50 Years of Women's Varsity Athletics: Track and Field

50 Years of Women's Varsity Athletics: Shannon Rowbury

50 Years of Women's Varsity Athletics: Track and Field

4/1/2022 9:01:00 AM | Track & Field, Athletics

Legacy Talk with Three-Time Olympian Shannon Rowbury

By: GoDuke the Magazine

Duke is celebrating 50 years of varsity women's athletics in 2021-22. This is the fifth installment of a year-long GoDuke The Magazine series reflecting on the Blue Devils' 13 women's sports programs. For more from the university, see dukengwsd.com/dukewomens50 or #DukeWomens50 on social media.

Three-time U.S. Olympic finalist Shannon Rowbury ranks as the most decorated athlete produced by the Duke women’s track program, with championship results in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. She won the NCAA indoor track title in the mile in 2007, claimed six ACC championships including the indoor mile, the outdoor 1500 meters and the cross country crown, and was a six-time NCAA All-America. As a pro sponsored by Nike for 14 years, Shannon reached the 1500-meter finals in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and placed fourth in Rio. She was training for a fourth Olympic bid at age 36 when she was sidelined by an injury. She also competed in the IAAF World Championships six times with two individual bronze medals and a world championship in the distance medley relay. She is a former American record holder in three events and a multiple national champion. Shannon now lives in her native San Francisco with her husband and daughter and works in the sports tech sector as director of NFTs for Parity.

Given the three Olympics, all the World Championships, the titles and the records, how fulfilling has your career in professional track been for you?

For the majority of my career it was always, “What comes next? What comes next?” Now as I look back on what I accomplished, I’ve accomplished pretty much everything I set out to do. I didn’t get an Olympic medal but I came in fourth (in Rio) and with the London Olympics I currently sit fourth there as well with dopers in front of me, so with the Olympics I most likely did achieve what I set out to do. When I think about all the things I accomplished, first and foremost for me, is the consistency and the longevity and the work I’ve done off the track to try to make the sport better. I can walk away from my time as a competitive athlete and feel really proud of what I accomplished.

You’ve really been unbelievably consistent over a long period of time, like 14 years. To get to all those major international events, it’s not just consistency, it’s consistent excellence.

Thank you — I think so! When I came into the sport (professionally) in 2008 we (the U.S.) were struggling to have middle distance runners in the World finals and the Olympic finals. I feel like I was at the forefront of helping to usher in a new era and set a higher standard for what we should be achieving. That wasn’t just me alone. I like to think of my career as being more of a trailblazer, recognizing where we were at and trying to push the sport to be better, on the 29 track and also off the track. As a person who believes we were put on this earth to leave it a little better than when we came, that on-and-off-track balance, not always perfect, but the consistent effort to always try to achieve more is something I’m proud of.

TRACK & FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY FILE

• The program began varsity competition in 1984, with Mike Forbes as the first head coach. Duke’s first standout performer, though, came a few years before the school had a varsity team. In 1977-78, non-scholarship runner Ellison Goodall, who often trained with the Duke men’s team, earned track and cross country All-America honors and won the AAU national championship in the 10,000 meters.

• Goodall and Ellen Reynolds, an All-America and Penn Relays champion in the 1980s, are the two women’s track performers who are enshrined in the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame.

• In addition to Shannon Rowbury, other Olympians from the Duke track program include pole vaulter Jillian Schwartz, who competed in the 2004 and 2012 Olympics, and Maddy Price (4x400) and Kate Van Buskirk (5000 meters), both of whom competed for Canada in Tokyo last summer.

• Duke has produced two NCAA champions in Rowbury (indoor mile, 2007) and Juliet Bottorff (outdoor 10K, 2011).

• Duke won the ACC cross country team championship in back-to-back years of 2004-2005. The Blue Devils claimed their first ACC track & field team championship last season.

2016 US Olympics Trials: Brenda Martinez, Jenny Simpson, and Shannon Rowbury victorious after Women's 1500M Final at Hayward Field. CREDIT: Robert Beck

This may be difficult, but do you have a favorite moment from your international track career?

Making my first Olympic team, of course, that was validation that I could be and did deserve to be in this upper echelon of competition. As painful as the Rio Olympics was, coming so close to a medal, being able to come back and win the Diamond League final (about a month) after that and then go on to set the American record (in the 5000 meters) is really a true example of my resilience. One doesn’t change the other, but it’s an example of life happens and it’s about what you do next. That’s something I’m really proud of. There were moments after the 2016 Olympics, like three days where I didn’t want to leave my room and was just so upset and disappointed, and now I can look back on it with pride and more perspective. To come out of that took the support of my friends, my family, my team, my coach, but to be able to come out of that and bring forward such results that I feel proud of is something I’m really happy about.

How about one example of something you’re proud about in your work to try to better the sport?

One of the biggest ones was in 2018. When I was pregnant, even before being pregnant — professional athletes are contracted to shoe companies which means you don’t have benefits, so I knew that if I became pregnant I would run the risk of losing my health insurance because I have to earn it through my performance. In the course of my pregnancy, with the help of a group of people working together, I was able to work with a committee and USA Track & Field women’s chair Rose Monday that led to ultimately in 2018 the passing of the first-ever NGB (national governing body) maternity policy which extended health care protection in maternity. When I think about the history of women’s sports, which really is very short — the first runners at Duke in cross country, and first scholarships and whatnot, were about when I was born — my career as an athlete was one where I never felt limits until I came into this pro space. I started to think about, as a woman in sports and primary earner for my family, with the responsibilities that that carries, how do you create a sporting environment that encourages our women to have a full life and create a scenario that gives them a chance for success? I ended up getting injured because I didn’t have maternity protection and had to rush back too quickly. So it was really trying to take that experience of pregnancy and postpartum, which was unpleasant in a lot of ways because I felt so vulnerable, and try to change that so the next generation of women athletes have options and feel supported. I think we still have a long ways to go in a lot of areas. In the United States maternity is still classified as a disability rather than its own unique category. That tells you how much work we have to do. But I am an eternal optimist and I really believe in trying to make change where I can. Hopefully if you keep chipping away, before you know it you will get to that masterpiece.

Is that one of the things you enjoy about the company you work for (Parity), seeking to boost sponsorships for women pro athletes?

What I love is the opportunity to share knowledge, and the stat that I’m always quoting is that of the $66 billion sports sponsorship marketplace, only a teeny tiny sliver of 0.4 percent goes to women’s sports. And to tell companies, not only is that not fair but it doesn’t make business sense when you consider that 70 to 80 percent of consumer spend is controlled by women. Putting more dollars in the hands of women athletes is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the more business-smart thing to do when you think of who is the one buying your product. I love being in sort of an ambassador role for women’s sports and helping people to understand the untapped potential of this huge community of women athletes that have been overlooked and underserved.

50 YEARS OF WOMEN'S VARSITY ATHLETICS

“As a father, husband, brother, son and coach of female athletes, I am able to recognize first-hand the importance that athletics plays in women’s lives. The support and opportunity that Duke Athletics provides for its female athletes is second to none and I couldn’t be more proud to be the head coach for women’s track and field at this university. I’m also thankful for the role Title IX has played in the rise of and support of women’s athletics. From our team winning an ACC title last spring, to the success of our women at the Olympics this summer, it’s easy to see that Title IX has been a huge success. Duke track and field is elated for this yearlong celebration of the past 50 years of women’s sports.”

– Shawn Wilbourn, director of track & field

“I feel honored to represent Duke Athletics and to have the opportunity to celebrate the impact that sports have had on the lives of the many women that came before me and now the individuals that I coach. As a mom to a young daughter, and a female head coach, I personally understand the importance that sports play in the development of women and I am thankful to be a part of a university that empowers and supports women in sports at the highest level.”