Olympic hopeful and former Duck Alexi Pappas, who recently announced that she would be using her newly acquired Greek citizenship to compete for Greece, set out to hit the Olympic standard in the 5,000 meters at the Oregon Relays Friday night.
Running the entire last mile alone, she won the race in 15 minutes, 33 seconds, the second fastest 5,000 she has ever run, but still nine seconds short of the Olympic standard.
“You always shoot really high and have high standards for yourself but when you end up running some of the 5k alone it can be really tough to hit those standards,” she said. “I know I have it in me.”
Tara Welling of High Performance West paced Pappas through two miles before dropping out, leaving Pappas to run the last mile by herself.
While she didn’t hit the 15:24 she needed, she is optimistic about the rest of the season.
“A win is not something that was always in the cards for me, so winning and running almost a PR and opening a season like that in an Olympic year is a pretty big W for me,” she said. “It bodes well for the 10K, which is my primary event.”
Pappas is chasing the Olympic standard in both events and will run the 10,000 at the Payton Jordan Invitational next month. Despite having already run the Olympic standard of 32:15 in the 10K, Pappas needs to hit this standard again as a Greek citizen for it to qualify.
“Which is fair and good,” she said. “And I’ll do it.”
Since announcing her Greek citizenship in late February, Pappas has really begun to embrace her Greek heritage.
She recently participated in the Shamrock Shuffle, an 8,000-meter race in Chicago.
“It was so fun because there was this whole big Greek community there I was introduced to,” she said. While at the event Pappas met a little girl and her family who were from Rhodes, Greece, the same island she is from. Because she didn’t have any of her friends or family there, Pappas gave away her elite tent passes to this girl and her family.
“So I spent time with this adorable girl and her family after the race, and that became kind of my extended family there, in that sense I think my community and my reach is expanding already.”
For Pappas, the decision to compete for Greece is about more than just making the Olympics. It’s about competing and proudly representing her home country.
