How Oregon's Maddy Elmore overcame injuries with help from running legend Shalane Flanagan

When American running legend Shalane Flanagan was named coach of the Oregon women’s distance program in August 2022, her first order of business was to reach out to each team member individually for a meet-and-greet.

During those talks, Flanagan wrote down details she learned about each runner into a notebook.

For Maddy Elmore, formerly a 1,500-meter state champion from South Eugene High School, it included a history of injuries that for two years had derailed the young runner’s collegiate career before it ever started.

“Sounded very sad,” Flanagan remembered she wrote about Elmore.

With Flanagan’s help, expertise and persistence, Elmore’s outlook has changed considerably.

Maddy Elmore to lead Ducks at NCAA championship meet

Come Saturday morning, Elmore will lead the Ducks into the NCAA Cross Country Championship meet at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Virginia, capping a career-best season for the redshirt junior.

Elmore has been Oregon’s top runner in every meet this fall, including a fifth-place finish at the NCAA West Regional meet last week when the Ducks finished second as a team to automatically qualify for nationals.

Elliott Cook will represent the Oregon men at the NCAA meet as well, having earned an at-large bid after placing 10th during the regional meet.

“It just feels like everything is really coming together,” Elmore said. “I'm just super grateful to be in this position.”

During an interview earlier this week, Elmore said she was on the verge of medically retiring in 2022 when she was feeling frustrated and hopeless after years of dealing with a stress fracture that would never heal and constant calf issues.

Only once since joining the Ducks in the fall of 2020 had she competed in a cross country or track and field meet in an Oregon uniform.

“It was just a cycle that I couldn't really get out of,” she said.

How coach Shalane Flanagan has helped Elmore's career

Then came her first meeting with Flanagan, who listened to Elmore describe her injuries and determined they were similar to what some of the professional athletes she coached with the Bowerman Track Club had experienced and also overcome.

Flanagan was confident she could solve Elmore’s injury issues, and sure enough, within two months, Elmore was competing. 

“The week I first met her, everything started clicking from there,” said Elmore, who found her way back to health and raced in five cross country meets last season, including at the NCAA championships, where she placed 72nd in 20 minutes, 53.3 seconds.

It was quite a turnaround for Elmore, who told Flanagan when they first spoke she had only run two miles the entire summer of 2022.

“I was like, ‘Oh jeez, this is going to be a project,’” Flanagan said as she laughed. “But she’s really in tune with her body and knows what she can handle and I try and help her make smart decisions and we have literally just chipped away week by week. I saw that if she could string some consistent training together, she’s got potential. She’s got not only the physical components, but she’s got the discipline, the drive and the mental piece.”

After also navigating a healthy indoor season in 2023, Elmore had the biggest moment of her career at the NCAA West Preliminary meet in late May when she ran 4:08.87 in her 1,500 quarterfinal to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. It was the seventh-fastest time in school history.

“I never thought I would run that fast,” said Elmore, who went on to finish 10th in the 1,500 finals last June. “That kind of just changed all of my goals for the rest of my time here.”

Flanagan agreed, saying she got emotional watching Elmore run such a fast time.

“I just felt like there were no boundaries when I saw that,” Flanagan said. “It’s kind of one of those pivotal moments that reframes the whole trajectory of what you thought you could do, and that was one of those moments for her.”

'A wildly different, drastically different, athlete than a year ago'

Elmore followed with a standout cross country season this fall. She finished second at the Pre-Nationals meet at Panorama Farms on Oct. 14 in 19:47.0, then was fourth at the Pac-12 championships on Oct. 27 in 19:23.8

At the national meet on Saturday, she’ll be joined by teammates Izzy Thornton-Bott, Anika Thompson, Klaudia Kazimierska, Harper McClain, Katie Clute and Tatum Miller. The Ducks are not expected to come away with a trophy, but a top-10 finish isn’t out of the question.

“I'm very confident,” Elmore said. “I love that course. But I know that anything can happen with that many girls. I think if our whole team, if everyone does their job, we can surprise some people for sure.”

The next step in Elmore’s evolution, Flanagan said, is getting her to a place where she believes she can win again.

“I know there’s more in there,” Flanagan said. “We may not see it this season or in this race at nationals, but she is capable of even more than she’s doing now. I want her to get addicted to winning. I want her to be so excited about the possibility of even having that chance of winning.”

That’s where Elmore was when she won a Class 6A state title as a junior in 2019. Then her senior track season in 2020 was canceled due to COVID and the next two years were spent on the sideline at Oregon.

“I kind of lost that competitive edge,” Elmore said. “So I'm still trying to get that back where it’s like, OK, I'm not just happy to be here, I also want to win races.”

This season is just the start, said Flanagan, who admitted its been a joy to witness the evolution of Elmore’s career since they first spoke on the phone 16 months ago, when Elmore was ready to walk away from the sport.

“A wildly different, drastically different, athlete than a year ago,” Flanagan said. “I’m in shock at the turnaround. It’s been so cool to watch.”

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.

NCAA Cross Country Championship meet

When: Saturday at 7:20 a.m. (women) and 8:10 a.m. (men)

Where: Panorama Farms Cross Country Course in Charlottesville, Virginia

How to watch: ESPNU

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon runner overcomes injuries with help from coach Shalane Flanagan