Emily Sisson lights up the track, running an Olympic Trials record in extreme heat
Emily Sisson took the lead early and never looked back, winning the Olympic Trials 10K in 31:03.82. Photo by Matt Parker
By Caela Fenton
The women’s 10,000m Olympic qualifiers got a jump start on their heat training for Tokyo during the US Olympic Trials final at Hayward Field, with the trackside temperature sitting at 85 degrees at the gun.
One of the deepest fields at the Trials, forty-one women lined up for the start, compared to twenty-four on the line at the last Trials in 2016. Thirteen of the athletes on the line had already run the Olympic standard of 31:25. Like with the US Olympic Marathon Trials, which saw a women’s field of unprecedented size, the depth of the 10,000m start list is an indicator that American women’s distance running is flourishing.
Several athletes lining up for the 10,000m were at the Marathon Trials, failed to make the team and were looking for another shot. Notably, Emily Sisson, who ran her first marathon in London in 2019, running 2:23:08 for sixth. She was forced to drop out of the US Marathon Trials. Also in this category was Sara Hall, the thirty-eight year old with a star-studded career but that had yet to make an Olympic team. Like Sisson, Hall was forced to drop out of the Marathon Trials, but came back with a vengeance, running the second fastest marathon ever by an American woman in December of 2020.
But, in a talented field featuring multiple previous Olympians, including Emily Infeld and Marielle Hall, who both competed in the 10,000m at the Rio Olympics, the day belonged to Sisson.
After allowing Lauren Hurley to lead for the first mile, Sisson took control of the race and never looked back. She looked remarkably cool and composed behind red sunglasses that she’d stolen off of her husband’s face just minutes before the race when she realized how bright it was on the track.
“I was prepared to lead,” Sisson said post-race. “The plan was to see how the first few laps went to see if anyone else is going to take it. And if it was going a little slower than 76 or 77, then I would just take it.”
The plan also involved breaking the race down into three sections: staying calm through the first 5K, then focusing on picking it up until 5 laps to go, and then finding that final gear for the last 5 laps. And she executed it perfectly, negatively splitting to a final time of 31:03.82 with a decisive lead over Karissa Schweizer, who placed second in 31:15.62.
Sisson’s time is a new US Olympic Trials record, taking down Deena Kastor’s 2004 record which was set in Sacramento, with temperatures around ten degrees cooler than today. It is certainly a sweet victory after the Marathon Trials, which Sisson describes as the race “that broke my heart.”
“To be honest I went through a pretty rough patch after Atlanta,” Sisson said, “because I went all in on that marathon and I came out of that race feeling really broken.”
It took a lot of hard work, and support from her husband (who is also her primary training partner), coach, and chiropractor, to get her back to track fitness.
When Sisson really started winding down the time with just over eight laps to go, Elise Cranny, Karissa Schweizer and Alicia Monson covered the move. In the chase pack were Rachel Schneider, Sara Hall and Natosha Rogers. Cranny, Schweizer and Schneider qualified for Tokyo earlier this week in the 5,000m.
Though Cranny and Monson both spent time running in second, in the end it was Karissa Schweizer who came across the line after Sisson, running 31:16.52 to qualify for her second event. This achievement places Schweizer in rare company as the fifth American woman to make the Olympic team in both the 5,000 and 10,000m in the same year. The club includes Molly Huddle (2016), Shalane Flanagan (2008), Kara Goucher (2008) and Deena Kastor (2000). Flanagan is now one of Schweizer’s coaches. Goucher was one of the NBC commentators providing real-time announcing for the race.
Karissa Schweizer doubled back after making the 5K team to earn a spot on the Olympic 10K team. Photo by Matt Parker
“It’s incredible,” Schweizer said post-race. “I've looked up to all of them for so long.” For younger runners who might be looking up to her as they navigate their way through the sport, the 25-year-old says having fun and recovery are the keys to the sport. She attributes her own consistency to recovery, including down days and down weeks.
There hasn’t been much down time for her in the last week and a half though, as she’s raced three times (5,000m prelim and final, plus the 10,000m) in the last nine days. And there might not be that much down time in Tokyo, if Schweizer and her coach decide that she’ll race both the events that she’s qualified for.
Schweizer would like to double, describing the 10,000m as a distance that she’s just begun dipping her toes into. It helped having her teammate and training partner (and now Team USA teammate), Elise Cranny, in the final with her.
“I just try not to think of the pain and really try to focus on the race as if it's a workout, and focus on my tempo and rhythm,” Schweizer explained. “For the majority of the beginning of the race I was behind Elise so it really just felt like another tempo day out there and I tried to really key on that.”
Ultimately though, the race was still pretty brutal. “I did not think that was going to be as painful as it was,” Schweizer said. “I knew going into it that Emily Sisson was going to make it a tough race [...] I think the heat and humidity really made it just a grind for everyone out there.”
Four athletes did not finish the race, a high DNF rate for an Olympic Trials final, that is likely attributable to the heat. Gwen Jorgensen, Olympic gold medallist in the triathlon, was one of the athletes who stepped off the track, as well as Weini Kelati, the standout graduate of the University of New Mexico, who became an American citizen just three days before the race.
Alicia Monson raced to third place in 31:18.55. The 23-year-old in her first year of racing professionally, ran a brilliant race to qualify for her first Olympics. Visibly wobbly on her last lap, Monsoon was taken to the hospital after collapsing post-award ceremony with symptoms of heat exhaustion.
The former University of Wisconsin athlete has had to navigate the beginning of her professional career in the most uncertain of times. She was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ready to defend her NCAA title in the 5,000m at the 2020 NCAA Indoor Championships, when the meet was cancelled at the last minute due to Covid-19. The outdoor season was later cancelled as well. When her university decided not to give seniors an extra year of eligibility for the seasons missed due to the pandemic, Monson decided to go pro, signing with On Athletics, the budding new club that has focused its recruitment on talented recent graduates, such as Joe Klecker, who made the US Team for the men’s 10,000m.
Dathan Ritzenhein, the coach of the On group, said that, “Alicia is someone who has the potential to be the next great American female distance runner.” Monson made her debut at the 10,000m distance last December, running 31:10, which was at the time, the 9th-fastest time ever by an American woman.
Alicia Monson of the On Athletic’s Club on her way to finishing third in the women’s 10K at the Olympic Trials. Photo by Jay Bendlin
Today’s race was the first in Trials history with all top-seven finishers with sub-32 clockings.
Sisson, Schweizer and Monson have a few more weeks to get another training block in and hopefully one that includes some heat training, as the expected weather in Tokyo for the games is likely to be similar to sweltering conditions on the track today.
But, Schweizer is confident. “We'll be ready.”