Amy Sproston, the US Ultrarunner who won the Gold Medal at the 100k World Championships, was named USATF Athlete of the Week http://www.usatf.org/News/Sproston-Named-USATF-Athlete-of-the-Week.aspx (read here for the full story).  Her win, and the recognition, are a big deal for several reasons:

1.  It is AWESOME that an American woman is the best 100k runner IN THE WORLD!  While many of the runners from other countries are sponsored to run full-time, most American runners have to hold down a full-time job AND run.  Amy is a compliance officer for a non-profit, and manages her training around her job.  Go AMY!

2.  Amy was the lead scorer for the US Women’s Team, who also won the gold medal!  Go USA!

3.  Ultrarunning in the United States has often been ignored by the “mainstream” running community, saying it is merely a sport comprised of a fringe group of people engaging in a fringe activity.  With the popularity of ultrarunning growing in the last decade, seemingly mimicking the marathoning trend in the 80’s and 90’s, it is great to see the USATF validate a deserving runner, just like they do for the marathon.  Amy being recognized by USATF is just further validation of the new trend.

4.  Amy’s win reinforces that the US is clearly competitive at the international level, and that our governing body is officially recognizing it.  While several US teams have won medals internationally in recent years, those wins have barely made a blip on the radar.  With the selection of Amy as Athlete of the Week, the USATF is validating just how strong the US teams are in international competition.

Huge Congrats to Amy Sproston, and all the US Women, for their outstanding performance at the US 100k Championships!

Happy Running!

** The Comment button doesn’t seem to be working on this post (and WordPress has a smart aleck response, sorry), so I will try to figure out how to fix it.  I didn’t even know there was a separate link 🙂

Tagged as: 100k World Championships, Amy Sproston, Team USA, USATF