Molly Seidel, the surprise bronze medalist from the last Olympic Marathon in Tokyo, announced via Instagram that she is withdrawing from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials taking place this Saturday, February 3.
Seidel was one of the favorites coming into the weekend with the fifth-fastest qualification time of 2:23:07, which she achieved at the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
Seidel said to fans in an emotional Instagram video that she had suffered a significant knee injury about one month prior to the Trials. Following an MRI, doctors found that she had fractured her patella and partially torn her patellar tendon.
Despite the news of such a significant injury, Seidel was determined to make it to the start line at the Olympic Trials, hoping to make her second Olympic team.
She states doing everything in her power to try and be able to take to the line this weekend, including being surrounded by the best doctors and physiotherapists and doing incredible amounts of cross-training.
However, Seidel says that with race week upon us, she does not feel confident about running a hard and fast marathon without further injuring herself seriously. She and her team, therefore, made the collective decision to withdraw from the Trials.
Seidel burst onto the marathon scene in 2020 when she qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials by running a qualifying time in a half marathon. Regardless, Seidel was excited to be competing in the Olympic Trials that year, having never run a marathon.
In a surprising upset, Seidel managed to place second at the 2020 Olympic Trials, punching her ticket to Tokyo to run the Olympic Marathon. All in just her first-ever marathon.
In Tokyo, Seidel was just elated to have the opportunity to race the marathon on the world’s biggest stage.
What she didn’t expect was to be coming away from her third-ever marathon, the Olympic Games, with a bronze medal.
Among the most established and decorated marathon runners in the world, Seidel showed she meant business. She finished the race in 2:27:46, just 26 seconds behind the gold medal winner and highly accomplished Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and 10 seconds behind her equally as respected compatriot Brigid Kosegei.
With Molly Seidel now out of the race this weekend, it opens the door for someone else to come in and punch their ticket to Paris, perhaps even another underdog story.
Want to follow along the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials live? We’ll be providing live updates throughout the race. You can check the Marathon Handbook homepage on race day to follow the live feed.
