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ORLANDO, Florida — A runner who had never run a marathon before won an Olympic trials with the fastest group of American women in history.
Fiona O’Keeffe on Saturday became the first woman to win the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in her debut at the distance.
O’Keeffe, 25, broke away from the group of five leaders at mile 19 and ended up clocking 2 hours, 22 minutes, 10 seconds, an Olympic trials record.
She broke 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit’s record as the youngest woman to win an Olympic trials marathon.
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She is joined on the Olympic team by American record holder Emily Sisson (32 seconds behind) and Dakotah Lindwurm (3:20 behind), a former Division II assistant at Northern State University in South Dakota.
In the final stretch, spectators had more confidence in O’Keeffe’s victory than the Stanford earth systems graduate.
“I started hearing people say, ‘You’re going to Paris! You’re going to Paris!’” she said. “But I knew there were so many strong women behind me and I was a little scared.”
Among those strong women were three of the four fastest Americans in history.
O’Keeffe was sixth in the 5000 m at the 2022 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, then missed the 2023 USATF Outdoors due to an ankle infection that ultimately required surgery.
He qualified for the trials by running a half-marathon time. Her marathon debut was on the cards.
She had been told since high school that distance was ripe for her. Amy Cragg, winner of the 2016 Olympic marathon trials, has been one of her coaches for the past two years.
Sisson, the fastest American marathoner in history (2:18:29 from Chicago 2022), achieved redemption starting in 2020.
The 32-year-old was arguably the favorite at the Tokyo Olympic Trials, but she withdrew from that race, saying her legs were “destroyed” on the hilly Atlanta course.
On Saturday, Sisson felt unwell sooner than expected. She was motivated to see 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Deena Kastor in a lead vehicle. Sisson read Kastor’s book, “Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory,” and she recalled that Kastor wrote about having positive thoughts during races.
Lindwurm, a 28-year-old paralegal, entered the trials as the 11th seed for fastest time in the two-year qualifying window.
However, she emerged in the final miles from a group that included Betsy Saina, the fastest American in 2023, Sara Hall, the fourth-fastest American ever, and 2015 Boston Marathon winner Caroline Rotich.
“If I’ve dreamed about this once, I’ve dreamed about it a thousand times,” Lindwurm said. “It almost doesn’t seem real.”
Hall, 40, placed fifth in a bid to make her first Olympic team in the eighth Olympic trials race of her career dating back to 2004 (track and marathon).
“It’s not what I dreamed of, but I don’t think I could have done more than that.” she said. “A lot of cramps in the last lap.”
Keira D’Amato, the second-fastest American ever, pulled away from the lead group at mile 16.
Tokyo Olympic Trials winner Aliphine Tuliamuk lost contact with the leaders in the seventh mile and dropped out before the 11th. Tuliamuk said Friday she was 75 to 80 percent recovered from a partial tear in her tendon. the hamstring that kept her out of October’s Chicago Marathon.
Two contenders withdrew in the run-up to the race.
Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel announced her retirement on Thursday. citing a knee injury. Four years ago, Seidel placed second in the trials and became the first woman to make a U.S. Olympic marathon team in her marathon debut.
Emma Bates, the third-fastest American marathoner of 2023, retired on Jan. 7, saying then: “There’s just not enough time to be where I need to be.”
NBC Sports’ track and field coverage continues Sunday with the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, with world champions Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley facing off in the 60 meters. NBC, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and Peacock stream live coverage from 4-6 pm ET.
The next big marathon is Tokyo on March 3, featuring two-time Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who ran the second-fastest time in history in a women’s marathon in the October Chicago Marathon.