Meb Keflezighi’s biggest moments are must-see TV.
He was just 29 years old at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, running high on endorphins, as he smiled towards the finish line en route to earning a silver medal with a time of 2:11:29. Less than two weeks removed from a German Shepard attack, and running his fourth marathon ever, Keflezighi has described being “completely satisfied” with second place, citing how rare it is to get a chance to compete in the games and have all your training come together at the same time.
In 2009—two years after breaking his hip in Central Park and watching his friend and training partner Ryan Shay die of a heart attack on the course—he won the New York City Marathon wearing a blue and white U.S.A. singlet, breaking the tape a full 41 seconds ahead of the closest competitor. The finish left commentators and spectators in awe at the American with his thumbs up conquering the elusive distance.
In 2012—nursing a foot injury related to another NYC Marathon and competing with less than six weeks of proper training—the then-36-year-old ran a personal best (2:09:08) to upset his Mammoth Lakes training partner Ryan Hall. In the final stretch of that race in Houston, he grabbed an American flag from a spectator and waved it proudly.
Perhaps his greatest finish arrived in 2014, just two weeks shy of his 39th birthday, when he became the first American man in 31 years to win the Boston Marathon. Crossing the finish line with a time of 2:08:37—wearing the names of three people killed when a bomb disrupted the country’s most iconic road race a year earlier—Keflezighi bet on himself, took an early lead and rarely looked back at a charging Kenyan, Wilson Chebet, who finished just 11 seconds back. Having saved something for the end of the race, Keflezighi pumped his fists as he crossed the line before breaking into tears.
Last month in Tampa, where he now coaches track and cross country for Plant High School alongside coach Katie Nelson, Keflezighi told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the wins take him back to seventh grade—when he ran a 5:20 mile after being challenged by a P.E. teacher—and that Boston 2014 was the defining moment of his storied career.
A racer in every sense of the word, it’s not hyperbolic to say he is the greatest living American distance runner. But winning has never meant finishing first for Keflezighi.
“The hardest part of running is getting out the door,” he told CL as he pointed to Fred Ball Park where the boys and girls start their Bayshore runs. “The hardest part is getting here.”
He talked about a time in Riverview 20 years ago, when he greeted a walker. That woman bumped into him 12 years later and reminded him of the meeting.
“She goes, ‘You said hello and gave me a thumbs up. Did you know that was my first day back from heart surgery,?’” he explained. “You never know what people are going through—and we can never walk in their shoes, but we can have a little bit of understanding.”
And the pressure of coaching a program with 12 state championships in girls cross country alone?
“It’s there,” he said. “But at the end of the day it’s all about the kids—I want to help them be their best, run personal bests, improve and eventually love to run.”
It’s a winning attitude, and commitment to consistency, that’s clearly caught on.
Success, Igor Gordiano, a sophomore, told CL after practice, means “improving your own time.”
It’s “getting better every day, little by little,” added Fischer Speer, a sophomore.
Ryan Pavliga, a junior, said that training with his coaches has made him a runner for life, whether he does it competitively in college or not.
“Running is always, I think, the hardest part of the day, and nothing is going to compare to that run of the day. If you can show up to practice at 6 a.m. and go run four or five miles, or go run a quick track workout, you can do anything,” he added. “The mindset and the mental fortitude that it provides is something that I don’t think any other activity can accomplish.”
Ethan Gear was obsessed with another passion, robotics, when he got to Plant but found himself growing frustrated after spending so much time with the machines. So he’s taken to running to help his mind break free. “I see it as kind of like the last frontier, to try and figure that out,” the sophomore added.
The sport certainly helped their world-famous coach, who was one of 11 kids who grew up in war-torn Eritrea. Wanted by the military, dad immigrated to the U.S. by way of Italy—but was separated from his family for six years before they settled in San Diego.
Running, Keflezighi told CL, helped him assimilate into American culture, and come out of his shell to embrace the opportunities his parents didn’t have. Despite some sports writers not realizing that he is a product of the U.S. running system, the sport is again helping ground Keflezighi as the American experience evolves around him.
Keflezighi became a citizen on July 2, 1998—the day he graduated from UCLA where he won four NCAA championships. On the afternoon he spoke to CL, ICE was still on the ground in Minneapolis, two weeks after the death of Renée Good, and a day before the killing of Alex Pretti.
Because the mayor is a runner, Keflezighi knows Minneapolis’ Jacob Frey, who was forced to stand up as federal agents terrorized that city. Not a lot of people ask him about it, but Keflezighi—not outspoken by any means—told CL that it broke his heart to see what unfolded up north because it’s not the America he knows.
“What I experienced was that people always embraced me,” he said, adding that even when you’re competing against someone, you must still respect them.
Sport, Keflezighi noted, teaches that. It also teaches us that while there are no shortcuts in life, if we put in hard work, we can get results.
“It might not be this week or might not be next month, but eventually it will pay off,” he added.
And while there’s no perfect country in the world, the U.S., for many years, provided opportunities and a welcome to many. “It’s sad to see that it’s not as prominent as it used to be,” he said before offering some optimism.
“But running—it unifies.”
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This article appears in Feb. 12 – 18, 2026.