Runners coming off the track at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, sometimes need a moment before they face reporters.
To be clear, there is an athlete recovery tent right off the track, and they can sit there for as long as they want. They can watch the next few heats of their event, which is helpful especially if they want to see if they advanced to the next round. Or they can chill for a little bit.
That tent leads to a second tent, where reporters stand against a metal barrier, leaning in with cameras and recorders and phones to get athletes’ reaction to the race. That’s called the “mixed zone.”
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The 1500-meter runner, 30, has been the life of the party since 2017, when he was at Mississippi and racing at Hayward Field. His flowing mullet Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.
Since then, he has had several highs, including winning the U.S. 1500-meter title in 2019 and representing the U.S. at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. He ran his personal best, 3:33.64, in 2021. And he has always seemed to have fun along the way, living for a time in an RV and traveling to meets that way. Instagram posts show plenty of beer and hot tubs and Olympic Track & Field Trials We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
Injuries have taken a toll. Engels spent the early part of this year battling an Achilles issue. But he was rounding back into form just in time for the Olympic Trials. For the first time in a long time, he was living in a townhouse, not on wheels, and he had had a solid block of training in San Luis Obispo, California, with his coach, Ryan Vanhoy.
Engels made it through the first round, on June 21, by finishing third. The semifinal round, on June 22, was a little dicier—he was the final qualifier, getting into the 12-man field by his time, 3:35.08.
But he said in the mixed zone that day that he liked where he was at, and he wasn’t feeling his age.
“I say it all the time as an excuse, because I’m going against 19-year-olds, but I don’t feel a day over 21,” he said.
Then came the final. It went out hard, as expected. The leaders went out in 56 seconds and closed with laps in the 53-second range. Cole Hocker Wins Trials 1500-Meter Title in 3:30.59, Yared Nuguse was second (3:30.86), and Hobbs Kessler was third (3:31.53). Engels was ninth in 3:34.21. It was his best time of the season, but it wasn’t enough.
As he came through the mixed zone, reporters started asking the usually jovial Engels questions. He started to answer. And then he broke down. For at least 30 seconds, he knelt on the ground in the tent, trying to collect himself.
When he finally stood up, his voice was still cracking and the tears were fresh, even though he said he’s not usually a crier. “I thought I could be there with 300 to go and I kinda was, I think,” he said. “But I didn’t have it.
“I’m not upset, I’m not sad, I don’t know what I’m feeling,” he continued. “I felt so good today. I was stoked. I was so excited to be out there.”
This was Engels’s third Trials. He has finished in the top 10 each time. But the winning time was 4 seconds faster than the previous meet record. The event has changed a lot in the past 8 years.
“It might be my last Trials; I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Engels said. The winning time, 3:30, is “crazy. It’s a whole new game now.”
Sometimes it takes more than a few minutes to wrap your brain around a whole new game. Engels tried his best to process it—in public view.
Super Shoe Trends 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 Athing Mu Falls, Will Miss the Paris Olympics, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
