Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Sam Gilman, an Air Force lieutenant, joins the World Class Athlete Program to train in Park City.
- He aims to make the World Championship team, and go to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
- Coach Mike Scannell praises Gilman's attitude and recent significant improvements in performance.
PARK CITY — Pro-runner Sam Gilman is moving to Park City to train with the best through the Air Force's World Class Athlete Program, after erupting onto the professional scene this year.
The former Air Force Academy athlete was "a pretty good college runner," Robert Johnson, founder of news site LetsRun, told KSL.com. And then, "all of a sudden, I mean it's crazy. He makes the worlds team, gaining on the world's greatest runner," Norweigian Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Coming off a bronze at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in February, Gilman ran a 7 minute, 34.69 second personal best in Boston the following week, which was just off the automatic qualifying time of 7:31.00 for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, according to Johnson.
Luckily, some runners dropped out, and Gilman was able to race the 3,000 meter in March. In a sport where "it's not very hard to find out who's the best," Johnson said, the results of that race were "wild."
One of the fastest men in the world, 24-year-old Ingebrigtsen beat out Olympic silver medalist Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia. A second later, in nearly a photo finish, Australian Ky Robinson leaned over the line 0.1 seconds before Gilman.
"I know everyone's freaking out about his fourth at worlds," Gilman's coach, Mike Scannell, told KSL.com. "But we just started. We just started."
'A spectacular improvement'
Gilman still holds a number of records at the Air Force Academy, where he says it was like being "under a microscope. Somebody's always looking at you, making sure you're not doing wrong," in a good way.
But he was a big fish in a medium sized pond, finishing 15th his senior year in the 5,000 meter at the NCAA championship. Gilman's first application for the Air Force's World Class Athlete Program was denied, but he said he thought "there's still something here. It would be a little silly of me to just give this dream up now, because I put so much into it."
This has been so exciting to watch because "this is not the way it normally works," Johnson said. "Usually NCAA champs are battling for medals."
Scannell called Gilman's progress "a spectacular improvement."
Since Gilman graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2023, he has been working on the production team for the MH-139A Grey Wolf at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio full time, while running 90 to 95 miles a week.
He was sponsored by New Balance at the end of his senior year, and has been traveling to meets through a military program allowing for permissive leave to participate in sporting events.
"I'll wake up early and do a hard session on the treadmill or track in the morning before I go to work, and then do another session after work," Gilman said on Friday. He was half packed up, and ready to hit the road for Utah.
"If I were to guess, a lot of people wouldn't desire my lifestyle right now, which is OK. It's what I love to do, and it's my dream," he said.
"It's been very challenging the past 1 1/2, two years here, doing it all alone," he said. "It's been very monotonous, going at it all alone by myself."
In September 2024, Gilman was "looking for a change," according to Scannell. The Nike coach is a somewhat mysterious figure in the sport, who became well known after his longtime pupil Grant Fisher became the first American to medal in the 5,000 meter and the 10,000 meter at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Fisher is currently in top form, just setting a world indoor record in New York's Millrose Games, overtaking Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker. At the Boston meet Gilman raced, Fisher broke the short track world record for the 5,000 meter.
"(Gilman) was looking for a change. He was looking for some more guidance," according to Scannell. "He was kind of on his own, and he called me and we sat on the phone for a few minutes. ... I didn't ask him much about how fast he had run or how fast he thinks he could run. There was no discussion on his potential. I never even asked that."
"All I really wanted to know from (Gilman), if I was gonna take him on — 'How motivated are you to do it right? How motivated are you to do the workouts properly?'
"I do not take on new athletes very often or very easily," Scannell said. "I listened to (Gilman's) story, and I said, 'OK, Sam, I'll do it. Let's get to work.'"
Road to Utah
A "nonnegotiable" for Scannell when coaching a pro is altitude. Fisher moved to Park City in 2023 to train, and now Gilman will be working the track up in Summit County.
Gilman will be supported full time by the World Class Athlete Program, and his days of relative isolation are over. "Getting fourth at Worlds opens a lot of doors," Scannell said.
For Gilman, that door is Utah's Run Elite Program, which includes the state's brightest prospects like Olympians Clayton Young, Conner Mantz, Whittni Morgan, Kenneth Rooks, and others. "People try to say it's not really a team sport, but I think it's very much a team sport," Gilman said, exited that "there's gonna be guys all over that I can mix up with."
That includes Grant Fisher, and their shared coach Scannell, who made it very clear that, despite the rumors, they are not "training partners."
Gilman has "very aggressive goals," according to his coach. First, they are aiming to make the World Championship team. After that, Gilman said he's aiming for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
"Every year, I get a little closer and closer," Gilman said.
"The No. 1 factor that Gilman has on his side is his attitude," Scannell said. "His attitude to get better and do the training properly ... honestly, that's what's gonna make Gilman a great runner."
