For Two Weeks, People are Going to Care About Track & Field: Here Are Some Athletes You Should watch (Part II, Emily Sisson)
(*This is the second in an ongoing series in the run-up to the 7/29/21 start date of Athletics at the Tokyo Olympic Games, featuring key track and field athletes to watch from the United States of America.)
If you are loosely, marginally affiliated with the state of Nebraska, we will claim you.
Distance Dynamo, 10,000 meter runner, and totally, 100% person that identifies as a Nebraskan: Emily Sisson
If your father’s father owned a Nebraska snapback hat back in 1988 and there is any kind of pictorial or anecdotal evidence? You’re ours. You’re a Nebraskan. #Claimed.
That’s why we howl like lunatics anytime Omaha-born Andy Roddick throws the bones or why Husker Twitter is always digitally geeking out over Gabrielle Union when she is rumored to be in town to watch a football game.
So, with the ascension of one-time Omaha Marian and one-time Millard North all-everything runner Emily Sisson to the pinnacle of American distance running — winning the women’s 10,000 meter race in convincing fashion and only coming up short on her bid for the Olympic Marathon due to injury — you bet your sweet track ass that we’re going to claim her as a Nebraskan.
Sisson was utterly dominant in her two short years as a Nebraska prep runner, winning two cross country titles in her freshman and sophomore years, to go along with 6 Gold Medals in track.
She moved on to Providence where she was a 2-time NCAA Champion in the 5,000 (once indoors and once outdoors, in 2015). And transitioned into professional running with great success.
But, all of this success for Sisson doesn’t mean she hasn’t faced adversity along the way. Most recently, she found herself dropping out of the Olympic Marathon Trials (run all the way back in the months before Covid shut everything down) after making it 22-miles of the way there.
Her body broke down and she was forced to do something she rarely had done: stop running.
But, now, with redemption in her grasp and a second chance to haul-ass for glory, she’s staring at the track once more.
She’ll be facing down a stacked field of participants, including the current 5k & 10k world record holder, Letesenbet Gidey from Ethiopia and the 2019 5k world champion, Kenyan Hellen Obiri.
The women’s 10,000 will be run on August 7th, barring any kind of monumental Covid collapse or all of the athletes being suspended for using the Olympic torch as a light for a gigantic blunt.
So, whether she likes it or not: Emily Sisson is now and forever Nebraska AF. She may be 10,000 miles and 10,000 meters away from the cannon shaped middle of America, but we will always be ready to leap onto your bandwagon with both contractually obligated Adidas shoes.
The Sha’Carri Richardson Memorial Olympic Weed Fact:
Speaking of 10,000? Apparently this happened, earlier this month.
“WAIT! Mom! How many Reese’s cups did you just eat? Oh, no!” — Kids in Michigan.
