The 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team, Four Years Later
On February 29th, more than 700 runners will compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta, vying for one of six spots on the team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. World Athletics, track and field’s global governing body, has granted the trials a “gold label” status due to the premier caliber of talent in the race. This means that the top three finishers in the men’s and women’s races will be eligible to compete at the Summer Games, whether or not they have hit the respective Olympic qualifying times (2:11:30 for the men and 2:29:30 for the women).
At the 2016 trials in Los Angeles, Team USA was represented in the marathon by Galen Rupp, Meb Keflezighi and Jared Ward on the men’s side, while Amy Cragg, Desiree Linden and Shalane Flanagan took the top three spots for Rio on the women’s side. The Los Angeles heat served as a good test run for Rio, as the men came away with two top 10 finishes and a bronze medal at the Olympics, and the women posted the best team showing of all countries, with all three finishers in the top 10.
Here’s how the most recent U.S. Olympic marathoners have fared since their races in Rio 2016.
Galen Rupp, 2016 U.S. Olympic trials champion
At the 2016 Olympics, Rupp earned a bronze medal behind Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lelisa to become the first man to win an Olympic medal in the marathon since Meb Keflezighi took silver at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
Rupp, 33, looks to be the favorite to try and defend his marathon trials crown. The 2016 trials marked his debut at the 26.2-mile distance and he pulled away from Keflezighi at mile 22 to win in 2:11:13. In Rio, he lowered his personal best by 68 seconds to win his bronze medal and cement himself as America’s best active marathoner. It should come as little surprise given his track credentials are among the best in U.S. history, with 11 national titles and an Olympic silver medal in the 10,000 meters from 2012.
In 2017, Rupp finished second at the Boston Marathon in April and then won the Chicago Marathon in October. He was the first American to do so in 15 years. Boston called him back to take another crack at the win in 2018, but due to the icy, windy and cold conditions, he dropped out of the race around the 19-mile mark with symptoms of hypothermia. He recycled his training and fitness less than a month later to clock a 2:06:07 at the Prague Marathon, which puts him as the second-fastest U.S. marathoner in history behind Khalid Khannouchi’s American record of 2:05:38 from the 2002 London Marathon. Rupp failed to defend his Chicago Marathon title in October but finished fifth in 2:06:21.
Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Last year was the most tumultuous year of Rupp’s career. In October 2018, Rupp underwent surgery on his left heel to address the Haglund's Deformity bump on his Achilles, and he was out for a majority of the following year in ’19. In October, Rupp decided to try and race the Chicago Marathon but dropped out near the 23-mile mark due to a calf strain.
The biggest blow to Rupp’s training and inner circle may have been the four-year ban of his longtime coach Alberto Salazar, for anti-doping rule violations. As a result, Rupp had to search for a new coach and Nike disbanded the Oregon Project training group that was centered on Rupp for many years. Rupp has never tested positive for any performance-enhancing drugs or been charged with any anti-doping violation. Since initial reports about Salazar pushing the boundaries in 2015, Rupp has stood by his coach, but he pushed back on questions about Salazar’s ban before the Chicago Marathon last October.
Now, ahead of the 2020 trials, Rupp is healthy again and working with Northern Arizona coach Mike Smith. He ran a 61:19 half marathon in Mesa, Ariz., on Feb. 8 as a tune-up—and a reminder to all that he’s likely the favorite in Atlanta.
Meb Keflezighi, 2016 U.S. Olympic trials runner-up
At 41 years old, many knew Rio would be one of Keflezighi’s final marathons. It marked his fourth Olympics, and he finished 33rd overall since he stopped several times during the race to vomit due to stomach issues. Just before crossing the finish line, he slipped on a wet spot but recovered by doing pushups.
After the 2016 Olympics, Keflezighi went on a farewell tour by running the Boston Marathon (2:17:00, 13th place) and New York City Marathon (2:15:29). He retired and finished his career as the only man who has won the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon, and earned a silver medal in the Olympics. Keflezighi remains one of the sport’s biggest ambassadors by frequently appearing at races and running with the masses for charity.
Jared Ward, 2016 U.S. Olympic trials third place finisher
Ward ran a personal best in the humid and rainy conditions in Rio to notch a sixth-place finish in 2:11:30. A professor at BYU who wrote a statistical analysis on optimal marathon pacing, Ward used brilliant tactics to go from 15th to ninth in the final 10K of the race.
Following his performance in Rio, Ward struggled with hamstring injuries in 2017 but still ran in the Boston and New York City Marathon. In ’18, he opted for just one marathon and showed signs of his ’16 self by finishing as the top American at the ’18 New York City Marathon in 2:12:24. He took confidence from the performance given that he nearly pulled out of the race a few weeks prior.
In the lead-up to the 2019 Boston Marathon, U.S. men’s marathoning was heavily criticized for times slowing in recent years. Scott Fauble, a 28-year-old Olympic team contender, and Ward silenced the skeptics by finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, in Boston and under 2:10—a feat only Rupp had done since 2014.
Last November, Ward was the top American at the New York City Marathon with another strong showing as he clocked a 2:10:45 for sixth overall. It was more than a minute faster than his previous best on the same course. He appears to be in good shape after being the top American in January’s Houston Marathon in a personal best of 61:36.
Amy Cragg (née Hastings), 2016 U.S. Olympic trials champion
Cragg won the 2016 trials in 2:28:20 after pushing the pace from the front with her teammate Shalane Flanagan. In Rio, she ran just five seconds slower and placed ninth.
Cragg followed up her first Olympic Marathon with a bronze medal at the World Championships in 2017, becoming the first American woman on the podium in nearly 34 years. The top three women in that race were just seven seconds apart. In 2018, she lowered her personal best to 2:21:42 at the Tokyo Marathon and she now stands as the fifth-fastest American female marathoner. Unfortunately, Tokyo was Cragg’s last marathon to date. She pulled out of the 2018 and ’19 Chicago Marathons due to fatigue, according to Runner’s World. However, last fall, she resumed training for the Olympic Trials but announced that she had to withdraw from the 2020 trials due to illness.
Des Linden, 2016 U.S. Olympic trials runner-up
Linden is a model in consistency and split 1:13:02 for the first half of her race in Rio and then 1:13:06 for the second half to finish in 2:26:08 for seventh place. She told reporters after the race that she “went all in.”
In 2017, Linden nearly got back on the podium at the Boston Marathon with a 2:25:06 finish, which was the third-fastest time by an American woman that year. Only Jordan Hasay and her remarkable 2:20:57 in Chicago and 2:23:00 in Boston were faster. Her return to Boston in 2018 would be the stunner.
Strong headwinds, icy rain and cold conditions led to one of the most unpredictable races in the 112-year history of the Boston Marathon. Linden nearly dropped out of the race just six miles into the day, but then rebounded, stopped to help a teammate and then pulled away from the leaders at the 22-mile mark to become the first American woman to win Boston since 1985. Her winning time of 2:39:54 may be the slowest time by a champion since 1978, but she cemented herself in U.S. distance running lore.
The win propelled Linden to mainstream fame and had people like Ellen Degeneres tweeting about her. She attended the Billboard Music Awards and presented the Best Female Artist with Taylor Swift.
After the win, Linden parted ways with coaches Keith and Kevin Hanson to team up with her college coach Walt Drenth, who is also a coach at Michigan State. Not much changed performance-wise for Linden, as she remained among the top American women at the New York City Marathon the past two years and took fifth at the Boston Marathon in 2019.
Linden was mum about her 2020 plans in the fall but announced in December that she will run the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials and the Boston Marathon seven weeks apart. At 36 years old, Linden doesn’t anticipate retiring from running soon, but she could transition to trail running after this Olympic cycle.
Shalane Flanagan, 2016 U.S. Olympic trials third-place finisher
In her fourth Olympics, Flanagan finished in sixth place as the top American woman, just four years after a ninth-place finish. When asked about some of the women ahead of her with suspect connections to doping in the Rio 2016 race, Flanagan replied, “Positions can always change.” Gold medalist Jemima Sumgong tested positive for EPO in 2017 and had her ban extended to eight years for trying to tamper with medical records in the IAAF’s investigation. Due to the timing of the positive test, she kept her gold medal.
Flanagan went into the 2017 New York City Marathon contemplating retirement, but history had other plans. She became the first American woman to win the race since Miki Gorman in 1977 and it extended her career for at least one more year. In 2018, she struggled in the conditions and finished seventh in Boston. She returned to New York to defend her title and finished third for a third time on the podium. It ended up being her last race, as knee issues left her unable to train at a high level in 2019, and in October, she announced her retirement at 38 years old.
In addition to her Olympic appearances and New York City glory, she finished her career with a silver medal from the 2008 Summer Games, the third-fastest female U.S. marathon time and two NCAA cross country championships, among other accolades. She has moved onto coaching and works with the Nike Bowerman Track Club.
