“It wasn’t exactly my plan,” Michalski told LetsRun.com after the race, “but as slow as that race was, I was licking my chops.”
Michalski, 3-, compared the race to his experience at the USA championships in August. He won silver there in 8:26.77. He also said the finals were similar to the semifinals. He finished third in his heat Saturday in 8:28.76 to reach the finals.
On Monday, Michalski looked to make a move with three laps to go. He said “it was really cool to lead a lap” in an “electric stadium.”
Down the stretch, Michalski said, “I was looking up at the jumbotron to try to gauge what the pack’s doing, how tight on you they are. It’s so loud in the stadium that you can’t hear if somebody’s right behind you.”
New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish won the gold in 8:33.88. Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, who won the last world title in 2023, finished second in 8:33.95. Kenya’s Edmund Serem placed third in 8:34.56.
“I’m so stoked with the whole experience,” Michalski said. “I took extra time out there to just take in the stadium. What an atmosphere. What a gift. I’m so grateful.”
Michalski graduated from Xenia in 2014. He didn’t start running until his junior year but was a two-time Greater Western Ohio Conference South Division Runner of the Year in cross country in 2012 and 2013. He also played basketball and baseball at Xenia.
At Cedarville University. Michalski won a Division II national championship in the steeplechase in 2017 in a school-record time of 8:44.49. He graduated in 2018 but had one more year of eligibility and transferred to Indiana University. He finished seventh in the steeplechase at the NCAA championships in 2019. A fall in that race caused him to lose the lead.
Michalski’s career did not take off fast after his college career ended. He finished 11th at his first U.S. championships in 2019. In 2020, now living in Indiana with his wife Abby, a former Cedarville University volleyball player, he was working in real estate and at Walmart during the pandemic, he told LetsRun.com.
Michalski then found a job as a coach LeTourneau University, a Division III school in Longview, Tex. He returned to competition in 2021 and finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials, missing the Olympic team by one spot. In 2024, he finished 10th in his heat in 8:34.43 at the Olympic Trials and didn’t qualify for the finals.
“It was the downest year of my post-collegiate career,” Michalski told the Associated Press on Saturday after qualifying for the finals. “This is really a big kind of slingshot forward.”
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