Molly Seidel is an American long distance runner. Seidel represented the United States at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country in 2012, 2013 and 2018. In her first-ever marathon, Seidel placed second at the 2020 U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials.
Molly Seidel: Olympics 2021| 2021| Family| Cambridge
Olympics 2021:
Molly Seidel races to bronze, becomes third American woman to medal in marathon at Olympics.
TOKYO — Molly Seidel had dreams of winning an Olympic medal in the women’s marathon Saturday, but she is also a realist. She looked at the other names in the field.
She saw the personal bests, many of them five minutes faster than her own.
So when she crossed the finish line Saturday morning, behind only a pair of Kenyans, Seidel had surprised even herself. She pumped her fists and let out a celebratory yell. On a muggy morning in Sapporo, Japan, she became an Olympic bronze medalist, finishing in a time of 2:27:46.
It was just the third marathon Seidel, 27, has ever run.
2021:
Another hot and humid day in Japan took a toll on the runners, with the race moved to an earlier start to help beat the heat, but Seidel thrived and became the first U.S. woman to medal in the marathon since Deena Kastor in 2004.
American Molly Seidel, running in just the third marathon of her career, claimed the bronze medal among a talented field in the women’s event Saturday in Tokyo.
Family:
Coming into the final days of the Tokyo Olympics, Seidel was not expected to place near the podium in the women’s marathon.
And yet, Seidel finished in a surprise third place on Friday after running the marathon in 2:27:36, becoming just the third American woman to win an Olympic medal in the event.
Not only that, this event was Seidel’s THIRD-EVER marathon!
To post a time like that in just your third marathon ever,
and in the Olympics nonetheless, is an incredible feat and a wonderful moment of athletic achievement.
Cambridge:
Molly Seidel, a native of Brookfield, Wisc., and now a Cambridge, Mass., resident, claimed the bronze medal in the Olympic women’s marathon, holding on through heat and humidity and finishing in 2:27.46 behind Kenyans Peres Jepchirchir (gold and Brigid Kosgei).
