The Medalist Is Still Hungry

Keflezighi goes after another Olympic spot

Only in a country whose distance runners have made a quantum leap in depth and talent could a defending Olympic silver medalist be far from a lock to qualify for the next Games. Mebrahtom Keflezighi’s breakthrough came at the most opportune of moments: At the 2004 Athens Olympic marathon, he outlasted then–world record-holder Paul Tergat and the rest of the world’s best, hanging with eventual gold medalist Stefano Baldini until the final mile. He thus became the first male American Olympic marathon medalist since Frank Shorter followed his own 1972 gold medal in Munich with a silver in Montreal in 1976.

At 32, Keflezighi is still in the prime of his career. Yet even with an excellent race, he could fail to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games, such is the quality of the field assembling in New York City to run in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon on Saturday, November 3.

Keflezighi knows where he stands. He will face Alan Culpepper, the defending Olympic Trials champion; Khalid Khannouchi, the American record-holder; Ryan Hall, the American half-marathon and debut-marathon record-holder; and Abdi Abdirahman, who ran 2:08:56 at the 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon and is on a streak so hot that many experts consider him the favorite. And there are several more runners with legitimate chances of making the team. “Khalid, Ryan, Abdi, and Culpepper have run faster than I have. Hopefully I’ll make the team, and then the pressure will be on me to defend my silver medal,” Keflezighi said.

Clearly, this is not a man who crumples under pressure. He is a proven big-race performer, having finished second (2004) and third (2005) in the ING New York City Marathon, second in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon, and, of course, second in the most prestigious marathon of all, in Athens. Unexpected difficulties have afflicted him in his two most recent marathon attempts, in New York last year (food poisoning slowed him to a 2:22:02) and the Flora London Marathon this year (he dropped out with bad blisters), but he has rebounded with top-four finishes at several major road races and overcome a recent injury to his right calf; he feels prepared, and he has looked it.

He has been asked how important it is to get to another Olympics, the implication being that many athletes would accept a silver medal as the pinnacle of a career. “I’m here, and I’m ready; that’s how important it is,” he answered. “It’s the Olympic Trials. It’s huge.”

It is almost sure to be an unusual Olympic Trials race. With so many respected contenders in the field, it might become a wait-and-kick affair, with all the principals watching one another and waiting for a late break to begin the real race with a few miles to go. But the presence of at least one man, Brian Sell, whose great strength and lack of track speed would make him a probable victim of this scenario, could steer the race in the opposite direction: to a cards-on-the-table test of true marathon fitness rather than of finishing speed alone. Keflezighi, the American record-holder at 10,000 meters, won’t need to make such a decision; he has stayed with very strong packs in major marathons time and again, and his speed would also make him dangerous in a kicker’s race.

Keflezighi’s large number of top-three finishes makes it more surprising that he has never won a marathon. Ironically, his best chance to win may come here, in a race in which third place—the final qualifying spot for the Olympic team—is famously said to be as good as first. Ryan Hall, who trains with Keflezighi in Mammoth Lakes, CA, has said that they will race as teammates: “We’ll definitely be helping each other. I’m really hoping that he’s on the team, and he’s really hoping that I’m on the team, so we’d love to scoop up two of those spots.”

Keflezighi looked calm, even happy, at a news conference on Tuesday, four days before the race. Sitting next to Khannouchi, he thanked the former world record-holder for having given him confidence early in his career: “Khalid told me, ‘You’ve got a 2:06 in you. Go out there and rip one,’” said Keflezighi. Silver medal notwithstanding, he sounded like a man with unfinished business.