Olympic Bronze Medalist Molly Seidel Won’t Run At US Marathon Trials Because Of Knee Injury – News18

Reigning Olympic marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel received’t run this weekend on the U.S. Olympic marathon trials due to a knee harm.

Seidel revealed Thursday on Instagram that she harm her knee a few month in the past and an MRI confirmed she had a fractured patella and partially torn patellar tendon. She tried to cross-prepare to prepare for Saturday’s race in Orlando, Florida, however made the choice to drop out to keep away from risking additional harm. The high three finishers within the males’s and ladies’s races earn spots at this 12 months’s Paris Games in the event that they’ve met the time qualification standards.

“I knew that I could not race a marathon hard on it, in its current state, without really, really injuring myself,” Seidel mentioned within the video. “I’m really (expletive) bummed. There’s no other word for it … I’ve dreamed about making this team and defending my bronze medal at the Paris Olympics since the last Olympics.”

Seidel was a shock Olympic medalist on the Tokyo Games in 2021, operating in simply her third marathon. She hung with the lead pack and completed behind Kenyan marathoners Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei on a sweltering day by the streets of Sapporo. The marathon was moved out of Tokyo to the northern metropolis in an effort keep away from the capital’s summer season warmth.

Seidel retains her bronze medal in a show cupboard close to her kitchen. She can see it when she cooks. Friends can view it at any time when they arrive over.

That piece of {hardware} serves as a proud reminder of her journey on that magical day — and her path again ever since. It’s a path that’s included one other combat with an consuming dysfunction and a current prognosis for consideration-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction.

“We spend our entire lives told to want this goal because it’s the pinnacle of everything and you don’t really question it,” Seidel mentioned of the Olympics in a current interview with The Associated Press earlier than her harm announcement. “It’s like, ‘I want to go to the Olympics because that’s the thing to do. And when I get there, I’m going to be happy and my most complete self.’ I got there and it happened and by the time I got home I realized, ‘Oh shoot, I’m still the same really flawed person. I just have a medal now.’ Honestly, it was so (confusing).

“But I’m in a place right now that I never thought that I was going to be able to get to.”

Seidel predicted Olympic success for herself when she was 10 years previous. As a part of a category mission, Seidel scribbled in black ink on the again of a adorned card: “I wish I will make it into the Olympics and win a gold medal.”

She was prepared for the marathon trials, too, earlier than her knee harm. She not felt like the brand new child on the beginning line, both.

“I’ve put in the work. I’ve paid my dues,” the 29-12 months-previous Seidel mentioned as she educated in Flagstaff, Arizona. “I’ve got a bronze medal in my kitchen — I know who I am.

“My story isn’t necessarily very linear or very neat,” added Seidel, a standout distance runner at Notre Dame who converted to the marathon. “I always get really down on myself sometimes because my story doesn’t necessarily fit this mold of what it’s ‘supposed to look like.’ That maybe I’m doing it wrong. As I’ve gotten a little bit older, now I can appreciate that just because I’m different doesn’t make it any worse or any better. It’s my own story and my own wave and I’ll ride it.”

She’s at all times been open about psychological well being and prepared to speak to anybody who reaches out. She was identified with ADHD a little bit bit in the past following years of coping with an consuming dysfunction, obsessive-compulsive dysfunction (OCD) and despair.

Seidel started a podcast that addressed subjects reminiscent of psychological well being.

“I’ve really seen over these last two years,” she mentioned, “that things can really improve.”

Among the contenders within the girls’s race Saturday are Emily Sisson, Keira D’Amato, Sara Hall, Betsy Saina and Aliphine Tuliamuk. On the lads’s facet, Conner Mantz and Clayton Young are favorites in a subject that features veterans Galen Rupp, 37, and Abdi Abdirahman, 47.

“I’m going to be watching and cheering for all the men and women racing this weekend,” Seidel mentioned in her Instagram video.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)