Elle St Pierre grew up on a dairy farm in Montgomery, Vermont. When the Olympic 1500m runner graduated college and joined New Balance Boston, a professional running team based in the city, she deeply missed life on the farm. After a few years, she came to a compromise with coach Mark Coogan: she would come to Boston for key workouts, but Vermont – specifically, her high school sweetheart turned husband Jamie St Pierre’s family dairy farm – was home.
“If she puts her mind to something in a race or a workout, she usually gets it done,” says Coogan.
Focusing on workouts comes naturally to St Pierre, and so did the pull of motherhood. In 2022, she stepped off the path followed by most superstar college athletes: in the prime of her career, having broken two American indoor records on the track and finished 10th in the 1500m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she announced that she and Jamie were expecting their first child.
“Making that decision was just me following my heart,” St Pierre said over the phone at the end of July, just six days before she was due to compete in the first round of the women’s 1500m in Paris. “You only get one life.”
Less than a year after giving birth to her son, Ivan, she claimed her first world title, an indoor 3000m victory. In post-race interviews, Ivan stole the show as he happily pulled the microphone toward himself.
“I feel just like a different person and a different athlete,” she told me. “It just makes my priorities different.”
St Pierre talked about her training, other mothers in the running world, and how her second Olympics would feel. The conversation also turned to her son, who like all young children brings his fair share of daily drama. “Ivan won’t eat the shepherd’s pie I prepared,” she said, laughing. “He keeps shaking his head.”
Despite these hiccups, motherhood has brought calm to St Pierre’s training and racing.
“Ivan’s most important and my family’s most important, and that’s more clear after becoming a mom. And it makes me feel like I’m not just defined by who I am as a runner,” she said.
When St Pierre stood on the track before the Olympic 1500m final on 10 August, she knew she was ready. She’d done workouts in the lead-up to Paris that she’d never been able to do before. Whatever happened on the track, she’d still be happy off-track.
“[My goal is] a medal, but also to be proud of myself for making it here,” she said.
When the field of runners ran the first 400m in under 60 seconds, a faster tempo than world-record pace, St Pierre went with it.
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“Once I saw the split, I knew that was too fast, but it was kind of too late at that point,” she said.
As St Pierre crossed the line in eighth place, she put her hands behind her head, and looked up into the sky, gasping for breath. She didn’t get the medal she came for, but she doesn’t have any regrets.
“I always knew that I would be more happy if I tried to run the pace than if I didn’t and came up short. I would rather try to give myself a chance,” she said.
She’d had the courage to put herself on sport’s grandest stage because she knew her family were there.
“You’re so vulnerable in the race and everything’s really high-stress, and it seems like the most important thing,” said St Pierre when I spoke to her three days after the race. She was already back at the farm in Vermont, her Team USA uniform replaced by mud-splattered work clothes. “And then you’re just back to being a normal person and with your family. That’s pretty nice, to be honest.”