UMKC alum Courtney Frerichs becomes second U.S. woman to medal in Olympic steeplechase

Welcome to the Olympic medal club, Courtney Frerichs.

The former UMKC runner won silver in the Olympic women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final Wednesday at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, finishing in a season-best 9 minutes, 4.79 seconds to become just the second American woman to finish on the podium in the event at the Games.

Frerichs stuck with the front of the pack for most of the race, taking the lead with four laps to go and stretching it out to a sizable margin with under 800 meters left. She was eventually overtaken in the final stretches by Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai, who won the gold in 9:01.45 in the first-ever Olympic medal for a Ugandan woman.

But Frerichs stayed composed, holding off a surging Hyvin Kiyeng of Kenya (who won bronze in 9:05.39) and Mekides Abebe of Ethiopia.

Frerichs was visibly emotional after winning the silver, a triumphant achievement in an already-decorated career for the former NCAA national champion (while at New Mexico) and current U.S. record holder in the event.

After an 11th place finish at the 2016 Rio Games, her hometown of Nixa, Missouri — near Springfield — can claim an Olympic medalist.

“This is an absolute dream come true,” Frerichs said to reporters post-race. “I grew up doing gymnastics as a kid and always watching the Olympic Games hoping one day that I would be there. Now to have a medal, it’s just more than I can ask for.”

The late surge to the front was planned, she said, and it ended up paying dividends in less-than-ideal conditions on a muggy evening in Tokyo.

Chemutai, who had never finished the steeplechase faster than 9:22 prior to the Olympics, was a shock winner and proved too good for Frerichs to out-sprint. But once the Ugandan got to the front, Frerichs made sure that all of her efforts earlier in the race weren’t going to go to waste.

“I was prepared to have to take it early and make it a hard race,” Frerichs said. “It’s really difficult to put yourself out there like that and I definitely had some fear to overcome, but I knew I’d walk away with no regrets if I really laid it all out there.”

Frerichs, who placed second in the event at June’s U.S. Olympic Trials, revealed post-race that she was ill while training shortly before going on the flight to Tokyo; it’s unclear if she was sick with COVID-19, but seemingly passed all the requisite tests to be able to race at the Olympics.

Struggling with the mental effects of the pandemic and the postponement of the Olympics by a year, Tokyo ended up being well worth the wait.

“I had a lot of success earlier in my professional career but have really struggled with the mental side of things in the last couple of years, and that really came to a head during COVID whenever we lost a lot of the goals we were training for,” Frerichs said. “My coaches and I back in January decided to really address that and I think it’s really helped me to overcome a lot. Even just last week, we were training in Hawaii and I came down with a virus and spent a few days really ill. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make it on the plane to get here.

“I think addressing those issues gave me a lot of gratitude just to be on the line, and I felt like I’d won the race before it even started.”

American Emma Coburn, the bronze medalist in the 2016 Rio Games, stumbled on a water jump while in sixth place with two laps remaining and eventually finished 14th. She was later disqualified after she was ruled to have stepped inside the track during the race. The other American in the event, Val Constien, finished 12th in 9:31.61.