CENTROWITZ PREPARED TO GO DISTANCE FOR NEXT TWO GAMES
Gold medalist focused for now on indoor season
For an Olympic champion who’s spent the year checking goals off his list and making U.S. track and field history, Matthew Centrowitz doesn’t shy away from thinking about his future. Four years, eight years. Centrowitz, 27, isn’t afraid to say he plans to stick around for the next two Olympics — maybe racing in the 5,000 or 10,000 meters and “hopefully not the marathon.”
In Rio this summer, he became the first American man since 1908 to capture Olympic gold in the 1,500, capping a dream season. On Saturday he will accept an award in Orlando as the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year from USA Track and Field.
“This year was all about placing and not chasing fast times,” he said recently at the National Press Club.
Placing first in his races became routine. In February, Centrowitz won his third Wanamaker Mile title in the Millrose Games, setting a meet record in 3 minutes, 50.63 seconds. Then in March the former Oregon Duck won his first world indoor title in the 1,500 in Portland, Ore.
“This was probably the first year I didn’t have a fast 1,500; I don’t think I (got a personal record) this year,” he said. “I think 3:34 was my fastest, and I have a 3:30 PR, so I was totally fine with going into this year not putting myself into any Diamond League races and just wanting to win the world indoor title because it was in Portland, Ore., where I train. Having my whole team, sponsors and family in my backyard was pretty special to me.”
His attention then turned toward the outdoor season and Olympic trials, held in Eugene, where he won the final in another meet record, 3:34.09, beating Robby Andrews, who was second, by 0.79 seconds.
“I thought I was going to be fast. I set a goal with my dad before that race to break the Olympic trials record, and I did that,” Centrowitz said. “That was pretty special, because that was held by Steve Scott, who is also a pretty big inspiration to me. Obviously winning an Olympic gold just kind of put the icing on the cake, obviously a life-long dream. … We definitely accomplished everything we set out to do.”
Looking back on the Olympic final in Rio, Centrowitz — who was fourth in the race in the 2012 Olympics in London — said he was focused on finishing in the top three.
“Quite honestly my dream was just to get on the podium,” he said. But his coach, Alberto Salazar, kept telling him in workouts he was running splits that would be fast enough to contend for Olympic gold.
Centrowitz ran a tactical race in Rio when the pace was obviously slow. That patience only comes with experience.
“I credit being at the University of Oregon and going to college for four years as the reason why I can run these tactical races, why I’m prepared for these slow races,” he said.
He won in 3:50 flat as Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi (3:50.11), the 2012 Olympic champion, failed to run Centrowitz down in the final meters.
“Everyone thinks they have the best kick,” Centrowitz said of the dozen other men in the final. “Everyone is fine with just sitting back and letting everyone else do the work. Nobody wants to cut the wind.”
Centrowitz says he was comfortable with the slow pace, while his competitors, especially the runners from Africa, were not.
“I don’t think anyone in that race, especially from Africa, had ever been in a 3:50 1,500-meter race in their life,” he said. “A tactical race for those guys is 3:39, 3:40. … I think it’s messing with them more mentally than obviously physically. … I’ve run plenty of 3:50 races. I know how to navigate that kind of field when it goes that slow.”
His father, two-time Olympian Matt Centrowitz, a longtime coach at American University, said that with about 500 meters to go he liked what he saw in his son’s posture and demeanor.
“I knew he knows what he’s doing, and he’s comfortable in the front. I knew those two things,” said Matt Centrowitz, who won four consecutive national titles in the 5,000 from 1979 to 1982. “I just assumed somebody was going to take over the pace on him and he was going to slide into second. … When he threw the elbow, I liked it. I was across the track; I saw the way his posture was a little forward. I knew the game was on.”
The younger Centrowitz says he’ll probably head back to his base in Oregon to train with Salazar leading up to next year’s indoor season.
While he has an eye on the next two Olympics, he says in general he likes to take a shortterm approach.
“I definitely take it one year at a time; as we know a lot can happen between now and then,” Matthew Centrowitz said. “Definitely not putting any expectations or making anything concrete as of right now, but being the reigning Olympic champ there will be more expectations. There will be a lot more talk. That kind of comes with the territory; it’s what you want.”
Los Angeles is a candidate to host the 2024 Olympics along with Paris and Budapest. The IOC will vote on the host city in September 2017.
“That’s kind of one of the reasons I’m holding on,” he said of the possibility that L.A. will host the Games when he’d be 34. “It would mean everything. Just to participate in front of your home country; that would be like the best way to end my career.”