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ON THE UPSWING, COBURN VYING FOR 11TH NATIONAL TITLE AT USATF OUTDOOR
CHAMPIONSHIPS
By Rich Sands, @thatrichsands.bsky.social
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. NEW YORK (22-Jul) — For the past two years, the 3000-meter steeplechase
has been missing the woman who revolutionized the event in the United
States. Emma Coburn, a world champion, Olympic medalist and 10-time
national champion, has faced a series of setbacks that kept her from the
steeple in 2024 and 2025.
Now 35 years old, she is in the midst of an inspiring comeback season
that is trending in the right direction as she aims to add another title
at this week’s USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships. The meet will be
held at Icahn Stadium on New York City’s Randall’s Island between
Thursday, July 23 and Sunday, July 26. The steeplechase heats are on
Thursday and the final goes on Saturday.
Emma Coburn, USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Hayward Field, University of Oregon, June 23-26, 2022, photo by Kevin Morris
Coburn’s bad luck started in April, 2024 when she broke her ankle on the
water jump at a Diamond League race in China and saw her hopes of making
a third Olympic team immediately dashed. She recovered from that injury,
but as 2025 began she re-aggravated a persistent hamstring injury that
had plagued her since 2023. “I tried to train for USA last year, but
it just kept getting worse and worse, so I had to pull the plug on the
season,” she said during a press availability at the New York Athletic
Club in Manhattan today.
Coburn’s absence was notable given how consistent — and successful — she
had been for the past 15 years. She won her first U.S. title in 2011
following her junior year at the University of Colorado. She would go on
to win nine more, the most recent coming in 2022. She made the U.S.
Olympic team in 2012, finishing eighth in London. Four years later in
the Rio Games she ran a gutsy race to take the bronze medal. Her
momentum continued in 2017 when Coburn was the surprise winner at the
World Athletics Championships in London, leading a 1-2 USA finish with
Courtney Frerichs.
Courtney Frerichs, Emma Coburn, W steeplechase, World Athletics Championships, photo by Kevin Morris
Eugene, Oregon, USA
July15-26, 2022
And even as more and more American women were mastering the event,
Coburn remained the standard. That is until the summer of 2023, when the
hamstring problems began. She finished second at the U.S. championships
and at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest she tore the
hamstring and did not make it out of the heats. The broken ankle in 2024
followed by the return of hamstring issues last year did not dampen her
enthusiasm, however, and after a long recovery process, she was finally
ready to resume training for the steeplechase again this past January.
She started with a makeshift water jump in her Colorado gym, slowly
increasing the barrier height. By March she was going over a real water
jump, building confidence that she could re-master what has long been
one of the strongest aspects of her races. “That’s the element that in
the past I was always good at for most of my career, so I just wanted to
be able to feel comfortable on that again,” she said. “I think all that
prep really paid off and it’s feeling good. The steeple is a technical
event and the hurdles have always flowed well, but the water barrier
took a lot of prep, it took six months to really get that technique right.”
She opened her season at the L.A. Track Festival on May 23 with an
encouraging third-place showing in 9:23.87 despite falling at the final
water barrier. Her third race of the season, on July 4 at the
Prefontaine Classic, proved that she was making progress. She finished
ninth against a world-class field, lowering her season’s best to
9:15.97. (Coburn’s personal best of 9:02.35, set while taking the silver
medal at the 2019 world championships, ranks her second all-time among
Americans behind Frerichs’ U.S. record of 8:57.77.)
Emma Coburn, 2022 USATF Outdoor Champs, photo by Kevin Morris
And while her hiatus has certainly been challenging, it also saw a major
positive change in her life. In October 2024, Coburn and her
husband/coach Joe Bosshard became parents via surrogate to a daughter,
Betty. “Being a mom is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she
said. “Growing up, when people asked what you wanted to do when you grew
up or what you wanted to be, I wasn’t a kid with Olympic posters in my
bedroom, I never said that I wanted to be an Olympian, my answer every
time was, ‘I want to be a mom.’ So that was always my No. 1 goal in life.”
Coburn did not bring Betty along for this meet — allowing Coburn the
rare luxury of sleeping on the flight to New York — where she will have
her hands full with other youngsters. The field reflects the growing
domestic depth in the event. Coburn’s 27-year-old training partner Gabbi
Jennings set a personal best of 9:06.61 last year and has the fastest
time by an American this season at 9:11.72. Other notable competitors
include defending champion Lexy Halladay (9:08.68), Marisa Howard
(9:07.14), Courtney Wayment (9:06.50), Gracie Hyde (9:16.61) and
Angelina Ellis (9:20.30).
Emma Coburn, Parker Valby and Gabbi Jennings, warming up, day before the race, LA TrackFest, May 23, 2026, photo by Chuck Aragon
Coburn also picked up an excellent training partner, 2024 Olympian
Parker Valby, who is also on the upswing after her own injury troubles.
Valby will contest the 5000m here in New York.
Although most of Coburn’s rivals are in their mid-20s, she is undaunted.
“It’s always inspiring to watch the next generation come up,” she said.
“Their intensity and fearlessness keep you on your toes, make you have
to dip back into that over and over again to try to stay competitive
with them.”
It also helps that Coburn continues to love the sport. “There’s still
joy and hope and a lightness around running that I still have now that I
had when I was [younger],” she said.
In terms of a long-range plan, Coburn says that she is taking it one
year at a time. “I’m trying to stay really present. Having a home
Olympics [in Los Angeles in 2028] really is appealing,” she admits. “But
I also have to listen to my body and see how I am faring in races and
competing. Emotionally and mentally, I would love to keep going and try
to compete for a spot on the next Olympic team, but I also have to
respect my body and listen to the cues that it’s giving me.”
Parker Valby and Emma Coburn, LA Trackfest, May 23, 2026, photo by Chuck Aragon