Sifan Hassan Wins Olympic Marathon in Paris decathlon at the Weird and Wonderful Moments of Olympic Trials, he thought about every hard-fought effort that led him to that moment.
He thought about the risks he took in the years leading up to the Trials—changing his entire strength routine in 2019 and working a full-time job in construction in 2020. He thought about the countless hours logged at the University of Michigan track in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife, Kiley Bastien, who coaches him in several events. He thought about how he has never been sponsored since graduating from Michigan in 2017. He also thought about his father’s decathlon career, and how that ignited his Olympic dream as a kid.
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Bastien crossed the finish line in Eugene, Oregon, in 4:22, solidifying his place as the national runner-up and earning him a spot on the team headed for the Tokyo Olympics. He completed the 10-event competition on June 20 with 8,485 points, a 462-point improvement on his best. Thanks to Bastien’s willingness to experiment and pivot to get better results, he’s now ranked No. 4 in the world.
“[Being able to say I’m an Olympian] is the pinnacle,” Bastien told Runner’s World. “Outside of medaling in the Olympics, it’s what everyone strives for. I feel some relief somewhere that I know I’m going to try to medal at the Olympics, but I feel that pretty much every stone that I could turn over, I have, and that’s a relief that I won’t have to look back later on in life and be like, dang, I wish I could have done this. It’s super exciting.”
Dakotah Lindwurm Is Top American at Olympics, Runner’s World spoke to Bastien and learned exactly what contributed to his impressive performance at Hayward Field. Here are five things to know about the multi-event standout.
Bastien completely overhauled his strength training regimen
In March 2019, Bastien stopped lifting weights in a traditional manner. Inspired by a fellow Michigan teammate who introduced him to a new training method, Bastien created his own strength routine that includes a mixture of postural restoration institute (PRI) exercises and functional patterns exercises.
The Health - Injuries is rooted in the belief that the body is not symmetrical, and PRI recognizes the imbalances in the human body and patterns associated with weakness caused by dominant overuse. Functional patterns he’s now ranked No. 4 in the world.
Bastien also does a lot of his interval training barefoot. Most of his running workouts are done barefoot, and he has completed training sessions across all events with no shoes.
“The main thing that I’ve done is work to almost lace muscles and tendons more appropriately on my bones in order to have the matrix of all your tissues work together in unison to accomplish tasks,” Bastien said. “It’s made my body awareness go way up, and it’s helped me stay away from injury as well.”
With the Olympic postponement, Bastien was able to spend more time honing in on this new strength routine, which paid off at the Trials with five personal bests—in the javelin (61.20 meters), shot put (14.47 meters), high jump (2.08 meters), 110-meter hurdles (14.24), and the 100 meters (10.52).
“Over the course of this past year, and especially the extra year that we got with COVID, I was able to fundamentally break down the way that I move and rearrange it in a way that made it so I got a little bit better at everything,” he said.
Switching up his training kept him motivated
Before he changed his strength routine, Bastien felt burnt out from the sport; he was frequently injured and hit plateaus in several events (such as the 100 meters, in which his 10.61 personal best was from 2018).
But taking the risk of no longer lifting weights in favor of a different strength routine that works for him helped reignite a desire to keep pushing in a more sustainable way. Bastien focused on breaking down his fundamental movements, and he said that helped him achieve a 10.52 performance in the 100 meters in Eugene.
“The changing of how I did and organized everything made it so that new doors could be opened, and made it a lot of fun,” Bastien said.
Looking ahead to Tokyo, Bastien hopes to earn a medal while putting his new approach to the test against the best athletes in the world.
“I’m just hoping that because the level of competitors is up in each individual event, that I’m able to just elevate a little bit more and try to surprise myself again,” he said.
He worked in construction for most of 2020
In the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 started to spread across the globe and the Tokyo Games were postponed, Bastien, who has never been sponsored, began to reconsider his goals. At the time, there were no clear plans for a vaccine rollout and the return of sports was unknown.
“I was looking forward, [and I was thinking] alright, what the heck am I going to do with my life?” he said.
Bastien’s wife, former Michigan All-American pole vaulter Kiley Bastien (formerly Tobel) has family members that own a business constructing foundations for commercial buildings. From March to December 2020, Steve worked for the company full-time, pouring concrete by day and training for the decathlon in between shifts.
“I was working and using a shovel—it’s kind of like throwing in a way—so I brought my volume down in training a little bit,” Bastien said. “When I was training, I would go out, do events and slowly build up the intensity.”
He trains at Michigan, and his wife coaches him in certain events
To prepare for all 10 events, Steve built on his college training—joining current Michigan athletes in workouts whenever he could—while taking a more laid back, yet intentional approach to his schedule.
“I’ve had conversations with my [college] coach who explains that writing workouts is more art than it is science, so I didn’t really worry about it being super regimented or having to be a certain way,” he said.
Steve incorporates the same running workouts and drills he did in college into his training, but for the pole vault and several other events, he receives guidance from Kiley.
“She would help me, she would film me, help me get my long jump steps, would help me with hurdle touchdown times, and if I ever needed eyes on something, she was always there to help me out,” he said.
Steve said the new dynamic of coach and athlete had its challenges at times, but he’s grateful their hard work paid off. “I learned a lot from her,” he said. “I feel like I got way better at using my arms and swinging with her guidance.”
Decathlon runs in the family
When Bastien crossed the finish line of the 1500 meters after two grueling days of competition, he shouted with excitement, celebrating an accomplishment that built on a family legacy.
Running in the Cold Eastern Michigan and represented Team USA at the Pan-American Games—and Gary coached Steve until he went to college.
“I’ve just been thinking about [track] my whole life, and [becoming an Olympian] was something that I dreamed about as a kid, but maybe never even really allowed myself to set as an expectation at any point,” Bastien said.
On top of that, Steve qualified for the Olympics on Father’s Day, with Gary watching from the stands.
“[The finish celebration] was like a quick flash of all the stuff I’ve done my whole life to try and accomplish something like this. It all sort of boiled over, and I just screamed.”
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.
