Fiona O’Keeffe Wins U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in First-Ever Marathon and Is Headed to Paris

Fiona O’Keeffe broke records every step of the way on her 26.2 miles to the finish line at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon on Saturday.

The 25-year-old – who was running a marathon for the first time – was the surprise winner. O’Keeffe, who qualified for the Trials with a half-marathon time, was ahead of the more experienced women in the field, clearing around 19 miles to finish in 2:22:10, a Trials record.

And O’Keeffe not only broke the Olympic trials record, but became the first woman to win the trials in her marathon debut and the youngest to win since Joan Benoit Samuelson in 1984.

Despite leading nearly half the race, the Puma runner said she didn’t feel like her victory was a foregone conclusion.

“I started hearing people saying, ‘You’re going to Paris! You’re going to Paris!’ “, she said at the press conference after the race. “But I knew there were so many strong women behind me and I ran a little scared.”

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Emily Sisson, Fiona O’Keeffe and Dakotah Lindwurm.

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Finishing second behind her was Emily Sisson, the current American record holder in the marathon and the favorite coming into the Trials. She finished 32 seconds behind O’Keeffe in 2:22:42 on a warm day in Orlando. Dakotah Lindwurm was third, 2 minutes and 49 seconds behind Sisson. Three women will represent the USA in Paris at the 2024 Olympics.

Although O’Keeffe and Sisson were unchallenged in the late heat, Lindwurm had to battle with her rivals for that final Olympic spot.

“If I dreamed about this once, I dreamed about it a thousand times,” she said about joining the Paris team. “It almost doesn’t feel real.”

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Conner Mantz broke away from Clayton Young to win the US Olympic Marathon.

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On the men’s side, training partners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young took first and second, respectively, after running together the entire race. Less than 200 meters from the finish line the two were still in step and it seemed uncertain who would cross first before Mantz pushed forward, seemingly encouraged by Young. Mantz, who runs for Nike, won in 2:09:05, with Young coming in a second later.

“It’s almost as close to marriage as it gets,” Young said of his relationship with Mantz. “Sometimes we have disagreements. We are very, very competitive, but not today.”

“Conner and I are better when we work together.”

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Clayton Young, Leonard Korir and Conner Mantz.

Mike Ehrmann/Getty

Leonard Korir, an Army staff sergeant who missed the 2020 marathon team at the Tokyo Olympics by 3 seconds, finished third. He’ll likely join Mantz and Young in Paris, but will have to wait until May to find out if the U.S. deserved that third-place finish at the Olympics. While the U.S. women had fast enough qualifying times to unlock all three spots for the race, the men only opened up two and will have to see if they finish high enough in the international standings to earn that third spot.

All six would be running the Olympic marathon for the first time.

“I didn’t expect this performance,” O’Keeffe told NBC after her win. “I had to pinch myself with eight miles to go and say ‘keep calm, don’t sizzle’.’ ”

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Source: HIS Education