During the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon last month, Fiona O’Keeffe, a 25-year-old Puma-sponsored athlete, made event history under the scorching sun. Against a field packed with American icons, former Olympians, and promising talents, O’Keeffe won in her debut event. With her impressive strategic ability leaving former Olympian Emily Sisson in her wake, O’Keeffe is now the overwhelming favorite for the August 11, 2024, Summer Olympics women’s marathon.

In a podcast interview, Fiona shares a humorous anecdote from trials, taking the fans behind the scenes of her trial training as the countdown to the Olympics heats up.

Fiona O’Keeffe lets in on Olympics trials fun

During a conversation with Deirdre Fitzpatrick for “Dying to Ask: The Road to Paris,” Fiona revealed the more playful side of her preparation. Living closely with other Puma athletes, host asked, “Do you guys binge any shows together?” “Yeah. Yeah. Especially when we’re like at Altitude Camp, we’ll watch a lot of junk,” Fiona said with a laugh.

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Fiona was teased by host Deirdre Fitzpatrick, who is known for her sharp questioning style, with the comment, “I’m guessing it was not the Golden Bachelor.” After hesitating, Fiona said, “No, it wasn’t.” The admission that they had some guilty pleasures, such as watching The Bachelor, gave the demanding training regimen a joyful twist. It also confirms the many methods that athletes use (specially in USA Swimming and USA Track and Field)—two of Team USA’s most medal-producing sports—here, altitude training to improve performance.

Fiona’s training was a careful strategy that ended in a historic Olympics trials victory, not merely a case of binge-watching TV. After mile 18, she made a decisive move to secure a sizable lead and never looked back. Looking back at her performance, she attributed her achievement to the old saying, “trust the training and preparation,” indicating that there is more to her victory than meets the eye.

Marathon records

Even though this is O’Keeffe’s first marathon, her experience is evident—a testament to her previous accomplishment in the half marathon just two years prior, when she set a record-breaking time of 1:07:32 at the 2022 Houston Half Marathon, becoming the fastest American woman to do so at the time. Her path wasn’t without difficulties; in 2023, a staph infection kept her out of the race for a while.

Debutante Fiona O’Keeffe Upsets American Favorites To Win Olympic Marathon Trials

Nevertheless, she persisted and, one day before the qualifying deadline won her position at the U.S. Olympic Trials at the Raleigh Half Marathon in December. Now, as Fiona O’Keeffe gets ready to compete for Olympic gold in Paris as a member of Team USA, she is a new face with a ton of potential.

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