Sean McGorty - The Riddles of Adversity
"Ultimately, I just believed that I would become the best runner I could possibly be under Jerry and as a part of Bowerman"
Sean McGrorty today runs for the Bowerman Track Club, but on his journey to compete with one of the best track teams in the world there were multiple struggles along the way. From the time when he was disqualified in a meet in high school to a terrible year long injury in college, McGrorty has gone through plenty.
During his first few years of high school running, Sean McGorty was not sure if running would be for him, so he made sure to have a back up plan. “I went all in on running heading into my sophomore year, but still believed if I ended up not liking it I'd have time to get back into soccer to hopefully play in college. But, I never looked back after my sophomore year.” After a strong sophomore year of high school, McGorty would start to show his potential, but it was not smooth sailing. “I'd say one of my biggest struggles in high school came during my junior year indoor track season. I was running the 1600m at the state meet and while I won the race and what would have been my first state title, I was DQ'ed.” Having been disqualified after the race that he thought he had won, “I was devastated. To me, it felt like my first title had been ripped away.” This was rough for him, McGorty felt he had done nothing wrong but little did he know that this race was going to be one of the least important struggles in his running career. To add fire to the issue, “I also had to deal with the fact that my teammate ended up getting second in that race, so he was given the state title. Having been our top runner since my sophomore year, that was hard for me to grasp.” After getting over this moment, Sean McGorty would go on to have a successful high school career which would lead to him signing on to run for the Stanford Cardinals.
Moving across the country can be a big transition whether it is for school, sports, work or a combination of multiple, Sean McGorty would find some challenges along the way. McGorty right away would enjoy the new environment, saying, “Moving out to the west coast was a big change, but I feel like I handled that part of the transition well. I also was fortunate to be part of a great incoming class, and all the guys clicked and meshed really well together.” Having a great group of teammates along his side, McGorty would see early success in his running. “Through the summer and the beginning of the cross-country season, training was going really well. While we originally planned to redshirt the season, I ran well unattached at our home meet (The Stanford Invite), so we made the decision that I would race for the team. I ran really well at Pre-Nats, finishing 5th overall, but from that point on the season was a struggle.” With expectations starting to build on McGorty, things would start to fall apart for him in the second half of the cross-country season. “I would DNF at our conference meet in Colorado two weeks later and at NCAAs I would fall apart the second half of the race to finish in the 160s or 170s … but I think it was a combination of fatigue from training harder than I ever had and the way I was approaching races mentally.” As everything was starting to fall apart on the cross-country course, it would transition into his classes as well. “Throughout high school, I'd done very well in school and typically, was never one to ask for help. So my first quarter at Stanford when I began to struggle in a math class, instead of reaching out to get help, I struggled in silence and fell behind in the class. By the time our final came around I was not in a good position at all with the material we'd learned and I ended up not passing the class.” This experience in his first semester was a big learning curve for Sean McGorty, “But I was able to learn a lot and bounce back from that first quarter.” Having learned these lessons was good to get out of the way in his freshman year because he would face worst scenarios in the coming years.
After placing more pressure then needed in his first season, Sean McGorty would learn how to handle pressure better whether external or internal. “I'd say after that first cross country season I became better overall with pressure. There were still a few races during my sophomore year when I was too results driven and it would blow up a little in my face, but for the most part I began to rethink how I approached races and also improve how I handled pressure whether it was external/internal.” Having learned from his freshman season, McGorty implemented new methods to control his emotions when it came to pressure. “As far as handling external pressure, I would just learn to block out what I would read or hear. The only things that mattered before the race was what my coach and I thought was my best plan of action.” Having overcome the issues that held him back in his freshman year, him and his teammates would enjoy the benefits in McGorty’s sophomore season. “I was fortunate enough to be apart of some talented teams while I was at Stanford and my sophomore year we placed 2nd at NCAAs in cross country. … To be a part of that team and to get Stanford back on the podium was such a special season.” Having improved greatly mentally and physically, McGorty was now standing on the podium with his teammates at the National Championship
After a successful sophomore season where he saw great growth in his running and the Cardinal team, McGorty would start to have injury issues. “The biggest struggle I had to overcome during college though was my right achilles injury/surgery. During the outdoor track season of my junior year I began to have pain in my right achilles. At the time I only really talked about it with my dad. … I wouldn't feel it all the time and it was definitely manageable, but that all changed at the 2016 Olympic Trials. After the 5000m final, I started to feel my achilles all the time. But instead of being honest with my coach, I trained through the summer and ran that cross country season. It was dumb and definitely limited my performance. After Thanksgiving break I got an MRI which showed I had tearing in my achilles and a bone growth called Haglunds.” Having ran through the injury for several months at this point, Sean McGorty would be sidelined for a while. “I spent 5-6 weeks in a walking boot and then the rest of the indoor track season trying to get back into shape, but I was still having pain in my achilles.” This small negging pain did not stop McGorty from competing; “Outdoor season came along and I was able to run at Payton Jordan in the 1500, but didn't run very well since my training was still very limited by my achilles.” After a disappointing performance, he was hoping for a better one at the conference championship, but that would not come. “I got food poisoning before PAC-12s and couldn't race so that ended my college season, but we were still going to try to race some unattached.” Following the food poisoning though Mcgorty would not get that chance to race again that season. “However my achilles just wasn't getting better so we got another MRI and decided I needed to have surgery to remove the bone growth. I flew out to Colorado and had surgery with Dr. Hunt on June 21st. … The recovery was two weeks non weight bearing, another two weeks in a walking boot, and two more weeks of just walking before I could run on the alter-G.” This was tough for Sean McGorty after having to deal with the injury for several months, he would now have to sit out for multiple more months without running.
The issue would not stop after that surgery though, only a few weeks into building back his mileage he would have another injury. “Then I was hit with more bad luck when I got a stress fracture in my calcaneus before I'd even hit 20 miles of running again. While I was supposed to be non weight bearing, I fell on my crutches and landed on my foot which I think caused this to happen. So that stress fracture meant right when I got back to campus in the fall of my 5th year I was back in a boot.” After missing the fall season, McGorty was looking promising for the indoor track season. “I worked back into fitness and was able to run the DMR at NCAAs in indoors. Kept on working throughout the entire spring season and was blessed to have the fairytale ending!” Following the indoor season, McGorty was fully healthy and ready to take the NCAA by storm on the Outdoor track. “Two of my favorite individual races would be the 2016 MPSF Indoor Mile and then 2018 NCAA Outdoor 5k. Running 3:53 at MPSF was a moment I'll always remember and the 2018 NCAA Outdoor 5k was my last college race, so to win, especially after coming back from achilles surgery was a storybook ending” Finishing on a high note was massive, Sean McGorty had amazing personal bests to his name and a National title.
With College finishing up, McGorty was given the opportunity to turn professional, but this process had begun well before he won a national title. “I was very lucky that my coach and parents were quite helpful with explaining the process of turning professional. During my indoor track season I began to talk with some of the track & field agents.” With the support of his coach and parents, agents had begun to discuss some surface level information that would be helpful for the future. “These conversations were mostly just about them expressing interest. Then in outdoor track, I was able to meet with them before different meets and get to know them personally and how they operated as an agent.” With an array of different agents wanting to represent McGorty, he would make his decision. “Once I had gathered enough information, I made the decision to sign with Tom Ratcliffe and Kimbia Athletics.” With that said Sean McGorty continues, “The agent is really key, because they help with a lot of the communication with the specific running brands/teams.” With agent discussion and his final season at Stanford coming to an end, it was now time to find a brand and team to represent.
Going into the decision of which team and brand he wanted to be apart of, there were two teams that stood out for Sean McGorty. “Ever since my freshmen year of high school I had always thought running for Bowerman and Jerry would be amazing. It was my dream.” The other team McGorty was interested in was more new to the sport, “During the outdoor season I had begun to talk with Jerry, but I was also talking with Chris Fox and Reebok. Fox actually coached my mom for a season at UNC and they spoke very highly of him. He also coached Justyn Knight who I competed with throughout my entire college career.” Both groups brought something different to the table but one team would stand out to McGorty. “Tom & Alistair Cragg spoke with both companies to work on contracts. It took longer than I thought it would to finalize the contracts, but I think it being an "off year" played a part. In August though, I signed with Nike and joined Bowerman.” This decision he says came down to “Ultimately, I just believed that I would become the best runner I could possibly be under Jerry and as a part of Bowerman.” With the decision behind Sean McGorty he could now focus on what was ahead for him in his running career.
This story began with a young Sean McGorty that was not fully sure if running was for him, keeping a back up option with soccer. Now years later, with many ups and downs along the journey, McGorty is running professionally for Bowerman Track Club and Nike. Like many runners the pathway to success was not smooth but Sean McGorty was able to learn from each new experience to help himself get better.
Direct quotes via email from Sean McGorty to Evan Smith. (May 2020)
Photos via Getty Images.