Fast Women: Track season really gets rolling
Elle St. Pierre picks up where she left off with a win in LA.
Issue 293
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Elle St. Pierre, Diribe Welteji, Ceili McCabe, and Halimah Nakaayi pick up wins at the LA Grand Prix
It’s hard to believe that the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials are about one month away. Some Olympic contenders showed promising fitness over the weekend at the USATF LA Grand Prix, while others had rough outings or were nowhere to be found. There’s still time for struggling athletes to turn things around, but each big meet provides clues about what we might expect to see at the Trials.
Elle St. Pierre, a favorite to make the U.S. Olympic team, opened her season with a 5,000m win on Friday night. In her first race since winning the World Indoor 3,000m title, she ran 14:34.12, a 24-second PR, and moved to fifth on the U.S. all-time list. Aside from the help she received from the rabbits, St. Pierre led every step of the race. And she closed well, with a 2:45 final kilometer. She said her main goal was to hit the Olympic standard (14:52.00), and she was well under.
A 5,000m/1500m double at the Trials is possible, but for any 1500m specialist, the order is not ideal with the 5,000m prelim on June 21, the final on the 24th, and the 1500m starting on the 27th. Next up, St. Pierre will race the 1500m at the Pre Classic this weekend.
Venezuela’s Joselyn Brea stuck with St. Pierre until the final lap and finished second in 14:36.59, a national record and an 11-second PR.
For U.S. athletes who have already hit the Trials auto qualifier of 15:10.00, the next step is hitting the Olympic standard. No one else did so, but Whittni Orton Morgan gave it a solid try. She went out on pace but faded to eighth in 15:11.35. Ella Donaghu (14:58.39), Allie Buchalski (15:01.75), Abby Nichols (15:03.17), and Bethany Hasz (15:05.80) all ran well and improved their world rankings. And Lauren Gregory won the B heat in a PR of 15:22.48, six days after she won a 15-mile trail race in Vermont.
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The 1500m featured a good battle up front between Ethiopians Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu, with Welteji getting the win, 3:55.25 to 3:55.48. Susan Ejore of Kenya and UA Mission Run Dark Sky Distance was thrilled to take third in 3:58.63, a 3.57-second PR. And fellow Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech, who is better known for her steeplechase accomplishments, finished fourth in 3:59.73, also breaking 4:00 for the first time.
World Indoor 1500m bronze medalist Emily Mackay finished fifth in 4:00.08 and led the Americans. Sinclaire Johson took seventh in 4:00.67. I wasn’t sure what to make of Johnson’s 4:13.64 season opener at the Payton Jordan Invitational, where she finished fourth, but Saturday’s performance showed she’s in a good place. Dani Jones was ninth in 4:02.09, and Cory McGee was 12th in 4:02.96.
Maia Ramsden of Harvard and New Zealand finished 11th in 4:02.58, shaving 3.93 seconds off of her PR and setting a national record. Her time is also the second-fastest ever by a collegiate runner, behind only Jenny Simpson’s 3:59.90 from the 2009 Prefontaine Classic. Ramsden was already a strong favorite to repeat as NCAA 1500m champion, but now she has the fastest time in the NCAA by more than five seconds. She just missed the Olympic standard, by 0.08 seconds, but she’ll have more chances, and she could still get to Paris based on her world ranking.
Heather MacLean, who struggled with injuries during the 2023 season, was relegated to the B heat due to her recent lack of fast times, but hopefully she earned a promotion with her performance on Friday night. It was just MacLean vs. the pace lights, which were set to the Olympic standard, and it was a close one. Originally the clock on the broadcast read 4:02.51, but her time was corrected to 4:02.49, and she dipped under the Olympic standard with 0.01 seconds to spare. She won the race by more than three seconds. Christina Aragon took fourth in 4:06.53, and Rachel McArthur was fifth in 4:06.67, both running PRs.
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Ceili McCabe of Canada and West Virginia University had a big performance to win Friday night’s steeplechase in 9:20.58. She took 1.82 seconds off of Geneviève Lalonde’s Canadian record, PRed by 5.4 seconds, and dipped under the Olympic standard (9:23.00), which should secure her a spot in Paris. McCabe is redshirting the collegiate season, otherwise she would be a top NCAA contender as well.
Behind her, Madie Boreman also ran well, finishing second in 9:21.98. Boreman shaved 1.01 seconds off of her PR and also secured the Olympic standard. I suspect that the steeplers who make the U.S. team will need to run under the standard at the Trials anyway, but it’s still nice to have going in. Plus with Sunday’s heartbreaking news that Courtney Frerichs is also out for the season after tearing her ACL and meniscus while water jumping in practice, the pool of contenders keeps shrinking.
With both Frerichs and Emma Coburn out for the season, there’s now even more opportunity in the steeplechase, and it’s going to be interesting to see who grabs it. The next two Americans were Angelina Ellis, who was sixth in 9:25.25 and PRed by five seconds, and Logan Jolly, who was seventh in 9:26.23, a small PR.
It was a little surprising to see Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto (third, 9:22.45) in the race as well. Last year, she was provisionally suspended by the AIU due to abnormalities in her biological passport. But in November, an independent tribunal overturned the suspension. World Athletics is appealing that decision, arguing in favor of the ban, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear their appeal on June 17. But in the event that she remains cleared, she has the Olympic standard now.
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Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi and Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma had a close battle in the 800m, with Nakaayi, the 2019 outdoor world champion, edging out Duguma, the 2024 indoor world champion, by 0.006 seconds, both running 1:57.56 (highlights here). Assuming everyone shows up, the pair will race Keely Hodgkinson, Mary Moraa, and Athing Mu at the Pre Classic this weekend. (Mu, who has yet to race this season, was scheduled to run the 400m in LA, but she scratched.)
Sage Hurta-Klecker finished third in 1:58.98, and finally a U.S. pro has broken 2:00 this season, with perhaps more to come next weekend. (In addition to Mu, Nia Akins is scheduled to run her first 800m of the outdoor season at Pre.) Many people were upset that the NBC commentators failed to mention Hurta-Klecker and instead focused on American women farther back in the field. The commentators get a lot of things right; I think it was just an unfortunate oversight.
Allie Wilson finished sixth in 2:00.59, and Ajee’ Wilson (eighth, 2:04.87) and Raevyn Rogers (ninth, 2:06.17) had rough outings. Ajee’, who ran 2:02.88 in her 800m opener last month, said she was definitely in better shape than the time she ran. Rogers has raced four 800s this season and her fastest so far is the 2:02.00 she ran at Oregon Relays last month.
Sammy Watson had the fastest time in Friday’s 800m races, winning the B heat in 2:00.73. And Kate Grace, who was running her first track race in nearly three years due to long Covid, injury, and having a baby, dominated the D heat. She ran 2:01.93 and won by 1.75 seconds. The Olympic Trials auto qualifying standard is 2:00.50, but she hit the minimum standard and will have more opportunities in the coming weeks. Grace returned in the 1500m 90 minutes later and ran 4:11.92.
And one of the most exciting races of the meet was the 200m. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who was stepping down in distance, wasn’t favored to win, but she produced a 0.32-second PR, ran 22.07 (-0.3 m/s wind) and topped a stacked field. Abby Steiner took second in 22.32, and Gabby Thomas was sixth in 22.68. (Results | 200m highlights)
My heart breaks for trans girls who are good at sports
I wasn’t planning to write about the Oregon state meet until I saw this DyeStat editorial on Sunday morning. You know it’s not going to be a progressive take when they use the word transgendered instead of transgender in the headline and then later refer to a trans girl as a “boy.” The quotes are theirs. The writer, Doug Binder, claims to be sympathetic and says he has no issue respecting her identity and pronouns while failing to do so. I am disappointed in DyeStat for publishing it.
What I know from the article: Aayden Gallagher, a trans sophomore from Portland, won the 200m at the Oregon state meet in 23.82 seconds and finished second in the 400m in 52.98 seconds. While she was winning the 200m and accepting her award, the Hayward Field crowd booed her, loudly. Binder writes that he does not know if Gallagher has begun any gender-affirming hormone therapy, which is none of our business, and the OSAA does not require it. Gallagher was following the rules. Binder argues that the rules should change.
You can read the article if you want to hear his full argument for why trans girls shouldn’t be allowed to participate in high school sports. He’s hardly alone in his feelings. All of his arguments are popular among the “save women’s sports” crowd. (If women’s sports need saving, it’s not trans women that are the threat.) And girls’ and women’s sports have quickly become one of the top places to push an anti-trans agenda.
But high school sports are about more than winning. They’re also about the relationships, life lessons, self confidence, belonging, and so much more. And trans kids have a right to all of those things, too. As they move forward in their athletic careers, doors are going to be slammed in their faces. I applaud the state high school associations that give trans girls the opportunity to compete.
Binder writes, “Does one lane in the finals for a trans athlete in 2024 become three lanes some time in the future?” This is a common argument, but thus far, there are very few trans kids making it to state finals in their sports. And if that should change, I think the sport can consider ways to continue to be inclusive without taking opportunities away from cisgender girls.
I’m not arguing that allowing trans girls to compete makes for a level playing field; there’s no such thing. I’m arguing that some things, like inclusion and acceptance, should be more important. And track & field has a good opportunity to be a safe space for trans teens. Right now, it is not. Binder reported that Gallagher needed security at track practice, her hotel, and Hayward Field. Google Gallagher’s name and you’ll see a lot of adults spewing hate toward a teenager.
Gallagher is likely getting some additional life lessons out of her high school running experience, like just how hateful some people can be and, hopefully, how to have thick skin. It would be tough for anyone of any age to handle. And all of the athletes at the state meet who had coaches who were quietly muttering about the unfairness of it all, or parents who booed Gallagher from the stands, learned various things as well, like how to echo that nastiness, or that they don’t have as much respect for the adults in their lives as they thought. I hope there were also some coaches and parents there talking about the importance of inclusion and acceptance, and the fact that there’s room for all of us.
On Saturday, Josie Donelson, the 400m winner, and Gallagher became the first two girls in state history to break 53 seconds, with Donelson running 52.83 and Gallagher running 52.98. Perhaps Donelson would have run just as fast without Gallagher, but I imagine Gallagher’s presence helped.
Shame on the Hayward fans for harassing a teenager who was following the rules and just wanted to participate in her sport. And on every media outlet who will now drag Gallagher’s name through the mud and use this case to promote an anti-trans agenda. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a perfect solution to dividing sports by gender. And the debate always gets more heated when trans girls are good at their sport. But the world is already such a hateful place for most trans people, and I’d like to see the sport become a safe haven, rather than another vehicle for spewing intolerance.
A stranger comes through with a $75,000 check for Buzunesh Deba
In April, Rachel Bachman of The Wall Street Journal broke the news that 10 years after winning the 2014 Boston Marathon, Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba was still waiting to receive $100,000 in prize money. Deba originally crossed the finish line in second place, but Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo, who finished ahead of her, was later banned for doping. Boston hasn’t been able to recover the prize money they paid Jeptoo, so no one’s prize money has been adjusted.
Last week, Bachman reported that after reading the original story, Philadelphia’s Doug Guyer was outraged enough that he sent Deba a check for $75,000. And he said he’d consider sending her the remaining $25,000 if the B.A.A. doesn’t. “For us, it’s a miracle,” Deba tearfully told Bachman. “It’s life-changing, big money.”
Guyer, a former quarterback for Boston College’s football team, who remembers watching the marathon when he was a student, told the Boston Globe that he’s never heard someone say thank you with more genuine gratitude. Bachman reported that WSJ readers wanted to start a crowdfunding campaign to help Deba, but Deba and her husband thought that would make it too difficult to repay the money, as they intend to do with Guyer, if the B.A.A. eventually comes through.
For Guyer, this is about righting a wrong, but Deba’s case is part of a larger problem. Boston is hardly the only race not to reallocate prize money after an athlete is banned. Bachman reported that Chicago Marathon organizers still have not recovered or reallocated $265,000 in prize money that Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova was given before she was banned, and London was unable to recover $55,000 from her. In response to Bachman’s article, Des Linden tweeted, “Who is going to pay the rest of the athletes their upgraded earnings?”
David Monti noted that Jeptoo, whose ban has ended, is competing again, and she has been earning prize money at road races in France and Spain. He believes that she should not be allowed to compete until she returns her Boston Marathon prize money. Jeptoo’s case is tougher, because she won Boston in April of 2014 but didn’t test positive until five months later.
Diana Kipyokei, on the other hand, tested positive right after winning the 2021 Boston Marathon and her prize money was put on hold until the Athletics Integrity Unit’s process concluded. Because the money was never paid out, the B.A.A. was able to adjust everyone’s prize money accordingly.
Other News and Links
The women who ran the first U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, in 1984, held a 40-year reunion over the weekend in Olympia, Washington, and I just love all of the photos I’ve seen so far, including this one.
USATF notified its members last week that Chad Noelle has been temporarily suspended due to allegations of misconduct. This is notable because he coaches his partner, Kaela Edwards, and other athletes through the Apex Track Club. Details of these types of investigations are never made public, unless those who bring forward the complaint choose to speak out. If he is permanently suspended, he won’t be able to coach at USATF meets like the Olympic Trials or U.S. championships, but he will still be allowed to continue coaching all of the athletes he is currently coaching.
Coach Bobby Kersee told NBC Sports that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone plans to enter only the 400m hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials. For a while, she seemed to be more interested in focusing on flat races, but plans change. “I think Sydney’s love is the 400m hurdles, and so that’s the number one event,” Kersee said. “My job is to make sure that she gets ready for the one that she wants to do the most.” Even if McLaughlin-Levrone doesn’t run the flat 400m at the Trials, she could still be part of the U.S. 4x400m squad, like she was at the 2021 Games.
Netflix announced that Sprint, the docuseries that will follow Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson, and others, will debut in July, and it has already been renewed for a second season.
Three days after the Prefontaine Classic announced that Faith Kipyegon would be running the 1500m, she wrote in an Instagram post that she would not run the race. She said that she dealt with a small muscle problem “some weeks back,” but now she’s back in full training and plans to open her season at the Kenyan Trials.
Tigst Assefa, Amane Beriso, and Megertu Alemu were selected to represent Ethiopia in the Olympic marathon.
Molly Longman wrote about why there aren’t more female running coaches, and I appreciate the topic getting more attention. I wrote a lot on the same topic back in January.
Additional Results
South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso won the 800m at the Rabat Diamond League meet in a world-leading 1:57.26. And Medina Eisa edged out fellow Ethiopian Fotyen Tesfay in the 5,000m, 14:34.16 to 14:34.21. (Results)
The Night of 10,000m PBs looked like a fantastic event, as always, and there were more U.S. entrants than usual this year. But the conditions were warm and humid, which seemed to contribute to the slower times. The race had quite a few lead changes, but it came down to a kick between Scotland’s Megan Keith and Fiona O’Keeffe, with Keith winning, 31:03.01 to 31:03.38. Neither athlete PRed, but it was a fun race to watch, and by being the top British athlete and already having the Olympic standard, Keith secured her Olympic selection. And for me, Amanda Vestri was the story of the race. She shaved 43 seconds off of her best time and finished third in 31:10.59. The other Americans in the field were Anne-Marie Blaney (18th, 32:02.37), Olivia Pratt (19th, 32:11.69), Stephanie Bruce (20th, 32:22.42), Jessie Cardin (23rd, 32:37.30), and Amy Davis-Green (24th, 32:54.40). Blaney reshared a photo of her riding a unicycle on the track, presumably after the race, and I want to know more about that. Keira D’Amato started the race but dropped out 4.25 miles in, when she knew she wasn’t going to hit any of her goals. She said in an Instagram post that she figured not going to the well would allow her to recover faster and move on to the next thing. (Results | Race replay)
Kim Conley won the Brooklyn Half Marathon in 1:12:43. (Results)
Kathy VanDehy won the Green Bay Marathon in 2:43:12. (Results)
Molly Huddle won the USATF New England 5K Championships, hosted by the Great Bear Run, in 15:57. Side note: I used to love this race, because they give out stuffed bears to everyone under age 12, and I am not above bribing children to become runners. They call their 26.2 meter race for 0–3 year olds a bearathon. Too cute. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
Olympian Amy Yoder Begley, who now works for USATF, had some really interesting insights on I’ll Have Another. She said she thinks the World Championships standard for next year is going to be 2:23:30 (down from the 2:26:50 Olympic standard), she talked about helping athletes find more fast marathon opportunities because of the tougher standards, especially for the men, and she discussed some details of her SafeSport experience, saying that she was able to corroborate parts of Kara Goucher’s story, because she had journals and training logs from that time.
Val Constien talked about her return from ACL surgery on the Citius Mag podcast, and it was interesting to hear her frame the fact that she wasn’t that good in college as an advantage. She said that as a result of being a mid-packer (in high-level collegiate races) for years, she got a lot of experience hurdling in a pack, surrounded by people who weren’t necessarily very good at clearing barriers.
I enjoyed hearing Carmen Graves discuss her journey to steeplechasing, her small training group, and her future marathon plans on Women’s Running Stories. She said it was difficult to envision herself becoming a distance runner when she was growing up, because she didn’t see many Black women in the longer events. She’s hoping that by continuing to do what she’s doing, she can be a role model for the next generation.
Careth Arnold, who didn’t really start racing long distances until the pandemic, told some of her story on The Trail Network Podcast, and aspects of it blew my mind. For one, she discussed delivering her second child by herself. She has a 4-year-old and a 7-month-old, and she recently earned a golden ticket to Western States by finishing fourth at the Canyons 100K. She also had some interesting insights about breastfeeding as an ultrarunner.
Additional Episodes: Boston Marathon live show with Briana Boehmer, Kelly Bruno, and Alisa Harvey, from Run Farther & Faster | Amber Zimmerman on Yoga with Jake (Yes, she discusses this viral clip of her racing a banana at the Broad Street Run. And no, it’s not the same banana that set a record at this year’s Boston Marathon. Banana costumes are clearly having a moment.) | Kate Landau on C Tolle Run | Marta Pen Freitas on The Running Effect | University of Texas standout Olivia Howell on Running in Circles
Upcoming: Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic should be fantastic, and it will be on NBC and Peacock beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET. The NCAA first rounds begin on Wednesday and will stream on ESPN+. You can find the links to the schedules and entries here.
Thanks to everyone who helps keep Fast Women going with your support on Patreon and Venmo. Have a great week!
Alison