For the first time in almost 24 years, the Olympic cauldron in Centennial Olympic Park burned again.
The last time the cauldron was lit, Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games, but on Saturday afternoon, the city welcomed nearly 700 of the country’s most talented distance runners to the United States Olympic Team Marathon Trials. The top three male and female finishers will represent the U.S at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Galen Rupp, the bronze-medal winner at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, won the men’s race in a time of 2:09.20, becoming the first American man to win consecutive U.S. marathon Olympic Trials races. Jacob Riley finished second after a late-race push and 43-year-old Abdi Abdirahman came in third with a time of 2:10.03. Despite being in third place with six miles to go, Atlanta resident Matt McDonald dropped off the pace and finished eighth.
In the closest women’s Olympic Trials ever, Aliphine Tuliamuk crossed the finish line first in a time of 2:27.23. First-time marathoner Molly Seidel shocked the field, coming in second just eight seconds later, while former Kenyan Olympian Sally Kipyego finished third.
Windy conditions and a hilly course challenged the largest Olympic Trials field ever. Both the men’s and women’s fields started off conservatively, before the top finishers made aggressive pushes in the latter half of each race.
The course began in Centennial Olympic Park before runners completed three loops on Peachtree Street. The route was chosen to maximize the experience for spectators, while still testing the competitors.
In the men’s race, Rupp, a 33-year-old from Portland, Oregon, bided his time at the head of the chase pack for the first half of the race. However, the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials winner led the most important move of the day around mile 16, grabbing the lead and holding it for the rest of afternoon.
“The biggest thing for me was being a little conservative at the start, really trying to tuck in and conserve as much energy as possible.” Rupp said. “It was obviously pretty windy out there, but I just tried to relax. … I kept telling myself that I was strong as can be and that my strength is in the last part of the race and the last six miles. I’ve always prided myself on my ability to close in marathons and really keep it together. My training coming in indicated that I was ready to go and that I was stronger than I ever have been.”
Rupp’s path to the Olympic Trials wasn’t easy. After undergoing surgery in late 2018 to correct Haglund’s deformity, a congenital defect of the heel bone, he struggled over the last year and a half, dropping out of the 2019 Chicago marathon, the only marathon he entered last year.
Riley, who finished 15th at the 2016 Olympic Team Trials, also battled with Haglund’s over the past three years, missing significant time from racing. On Saturday, he decided not to go out with Rupp around mile 16, but waited until the final few miles to make his move.
“I saw the group start to come back to me, and I was able to pick up a little bit of distance on every single downhill,” Riley said. “I felt confident I could get the group, but then that last kilometer I thought I could put a little gap. Every time I put a little gap (between me and Abdirahman), I would hit a head wind and come back. … I was very nervous in that last little bit of the race.
“This whole race, I didn’t want to leave any regrets, so I just pushed the pain away as much as possible. I kind of left my body for a little bit there at the end.”
Abdirahman qualified for his fifth American Olympic team with his third-place finish, qualifying at the age of 43 and becoming the oldest U.S. marathon qualifier. After competing for the United States in the 10,000 meters from 2000-08, Abdirahman switched to the marathon, finishing third at the 2012 Olympic Team Trials. He shocked the field once again, holding off U.S. Army runner Leonard Korir in the final sprint.
“(Being the oldest qualifier) means nothing to me, to be honest. I consider myself an athlete,” Abdirahman said. “The way I trained for this wasn’t a fluke. I put in the work, the sacrifice, the dedication.”
In the women’s race, a group of about 25 runners went through the half-marathon together before gradually thinning over the second half. Tuliamuk and Seidel broke from the pack with just six miles to go, with Kipyego narrowly holding off 2016 Olympian Des Linden.
Tuliamuk, a 30-year-old from Posoy, Kenya, led for the remainder of the race, citing the crowd in Atlanta as crucial down the stretch. She had some familiarity with the route and previously won the 2017 AJC Peachtree Road Race.
“I think Atlanta Track Club did an amazing job. The crowd was absolutely crazy,” Tuliamuk said. “It felt like they were right on the course. … (The crowd) was amazing, especially those last miles where everything is hurting, and the pain is setting in. To have people cheer you on, all the way through, just motivates you to give a little bit more.”
25-year-old Molly Seidel stunned spectators Saturday afternoon, becoming the first American woman to qualify for the Olympic Team in her first marathon. Seidel qualified for the Olympic Trials by running a 1:09.35 half-marathon just over a month ago, Jan. 19 at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
“Going into it, I was just trying to keep a clear head. …” Seidel said. “I was just trying to flow through it. I wasn’t paying attention to the miles, I wasn’t paying attention to the pace and just going on feel. When we made our move, it was more a matter of just trying to run a pace that I felt good at and knew I could hold. All of the sudden, it was just the two of us.”
Kipyego rounded out the women’s team, finishing in a time of 2:28.52. In 2012, Kipyego represented her native Kenya in the Olympics, earning the silver medal in the 10,000 meters. After moving to the United States in 2005, her dream has been to eventually represent the United States.
Her dream will come true this summer at the Olympics in Tokyo.
“I wanted to run for this great nation because of the opportunities that this country has afforded me and my family,” Kipyego said. “The best way I can do that, is to run and do it well. I just hope that I represent this nation well.”
