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Team USA’s Molly Seidel runs her third marathon ever and wins Olympic bronze medal

Imagine doing something for the third time and winning one of the biggest prizes in sports. Seriously, what just happened??

By Collin Sherwin Updated
Peres Jepchirchir of Team Kenya, Eunice Chebichii Chumba of Team Bahrain, Molly Seidel of Team United States Brigid Kosgei of Team Kenya and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Team Israel compete in the Women’s Marathon Final on day fifteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club on August 07, 2021 in Kawagoe, Japan. Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Molly Seidel became the third American woman to ever win an Olympic marathon medal on Saturday morning at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

She also did it in her third career marathon. And no, that’s not a typo.

In the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, Seidel finished second. In the 2020 London Marathon, she got sixth. Now you know her entire history in 26.2 mile races.

Seidel was around +6000 to win at DraftKings Sportsbook, and finished with the bronze medal 26 seconds behind winner Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya whose winning time was 2:27:20. Pre-race favorite Brigid Kosgei, also of Kenya, won silver.

Seidel has had massive success as a runner after winning multiple national championships at Notre Dame. She was the 2015 NCAA cross-country champion and 10k outdoor champion, as well as the NCAA indoor 3k and 5k champion in 2016.

But to move from a max of just over six miles to 26 miles against the best runners on earth and come away with a bronze is an incredible accomplishment. This might be one of the biggest surprise medals of anyone on Team USA in Tokyo.

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