Meet the Olympic Marathoners Going for Team USA’s First Gold in 40 Years

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images/Amanda K Bailey

When Fiona O’Keeffe, Emily Sisson, and Dakotah Lindwurm placed first, second, and third at the 2024 US Olympic Marathon Trials in February to secure their spots in the Paris Summer Olympics, they were each welcomed at the finish line by Joan Benoit Samuelson, the legendary matriarch of American distance running.

Samuelson, 67, is Team USA’s first and only Olympic gold medalist at the 26.2-mile distance: She won the Los Angeles Olympic marathon in 1984, the very first year that the women’s event had been included at the Games. (Reminder: The men’s marathon had been contested at the Games since 1896). And it’s taken 40 years for the women’s race to also capture a special showcase as the culminating athletics event of the 2024 Paris Games, just before the closing ceremony—an honor that has been reserved for the men’s marathon since the beginning of the modern Olympics.

“Men, step aside. The women are here to close out the show. We’re the stars,” Lindwurm tells SELF with a laugh. “I love that they’re really highlighting women on the 40th anniversary.”

In fact, the Olympic marathon course itself is a nod to the Women’s March on Versailles, a pivotal moment from the French Revolution when 6,000 people marched from Paris to Versailles to protest the cost of bread and demand political reform. It wasn’t an easy route then and it isn’t now, either. The 26.2 miles that the runners will cover on August 11 are challenging—the hills are no joke, gaining 1,437 feet and descending 1,430 feet, with a maximum incline of 13.5%.

There might be a plus to the intense course, though: The challenging route—along with the projected warm temps (the average high in Paris in August is 79 degrees Fahrenheit)—just might improve the chances that a member from Team USA can top the podium. In the Tokyo Games in 2021, American Molly Seidel became a surprise bronze medalist, thriving in 86-degree heat that melted much of the competition. The tougher the terrain and the weather conditions, the higher the odds that tactics and strategy can beat pure speed.

And that’s important, since the 2024 field is shaping up as one of the fastest in history. Among the contenders are Kenyans Peres Jepchirchir (the defending Olympic champion PR with a time of 2:16:16); 2022 New York City Marathon champion Sharon Lokedi; and Hellen Obiri, who’s won the Boston and New York City marathons. Ethiopia is sending Tigist Assefa, the world record holder in the event (an eye-popping 2:11:53); 2023 world marathon champion Amane Beriso (2:14:58); and Alemu Megertu (2:16:34).

“I’m fully expecting it to be a superstrong competitive field, and I’m really excited to just see where I stack up and what I can learn from that kind of caliber of competition,” O’Keeffe, who won the Olympic Trials in her debut marathon, in an event record time of 2:22:10, tells SELF.

The American women each have aspirations for podium finishes and hope that all three of them finish in the top 10—and make Samuelson proud in the process. Get to know a little bit more about the athletes running the longest distance in Paris.

Fiona O’Keeffe: Keeping an Open Mind

O’Keeffe, 26, ran that first marathon in February at the Olympic Trials like a seasoned pro. Under the hot Orlando sun, she dropped the lead pack just after 18 miles and never looked back, displaying the confidence of a runner who knew she could win, even if few people outside of her circle would have predicted it.

“Mentally, I got to go in with an open mind, no expectations, and just a lot of excitement about the marathon,” O’Keeffe says. “There was nothing to lose. I was just genuinely curious to know what I was capable of over the distance.”

As a member of the Puma Elite training group based in Raleigh, North Carolina, O’Keeffe is coached by Olympians Alistair and Amy Cragg. And so far she’s following quite closely in Amy’s footsteps, who also won the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2016. As O’Keeffe prepares for Paris, she draws from her coach’s experience, she says, especially when it comes to keeping her cool while training to compete on the world’s largest sports stage. “I’m trying to follow her lead and just roll with whatever comes in this buildup, even if it’s not perfect, and just go to the Olympics and have that really competitive mindset,” O’Keeffe says.

The Olympics will be O’Keeffe’s first major international competition at the distance, though she’s faced plenty of the fastest athletes at road and track races of shorter distances. The 2022 Houston Half Marathon was her first crack at the 13.1-mile event, and she ran the fastest debut by any US woman, finishing fourth in 1:07:42.

At the Olympics, O’Keeffe plans to approach her race in a similar fashion as she did at the trials: by meeting the moment with curiosity. “If I walk away from it feeling like I didn’t limit myself based on the credentials of other people in the field, I would feel happy with that,” she says.

Until then, O’Keeffe is heading to altitude training camp in Mammoth Lakes, California. She’ll put her head down and do the work—any time spent in the mountains, with the opportunity to focus on her training without distractions, she’s happiest, she says.

“I’m really excited to get in a good block of work there, get really strong and ready for the Paris course,” she says.

Emily Sisson: Focusing on the Controllables

At the Olympic Trials, Sisson, 32, was asked on the awards stage how she calms her nerves before a race like the Olympic marathon. “I’m married to a therapist, so he helps a lot with this stuff,” she said, laughing.

It probably also helps to know you’re the fastest US female marathoner in history. Sisson set the American record of 2:18:29 at the 2022 Chicago Marathon, where she finished second. And from that day forward, a lot of fans considered her a lock to make the Olympic team.

She wasn’t always an ace at 26.2 miles, though. At the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, she dropped out at around mile 22, though she later earned an Olympic spot in the 10,000 meters at the pandemic-delayed track and field trials. After Tokyo, Sisson returned to marathon training, twice racing in Chicago and finding her groove at the distance.

Before she knew it, the Olympic cycle started up again and it was time to start focusing on the 2024 Marathon Trials. She came into it with more miles under her belt and more experience racing the distance, sure, but also a little more wisdom: She’s taking the time to dig into the root causes of recurring issues, like the side stitches she’s gotten in several races, possibly caused by a biomechanical problem related to her running form, she says.

“There’s probably more to take away from the days that don’t go well than the ones that do,” Sisson tells SELF. “At the 2024 trials, I think I handled the distance really well. I feel like my body’s getting stronger and the 26.2 miles is a little less daunting and scary.”

Sisson prepared for the Florida heat by training in Phoenix, one of her home bases, and in Orlando, as well as in Flagstaff, Arizona, for altitude work. (She also did some stints at her home in Rhode Island, near her longtime coach Ray Treacy). Going into Paris, she’s been focusing a lot more on hill work.

While she’s out logging up to 130 miles or so a week, she doesn’t think too much about who she’ll see on the starting line in August. Instead, she is focused on obtaining as much fitness as possible while staying as healthy and injury-free as she can—those are the “controllables” Sisson keeps at the forefront.

“I only have control over what I can do to get myself there,” Sisson says. “If I’m worried about what someone else is doing, I’m not focused on what I’m doing.”

She’s also looking forward to looser restrictions in Paris, which will be a far cry from Tokyo, during which COVID-19 rules prohibited athletes from having family and friends there and required them to leave within 48 hours after their competition. This time? Her supporters, including her therapist husband, Shane Quinn, will be cheering her on, and after the closing ceremony, she’ll be off to a vacation in Nice.

When Sisson contemplates how she might leave the Paris Games feeling satisfied with her performance, she says, aside from her results, she wants to simply feel like she couldn’t have done anything more or better on that day.

“You want to appreciate the big moments when they come,” she says. “But then also stay a little bit hungry for more.”

Dakotah Lindwurm: Staying Open to “Scary” Goals

Affectionately known as Dakotah from Minnesota, Lindwurm, 29, has always stayed true to her roots, now training with Minnesota Distance Elite, based in Minneapolis. She grew up in the nearby suburb of St. Francis and played goalie for the hockey team—she likens the mentality it takes to have pucks flying at your head to what it takes to be a marathoner. Each is its own variety of crazy, she says.

Lindwurm came to the Trials with the eighth-fastest time, so she wasn’t necessarily a shoe-in to make the team. But that’s not the story she told herself. After five years of consistent, mostly injury-free training, she had confidence that she could be in contention—and at the 2023 Chicago Marathon just months earlier she had set a personal record of 2:24:40.

“You shouldn’t really set any limits on yourself,” Lindwurm tells SELF. “You can really surprise yourself and everybody else by opening yourself up to some big and scary goals.”

Unlike most pro athletes, Lindwurm, who is sponsored by Puma, has also worked full-time as a paralegal. But life changed the moment she made the 2024 Olympic team. She finally realized that her focus, at least temporarily, had to remain on her athletic pursuits, so her company granted a leave of absence. But she fully intends to go back after the Summer Games are over, she says, because it’s work she enjoys doing.

When it comes to training for the Olympic marathon, however, it’s business as usual, Lindwurm says. She doesn’t want to make more of the race—her 15th marathon—than it is.

“We’re just approaching it like it’s any other marathon. There’s no reason to put any extra pressure on this one day,” she says. “That’s the way that I’ll perform best.”

The Minnesota summer is reliably replicating the harsh conditions that she may encounter in Paris. Besides training on a lot of hills, Lindwurm goes out for her second run of the day when it’s hottest outside.

It must be working: She ran her fastest half marathon (1:08:04) in June in Duluth. Her mileage —which includes a long run of up to 28 miles, two speed workouts, and the remainder easy runs—will peak at 130 miles a week for about two or three weeks, before she gradually cuts down miles before the official taper for Paris.

Outside of marathons, Lindwurm’s obsession with her goldendoodle, August, captures a lot of time and attention (“He’s my most favorite thing on the planet. The best boy ever,” she says), as well as playing pickleball with her boyfriend, Montana Popehn. “I’m not very good at it, but after a long run, it’s one of my favorite things to do,” she says.

Lindwurm gets a little emotional when she reflects on what she hopes to get out of her first Olympic experience. She’s come a long way since those days on the hockey rink.

“No matter what happens, 10-year-old Dakotah is going to be so incredibly proud of whatever the result is,” Lindwurm says. “I’d really love to be in the top 10 and I do think that all three of us Americans could fight for top-10 spots, which would be really amazing. But at the end of the day, I think just being there feels like a win, for sure.”

SELF is your one-click source for all things Summer Olympics. Read our latest coverage of the Paris Games here.

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Originally Appeared on SELF