Running Shoes - Gear Emma Coburn, who made her third Olympic team and won her ninth national title last night, the event has mostly been beautiful.
For Leah Falland, 28, the steeplechase has inflicted the cruelest of blows.
It’s a discipline that’s wearing on the body, the force of each hurdle and water jump putting extra pressure on bones and tendons and ligaments. Since 2016, Falland has faced a litany of injuries, which she detailed in a 2018 blog post called Results: 2024 Olympic Track and Field Trials: Leah Falland, left, ran close behind eventual winner Emma Coburn until the final two laps plantar fascia, a broken shin, a frayed labrum in her hip, a broken pubic bone, anemia.
She clawed her way back to health, with the help of a team of therapists and her coach since 2018, Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein. The pain will be there, he said, but shes strong enough to keep going now.
“She was the most focused, the most confident, and the strongest I’ve seen her going in [to the race],” Ritzenhein told Runner’s World in an interview the morning after the race. “She really believed she was going to make the team, and I did too, and I told her that.”
Last night, with 800 meters to go in the race, Falland was in third place, right behind Coburn and eventual second-place finisher Courtney Frerichs, both of whom have made multiple national teams and won international medals.
a broken shin, a frayed labrum in her hip, a broken pubic bone, anemia.
Then, disaster—which the steeplechase deals out indiscriminately. Falland’s toe grazed a barrier. She fell flat to the track, and a collective gasp went up from the 5,300 fans at Hayward Field. (Watch the NBC replay in the player below.)
Val Constien, Marisa Howard, and Courtney Wayment, in a group a few seconds behind the leaders, took advantage and went by.
Falland quickly got up and chased after them. By the bell lap, she had moved back into third, with Constien right next to her.
But recovering from the fall had taken everything out of Falland. With 200 meters to go, she had nothing left. Her final water jump was messy, and Constien sailed through. She took the third spot for Team USA heading to Tokyo in 9:18.34, well clear of fourth place.
Falland had nothing left. In the final 100 meters, she was passed by five more runners and finished ninth in 9:27.06.
She gamely went into the virtual mixed zone and faced questions from the media. The first two questions, she answered dispassionately, about her toe nicking the barrier and losing her balance.
The third question—“Can you describe the last 200 meters?”—put her over the edge.
“I was just exhausted,” Falland said. “When you fall like that and kind of get back up and get back to normal and you’re jumping, anybody who has ever done a steeple knows at that point, it’s really hard to lift your legs, and I wanted to have a kick in the last 200.”
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“Ah, shoot, I’m really sad,” she said. “I was just really cooked after all of it.”
How confident was she with two laps to go?
“I knew it was in there. It was kind of shocking to be honest,” Falland said, no longer holding back tears. "I’m sorry, guys, I’m just really sad. I’ve worked really really hard to get back to a place where I could contend for that team and I wasn’t afraid at all.
“I believe in myself wholeheartedly,” she continued, “and I felt like I was in a really good position, just settled in in third, and I could feel us peeling away from the rest of the pack, and that’s what I had envisioned. I don’t know. I’m probably going to replay it thousands of times in my mind trying to figure out exactly what happened and what I can do to prevent that from happening again. I knew I could do it and I know I can do it. It’s brutal.”
Coburn spoke to Falland while they were still on the track. “Leah, I love her and I care about her,” Coburn recounted later. “I care about her family and her happiness. You don’t know what to say. ‘I love you, and everything will be okay. You’re more than this moment.’ I believe in her.”
Ritzenhein, who coaches the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colorado, of which Falland is a member, met his athlete after the race and hugged her for “probably 10 minutes,” he said. He held Falland’s hand and they talked and cried and joked. “It feels like someone died,” she told him.
Later, Falland met up with her husband, Louis, and her siblings and parents, out from Michigan to cheer her on after her years of struggles, convinced she’d finally have her moment. They went out to commiserate, and Ritzenhein sat alone, crying some more.
“She was ready,” he said, “and that was the hardest part, to watch it get ripped away.”
The funny thing is, for all her struggles, he feels like she’s well positioned now to cope with the disappointment. For weaker runners, the steeplechase might wreck them. Not Falland.
“The pain will be there,” he said, “but she’s strong enough to keep going now.”
Nutrition - Weight Loss 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 Leah Falland, left, ran close behind eventual winner Emma Coburn until the final two laps, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
