RIO DE JANEIRO
With less than two laps remaining, Emma Coburn knew it was time to make her move. She’d been running and leaping with the leaders but had been careful to conserve her energy for the last couple of laps. That allowed her to ease her way past Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and slide into position for the record books.
Then came the hard part: maintaining her spot near the front of the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase field.
“I just thought, ‘Okay, hold onto this. Hold onto this,’” the 25-year-old Colorado native explained later. “And then with about a lap to go, I looked back, and she was pretty far away. And she has a killer kick, but I thought, ‘OK, wow, this is mine to lose. So don’t give this up.’”
By the last lap, she knew she was headed to the podium and despite a late push for silver, she was happy to accept bronze. Coburn set a new U.S. record with her time of 9:07.63 and became the first American win a steeplechase medal since 1984 - and the first American woman to win at all since the event was added to the Olympic slate in 2008.
“I feel so lucky that that’s a part of my story,” she said.
Coburn nearly ran down Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi at the end, finishing just a half-second away from a silver. Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet cruised to first, winning with a time of 8:59.75.
Monday’s race was one of many here where the absence of Russian competitors was noticeable. Since the event was added, Russia won the Olympic women’s race both times it was contested. In 2008, in fact, Russia runners claimed three of the top four spots.
Yuliua Zaripova won the 2012 Olympic race but was stripped of her gold medal last year because of doping offenses. The entire Russian track and field team was banned from these Rio Games, which means some talented steeplechase competitors were not included in Monday’s field.
The bright lights and big stage of the Olympics didn’t seem to phase Coburn in the least. She comes from a tiny town called Crested Butte, a place most people go to ride mountains bikes or ski – not tackle obstacle courses on the track.
“I don’t know where the confidence in athletic abilities came from,” Coburn explained after winning the U.S. Olympic trials, “coming from a town of 1,500 people where no one competes in D-1 athletics. Everyone’s super fit and athletic but there’s a couple of people making Olympic teams in our hometown.”
These Rio Games mark Coburn’s second Olympics. She finished ninth in the race four years ago in London. She feels Monday’s bronze could be just a starting point for American women in the event.
“I really think in the next four, eight years, we’re going to have more and more women winning medals,” she said following her race.
Her American teammate Colleen Quigley finished eighth with a personal-best time of 9:21.10 and Courtney Frerichs was 1.77 seconds behind her, the 11th finisher across the line.
“I think Emma is a wonderful role model,” Frerichs said. “That’s is why I got into steeplechase. My coach told me to aspire to be like her.”
Jerry Brewer contributed to this report.
