 with the victory, while Riley takes hom $65,000 and Abdirahman earns $55,000.
The men’s marathon, being held in Sapporo, Japan, is scheduled for the last day of the 2020 Summer Olympics on August 9.
Taylor Dutch is a freelance writer living in Chicago.