This story has been updated to reflect Emily Infeld’s decision to focus on the 10,000 meters in Rio.
For Molly Huddle, winning the 5,000 meters on Sunday, the final day of the 2016 Olympic Trials, was a bonus to a noteworthy meet in which she won the two marquee distance events. She took control from the start and squeezed the pace down in the final 400 meters—her 50th lap around Hayward Field in 10 days—to 63.23 seconds, finishing first in 15:05.01.
Shelby Houlihan was second in 15:06.14 and Kim Conley was third in 15:10.62.
Parker Valby Wins the Bowerman 10,000 Best Running Shoes 2025 and said she will forego her spot on the 5,000-meter Olympic team to focus on the longer distance in Rio. Emily Infeld was fourth on Sunday, but she is also competing in the 10,000 meters at the Olympics. She also passed on her spot on the 5K team, so it now goes to Abbey D’Agostino, who placed fifth in the event on Sunday, her agent confirmed on Sunday night.
“I tried to take it one day at a time. I knew the 10K was my focus, so I felt like the pressure was off,” Huddle said. “The 5K is my favorite event. I knew a win was possible, but only if I was focused…I’m happy to have pulled off the double, especially with these closers in the field.”
One such “closer” is Houlihan, who at age 23 is a first-time Olympian. At Arizona State University she specialized in the 1500 meters. But after an impressive showing at the Millrose Games this winter in the 5,000 meters, where she clocked 15:06 indoors, her Bowerman Track Club coach Jerry Schumacher believed her best shot at the Games was at the longer distance.
“I felt like [being a 1500 meter specialist] helped me because I’m so naïve. I don’t know what 72 [seconds-per-lap] pace is,” she said. “I’m just purely running how I feel and I felt really good. I was just staying positive throughout the race.”
At the NCAA championships last year, when she was nipped at the finish for the win in the 1500 meters, Houlihan said she learned a valuable lesson she put to good use on Sunday. Run through the finish line, no matter what. While she had quite a bit of a lead on third-place Conley, she didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
“I moved into second the last lap and I was not giving up that spot no matter what. It didn’t really matter if I had to run like a 29-second last 200, I was going to get there,” she said, laughing. “I am just really glad I was able to stick it out and finish second. It’s really cool.”
Conley, 30, who was a 2012 Olympian in this event after a dramatic third-place surprise finish, had similar thoughts and had hoped, primarily, to stay out of trouble on Sunday. She competed in the 10,000 meters last week and lost a shoe during the race after being clipped by another runner. She decided the gap was too big to close and stepped off the track to save herself for the 5,000 meters.
“I was trusting that Molly would keep the pace really honest—I didn’t want it to be a 400-meter race,” she said. “On the last lap I really wanted to be in the top three and be able to go on the victory lap, so I was really pressing for that third-place finish.”
She got that spot over Infeld, who led much of the race alongside of Huddle, but faded in the final 400 meters. She had just enough left to edge D’Agostino in the last few meters for fourth place.
After nursing injuries during the past two months, D’Agostino said she was thankful just to be on the starting line. She said she was happy that she corrected a few errors she made in the first round on the 5,000 meters and better responded to the moves the leaders made on Sunday.
“I knew going into it that I could be sixth, potentially, and still make it [to the Olympics],” she said. “That was not to say that I was going to settle for sixth by any means. I literally exhausted myself in that race.”
