- Shannon Rowbury won the USATF 5K Championships CA Notice at Collection.
- Dakotah Popehn Is 17th at the NYC Marathon Nike Oregon Project team was shut down by Nike in October.
- Fast Avenue Tee.
Shannon Rowbury has fought her way back into racing shape after the birth of her daughter, Sienna, 16 months ago. That was evident as Rowbury won the USATF 5K Championships today in New York in 15:43, one second ahead of Jessica Tonn.
But Rowbury’s fitness came back a little too late for the championship portion of the 2019 track season.
In July, she finished A Part of Hearst Digital Media, Published: Nov 02, 2019 10:35 AM EDT Fast Avenue Tee. It was an unusual position for her—Rowbury has been in every Olympics (three) and world championships (five) since 2008.
Throughout the fall, however, she continued training hard—and turned in better results. In addition to her road victory in New York today, in September, she ran 15:05.99 for 5K in Berlin, a time that qualifies her for the Olympics in Tokyo next year, should she make the U.S. team.
Meanwhile, Rowbury, 35, has unwittingly found herself involved in two of the biggest stories of 2019 in running: how shoe sponsors support Running Shoes - Gear and the ban of Alberto Salazar, head coach of the now-defunct Nike Oregon Project, for four years because of anti-doping violations.
Rowbury spoke to media in New York for about 20 minutes on October 31 about returning to running after giving birth and how she felt about having her former team, the NOP, shut down.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Alysia Montaño and Kara Goucher told missing a spot on Team USA heading to the Health - Injuries Times story, sprinter Allyson Felix said she couldn’t come to terms on a contract with Nike that would continue to pay her should she become pregnant. Felix had a daughter last November, returned to competition in the 400 meters this summer, and has since inked a deal with Athleta.
Nike announced that it would change its policy to offer 12 months of continued pay for Running Shoes - Gear—an announcement that came after Rowbury had already given birth and returned to competition.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media.
“I was never reduced, I was never suspended,” she said, adding, “I did my best on my end to read very thoroughly through my contract and try to be the best representative of the company that I could be and fulfill my contract as much as possible.”
Rowbury felt compelled to return to fitness more quickly than she would have had she known she’d have some pay guarantees. Instead, she injured herself with hard training before her body had fully recovered from childbirth, and she had to take extra time off.
“If I could do it all again, having that time frame where I would know that I was protected, rather than hoping I’d be protected, I could have done things a little bit better, a little bit differently,” she said.
In September, Rowbury learned with the rest of the world that Salazar was facing a four-year suspension. (He has said he will appeal.) A few days later, Nike shut down the Oregon Project, which Salazar had built. Rowbury was one of its members.
She said the shuttering of the group was “sad,” given its place in the sport’s history, but for her, nothing is changing in her training or coaching. She has been living in San Francisco, and Pete Julian, who was an assistant coach for the NOP, is continuing to coach her long distance, as he had been before Salazar’s suspension. Julian recently announced he would be forming a new group with all the same athletes who had been training under him.
“My daily life hasn’t been impacted,” Rowbury said. “It’s more the frustration of my name being associated with something that I’ve tried so hard to fight against my whole career.”
She explained that accusations about Salazar felt more hurtful in 2015, when accounts of his potential rules violations first surfaced in press accounts. She was also training directly under him at that point, but the narrative ran contrary to anything she had seen.
“I know that for myself as an athlete that was part of the Oregon Project, there was never anything that I found suspicious, there was never anything that gave me pause,” she said. “And so I have a clean conscience. It’s a disappointment that that’s something a certain group of people assume about me.”
For now, she’s focused on raising her daughter and training hard for next year.
“I feel confident in the journey that I’ve taken,” she said. “I have a little baby daughter who I love dearly, and she’s a great distraction for me. [I’m trying] to see if I can make my fourth Olympic team because I definitely have my work cut out for me with that task alone.”
Shop Exclusive NYC Marathon Shirts
All About 75 Hard is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
