Shelby Houlihan-Episode 40-The Just Athletics Podcast

Shelby Houlihan, 2019 USA Champs, photo by Courtney White

We have just begun to work with Just Athletics, a high quality athletics podcast that shares our love of the sport. The cult like following: track geeks of all shapes and sizes, enjoy the true trail blazers that Just Athletics includes in their podcasts.

As part of RunBlogRun’s desire to bring disparate voices to the sport, we will be posting Just Athletics on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s this week.

Today’s episode is all about Shelby Houlihan, multiple American record holder, and a medal prospect in any global athletics championships in which she desires to compete.

Special thanks to hosts David Frank and Chris Johnson, the faces of Just Athletics. Used with permission.

Shelby Houlihan battles Nikki Hiltz, 2019 USA Champs, photo by Courtney White

We really considered just introducing Shelby as simply “here is Shelby Houlihan,” but in case you don’t know the accolades of this amazing young woman, here are some stats for you. Shelby is the current American record holder in both the 1500m and 5000m. She set the 1500m AR last year at the 2019 IAAF World Track & Field Championships, running 3:54.99, where she took fourth in the final. Lighting the track on fire once again, this time during a global pandemic, Shelby ran the AR in the 5000m in an intrasquad meet this summer, where she lowered the mark to 14:23.92. Shelby competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in the 5000m, where she placed 11th in the final in Rio.

She was a 12-time NCAA All-American at Arizona State, where she also won an NCAA title in the 1500m in 2014. Shelby’s talent was evident in her time as a high school athlete in Iowa, where she grew up, and ran times of 55.52 in the 400m, 2:07.35 in the 800m, and 4:43.64 in the mile. Despite that talent, it’s truly amazing what Shelby has done in her career, especially when considering she is still only 27.

We get some incredible insight from Shelby on how she has navigated this this global pandemic in a way that has allowed her to improve her abilities and how she has gotten to such a high level in this sport. Listening to this pod it is clear that Shelby is an extremely dedicated athlete, but an athlete who has balance and a healthy approach.

Thank you so much, Shelby! We hope everyone enjoys this episode as much as we did.

Shelby Houlihan-Episode 40-The Just Athletics Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3njbQ9xIiubupUHDHT4tWl?si=S-Dh5KZvSS2TzKccQbwpsw

Shelby Houlihan, 2019 USA Champs, photo by Courtney White