Homegrown Gold: Centrowitz Becomes 1,500-Meter Olympic Champion

The look on Matthew Centrowitz’s face said it all: He couldn’t believe what he had just done.

The 26-year-old graduate of Broadneck High School had just run a blistering last lap of the 1,500-meter Olympic final to hold off a field of 12 runners and cross the line first. It was a dream pursued over years of training and competing, suddenly come true.

He covered his face with his hands, looking up at the board to make sure no one had passed him at the end. No one had.

He was the first American to win gold in the event since 1908. “Disbelief is up there for sure, for the Olympic final,” said Centrowitz by phone over Labor Day weekend, recounting his reaction to winning Olympic gold two weeks prior.

Centrowitz had taken the lead of the race from the outset, fronting a pack that included the events’ past two champions as well as a slew of contenders. The prerace favorite, the tall and long-legged Asbel Kiprop of Kenya, who won the event in 2008; Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria, who won gold in London in 2012; Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti, the 2014 indoor world champion; and Nick Willis of New Zealand all gave chase.

Centrowitz held them all off. Not with raw speed alone, but with a combination of speed, endurance and guile.

The first two laps of the race were run at a pedestrian pace. All the runners had grown relatively stiff-legged while waiting for more than 20 minutes in an area where there wasn’t enough room to take a stride — an unheard-of eternity in prerace warmup time — until the TV coverage was ready to run the final.

The group was also running its third race in five days, likewise unusual for the club of world-class 1,500-meter runners, who typically run 15-20 races per year, never with the rapid turnaround times they experienced during the Olympics.

The puzzle pieces were laid before him. It was going to be a slow final.

“No one wanted to lead it,” said Centrowitz. “It was the third race in five days, the Olympic final, so everyone was just kind of sitting back and playing a little chess match to see what everyone else was doing.”

Souleiman took a lead for a handful of strides with 500 meters to go, but Centrowitz passed him on the inside, up against the rail, giving him the slightest of elbows as he regained his place at the front of the pack. From there, he ran the lap of a track-and-field lifetime, clocking the final 400 meters in 50 seconds, just fractions of a second off his personal best for a 400.

“As the race went on, I just felt like I couldn’t give up the lead, and I just kept controlling it,” he said, “and I was pretty surprised to hold on.”

With a support group that included his father, the elder Matt Centrowitz, a two-time Olympian, and his sister, Lauren Centrowitz, likewise a standout runner and state champion at Broadneck who went on to an All-American career at Stanford, watching from the stands, Centrowitz held on to notch the most prestigious accomplishment of a progressively stellar running career.

Many in this area have been reading Centrowitz’s name for several years. He was a three-time 4A cross country state champion from 2004 to 2006 while at Broadneck, and he ran the fastest high school mile in the country as a senior in 2007.

“When I coached Matthew, it was clear that there was a special talent,” said Dana Dobbs, who coached Centrowitz at Broadneck. “Over the span of a 20-year coaching career, I have seen many kids with great talent, but not the work ethic to go along with it. They simply wanted to let their talent be enough. Matthew was different. Super talented, and a relentless worker … When people watched Matthew run, all they could remark about is how fast but effortless it looked. He seemed to float along the track.”

Centrowitz was a national champion in the 1,500 and an All-American while at Oregon. He turned pro in 2012 and competed in the London Olympics, finishing fourth in the 1,500. Centrowitz took silver in the 1,500 at the 2013 World Championships in Russia and won his first major international 1,500 this year at the World Indoor Championships.

The Olympic gold, naturally, is the crowning achievement thus far. The elder Matt Centrowitz cited his son’s upbringing in the area as an important part of his development, noting the Green Hornets track and field program.

“Isn’t Maryland the greatest state?” said Centrowitz’s father. “We’ve lived in Maryland for 25 years. The Severna Park programs were low-key things that got kids out and encouraged kids through sports. I think it was a great environment, and I enjoyed raising my children in Anne Arundel County. Good soccer, good basketball, lots of great families there, and we just enjoyed the whole process. Even when he went to the Olympic games four years ago, there was so much support from Severna Park and Broadneck.”

He added, “It’s a little wilder now, with a gold medal.”

Centrowitz went straight from Rio to Switzerland to compete in a professional race before returning home, where he was honored at an Orioles game, joined the American University track and field team (which his father coaches) for a workout, and then went to New York for the New York Road Runners 5th Avenue Mile.

He said his professional racing season is now concluded, and he’ll have time to reflect on the year.

“It’s been a great homecoming,” he said. “It was a quick turnaround [to Switzerland] and I didn’t get to quite enjoy it right away, but the last week in the U.S. has been great seeing most of my family and a lot of friends … Now I can really sit back and reflect on the season and reflect on the year and soak it all in.”

Asked what about growing up in in the area made him who he is today, Centrowitz cited the many people who have supported him on his journey.

“Just the support,” he said. “Everyone in that community was so supportive of my running, from the Green Hornets program all the way through college. I went to Broadneck, so obviously a huge rival with Severna Park, but it was really neat to see with the Olympics everyone coming together and cheering from the whole community. You know, I had Severna Park people saying, ‘Even though you went to Broadneck, I was cheering for you!’ So that was cool to see. Just the support has been overwhelming.”