Citius Mag Podcast

“I’m honestly so happy to get back to this level of running and feeling healthy running again and feeling like myself again. U.S. Champs was one of the most rewarding races of my career, honestly. With everything that I had been through the last four years, the deep, deep belief in myself never went away but there was a lot of doubt that I couldn’t get past until I finally had the race result to prove it to me. That was that race. It did a lot for my confidence for the rest of the season for sure.” My guest for this episode is American record holder, Olympic silver medalist and world championship bronze medalist Evan Jager of the Nike Bowerman Track Club. I had him on as a guest back in 2019 as part of a panel with his teammates but this is the first time that he’s on as a guest solo. Things are much different now. He missed much of the last four years due to injury but clawed his way back in 2022 to qualify for the World Championships with a runner-up finish at the USATF Outdoor Championships in June. He mad

"That record has been the monkey on my back for a long time. I always knew that I had the capability as an athlete to get there but I often wondered if I would be able to reach my full potential and actually do it. To finally do it was special but to be able to share that moment with Sonia (O'Sullivan) was really cool." Kyle Merber and I had a blast chatting with New Balance star Ciara Mageean. She was on a tear the past two months and won a silver medal in the 1500m at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games. She won the Brussels Diamond League women’s 1500m in 3:56.63 to smash the Irish national record. She went on to finish second in the Diamond League final behind our previous guest Faith Kipyegon. She is a 12-time Irish national champion and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. We touch on how she’s been able to handle the pressure of being a national star at a young age and the injuries that came along the way to finally being great. We had great craic so we hope you enjoy this episo

“At the moment, the 1500 meters is a competitive race. Starting this year was crazy with 3:52 and 3:50. It’s our generation now. When the upcoming generation is coming, I think it will be lowered to 3:48. Hopefully next year, I’m hoping to run 3:49 and hopefully the next generation will lower it. I think the 1500 meters is a competitive race. To go lower like 3:48 is really possible.” Faith Kipyegon is the greatest women’s 1500 meter runner of all-time. She is a two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion. She just won the 2022 Diamond League title and also clocked the second-fastest time in history this year with a 3:50.37 at the Monaco Diamond League – that’s three-tenths of a second shy of the world record. It’s coming. In this episode, we talk about just how much she wants it but also some of her roots in the sport, her motivation and what it means to her to show the world just how strong female athletes can come back after giving birth. I really enjoyed this chat with her and I hope this gets y

Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber hosted a live show with athletes from Pints and PRs Night at the NYRR RunCenter ft. The New Balance Run Hub. It was a night of free drinks, food and New Balance swag for those in attendance. We had the chance to kick it with some of the stars of Team NB. Watch on YouTube or listen to our night of fun interviews and pre-race banter. Special guests for this live show: Emma Coburn, Cory McGee, Heather MacLean, Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Adel Mechaal. Special thanks to New Balance Running and New York Road Runners! Pro races will be on Sunday from 12-1 p.m. EST. You will be able to watch the live on NBC. On Sunday night, we will be going live sometime after 7 p.m. EST on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel for some end-of-season interviews with the athletes. Subscribe to the channel and don’t miss out. Read our full race preview here: https://citiusmag.substack.com/p/2022-fifth-avenue-mile-preview

"My goal for this sport is to be remembered as someone that gave it their all on the track and never left anything. I want to be remembered for inspiring the next generation. I want to set American records. I want to set world records and just strive for the best Abdihamid can do.” Abdihamid Nur is a professional runner for Nike after a remarkable breakout year with Northern Arizona University. He was part of their NCAA cross country winning team but excelled on the track to the NCAA indoor 5000m and 3000m titles. He finished third in the NCAA outdoor 10,000m final but rebounded with a third-place finish at the U.S. Outdoor Championships to qualify for his first World Championship team. It marked the first time he got to rock the Team USA kit and that’s truly special since representation matters and his story begins in Somalia and makes stops along the way in Kenya and Egypt before he finally arrived in the United States as a kid. You’ll hear all about that, his incredible season and his hunger for more after

"My dream to see from my country is to see, in the next five years time I hope, that my country will be able to do anything in distance running – especially in track and field and in the marathons. I really hope that the kind of light that I've put will transcend into raising many champions. I've taken the lead. My brother Jacob is also taking the lead. We believe that these young people when they continue pursuing the sport with discipline, proper guidance and listening, I believe Uganda will be somewhere up there." Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei is just 25 years old and he’s already an Olympic gold medalist at 5000m and Olympic silver medalist at 10,000m. He’s a three-time world champion. At this summer’s world championships, he won the 10,000 meters and finished second to Jakob Ingebrigsten in the 5000m. Oh…and he’s also the world record holder at 5000m and 10,000 meters. In addition to all of his work on the track, Joshua Cheptegei works closely with his sponsors including Nike and the NN Running Team to give

Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber sit down with Ben Flanagan, Keira D'Amato, Marielle Hall, Colin Bennie and Patrick Tiernan after competing at the 2022 Falmouth Road Race. We were on-site to provide live updates and do our live aftershow to interview the stars of the day. D'Amato is coming off an 8th place finish at the World Championships Marathon and decided to make her Falmouth debut in grand fashion with a 36:14 victory over the seven-mile distance. She became the first American woman to win the race since Magdalena Lewy-Boulet in 2011. Ben Flanagan became just the fifth man in history to win three Falmouth Road Race titles with his 32:25 win over Biya Simbassa. He details how his competitors stayed on his heels, why this one was the most difficult one to win and what he hopes to accomplish with a few more road races scheduled soon. We also speak with Marielle Hall after her third-place showing on how she's learning more about road racing. Colin Bennie shares a bit about his new coaching venture and why he's

"I had no idea how much this meant to people. I knew how much this meant to me, Sara and Keira. For the outpouring of support, you would think that we swept the podium. It's so cool that people appreciate the performance for what it was. I think we did everything right in the race and still came up short in our eyes...We put ourselves in a position to be in contention in that race. We worked together the entire time. That's something that doesn't happen very often to find each other in a race." Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber speak with Emma Bates and Joe Klecker at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Bates finished 7th in the women's marathon in a personal best of 2:23:18. She speaks about the teamwork alongside Sara Hall and Keira D'Amato to put all three American women in the top 10 of the World Championships. She also discusses how she found her confidence and calling in the marathon now. A year after competing at the Tokyo Olympics, U.S. champion Joe Klecker returned to the global champions

"I feel like I'm at Disney World. I'm so embarrassed because I'm such a fan girl. I follow all these people on Instagram in a way that I'm like, 'I gotta get more friends...I love track. It's the most fun thing for me to watch. I'm in such awe of these athletes. I can't believe we all have the same bodies and this what they're able to do." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson chat with comedian Michelle Wolf. Before she was crushing the stand-up scene, Michelle was a jumper in high school and at William and Mary. She still runs and competes in ultra-marathons when she's not touring. During the World Athletics Championships, she worked with Hayward Magic to highlight the personalities of athletes like Athing Mu, Ryan Crouser, Grant Fisher while on the massage table. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwatch does the thinking. It even gets to know you and your body better, mile after

Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson speak with Rai Benjamin after earning a silver medal in the men's 400m hurdles. In this episode, he explains why the silver medal means so much to him in a season marred by illness and injury. He earned an Olympic silver medal last year in 46.17, which is the second-fastest time in history and the American record. He has broken 47-seconds for the 400m hurdles four times in his career. He also explains why he was blown away by Trevor Bassitt's story, who earned bronze in a personal best of 47.39. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwatch does the thinking. It even gets to know you and your body better, mile after mile and song after song. Get one for yourself here >> https://bit.ly/3Pcu0qo Article One Eyewear: Article One is an independent eyewear company based in Flint, Mich. with designers with deep roots in running. All their frames are h

"One of my favorite things to say now is that Jud (Logan) was not much of a runner in his day as a hammer thrower but he runs those races with me. I did go back and look back at the race from my fiance's angle. She recorded the race and then recorded the board. They put up Rai's time and the time between me and Rai's time, it's 15 seconds – which thinking about how instantly results pop up is a really long time. I also didn't blink. I was staring at the board and I didn't want to blink because I didn't want to miss it." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson spoke with Trevor Bassitt after he earned a bronze medal in the men's 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships. The moment came just months after the death of Ashland University's longtime head coach Jud Logan. Bassitt has been writing his own workouts for much of the year and earned a silver medal in the 400m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships back in March. He went through the whole outdoor season unsponsored but hopefully, his st

"I just came into this year, worked my tail off and worked hard. The two goals that I've had, even when we were at New Balance Indoors, I said I wanted to win the World indoor title and I wanted to come back and defend my World outdoor title. That's exactly what I did. To mark those two things off my bucket list and my things to do this season is great." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson sat down with Grant Holloway on the day after he successfully defended his 110m hurdles world championship gold medal in Eugene, Oregon. The victory came after Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica injured himself in the warmup before the final and U.S. star Devon Allen was disqualified for a false start by one-thousandth of a second (His reaction time was .099/The legal limit is .100). SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwatch does the thinking. It even gets to know you and your body bett

"It's about the iconic 1969 Mexico City Olympic Games photograph of Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the victory stand of the 200m with their fists raised, black socks and no shoes with their heads bowed during the national anthem. It's the story behind that photograph and it's an amazing story. I'm about as serious of a track fan as you can be. I think I knew about 10% of that story before we started working on it. We walk you through the fact that everyone is from San Jose State – which is so strange. San Jose State is the greatest track and field program in the world in the 1960s." Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber sit down with New York Times best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell to discuss his first trip to Eugene, Oregon for the World Championships and his latest podcast project "Legacy of Speed", which aims to tell the story of John Carlos and Tommie Smith's iconic protest at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE: https://youtu.be/8fyLuGf394g?t=9575 SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Musi

“The caption I kept seeing was ‘Women supporting women.’ … I could feel Sara Hall & Emma Bates. You know that dance move where someone throws out a fishing line? I could see them and I felt like they were reeling me in…That’s really special to have because we’re also competitors.” Chris Chavez, David Melly and Dana Giordano speak with American record holder Keira D'Amato after she finished 8th at the World Athletics Championships Marathon with just 17 days of training. The American women placed 5th, 7th and 8th with Sara Hall and Emma Bates finishing ahead of D'Amato. Keira discusses how she changed her training to get ready for the race, her plan to go up against the best in the world and then the toll the race took on her body.  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE: https://youtu.be/un5SuliQu7A?t=180 SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwatch does the thinking. It even gets to know you and y

"This moment and stuff like this means a little bit differently because of where we come from. When I was growing up, Baylor is not an easy school to get into. When my coach came with the grades, they said, 'It's gonna be hard to get you into school.' I told them, 'Look. It's either I get into school or I'm gonna be in the streets...In our culture, we don't make it out. For a situation like this, it's crazy and it's something that we want to get kids to understand that come from where we come from because you can make it out. You're looking at two people from the same type of neighborhoods now on podiums getting medals. That's the big message we try to get out across to people." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and Robert Griffin III sat down with Trayvon Bromell and Marvin Bracy the day after they earned bronze and silver medals, respectively, in the men's 100 meters at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite runn

“Personally, I never identified as just an athlete. I did sport my whole life. It was the only thing I knew but I’ve always been the kind of person that’s not necessarily that thing that I’m doing. I’ve always had other interests. For me, I was just ready and it was OK to say, ‘I did the things I tried to do as best as I could do them. Maybe there was more there and more left but that’s for somebody else now.’” In Jan. 2017, Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton announced their retirement at the prime of their respective careers at 28 years old. Ashton was coming off defending his Olympic gold medal at the Summer Games in Rio. Brianne earned a bronze medal in the heptathlon in Brazil as well. They started a family and Ashton went back to school to pursue a degree in engineering. How did the former world's greatest athlete navigate the job market and what were some of the challenges along the way?  Ashton sits down with Kyle Merber to open up about his own personal experience. They're also joined by Chri

"The athletes are great and they're the best. We do need to highlight them and not have them hidden. We need the best of the best to stand alone by themselves so that they are highlighted but we have them embedded in a much broader volume of athletes who are good. They're the best too but we need the best of the best to be right there by themselves..." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson speak with 12-time gold medalist Michael Johnson for a wide-ranging discussion assessing the state of track and field in America, globally and what can be done to improve the way things are run from the top down.  WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE: https://youtu.be/8fyLuGf394g?t=165 SUPPORT THE SPONSORS GARMIN: Music. Training. Data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is my favorite running partner. You do the running. This GPS running smartwatch does the thinking. It even gets to know you and your body better, mile after mile and song after song. Get one for yourself here >> https://bit.ly/3Pcu0qo Article One Eyewear:

"Motherhood has definitely helped me transform my own thinking in just knowing that I am strong, fierce and beautiful. Yes, your body has changed. Things changed but you can still do it...It doesn't matter if you turned 30. It doesn't matter if you're a mother. You CAN come back. You can bounce back. You can use it as an advantage and something to motivate you to dream higher, climb higher and achieve more. You're not limited by your age. It's a part of the process. That's how we have to look at it...Embrace the changes." Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and Jasmine Todd speak with 10x world champion and 3x Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce after leading the Jamaican women to a 1-2-3 sweep of the medals in the 100m at the World Championships. She also earned a silver medal in the women's 200m and 4x100m. She is one of the most-decorated track and field athletes in history and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. At 35 years old, she is the third-fastest woman ever in the 100m after running a personal best o

"We've got a world championships here. That is only the start of the story. It can not be the end of it. We had the World Juniors here in 2014 and World Indoors in 2016. We always made it really clear that we wanted the U.S. Track and Field federation to apply and successfully host a World Championships. We've done that. We've got a really interesting glidepath between now and 2028. It's going to mean creating more events like what we're trying to do with the Continental Tour. We've got more gold label races here than we've had before. There are opportunities. We've got a World Road Racing Championships in a completely new format and some American cities have shown interest in that. We need to keep our foot hard to the pedal, as they say, and continue to make those opportunities. It's important because I'm a great believer that it's competition that matters. People need to see more athletes of the stature that you have in this country in domestic meetings." Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber had the chance to speak

"When it's all over and when it's all said and done, the question becomes can we create a road map that gets us to 2028. Those kids that you're motivating are going to be the ones that have a shot at competing in 2028 or try to. We have to start that process now." USATF President Vin Lananna sat down with Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and John Anderson for CITIUS MAG Live! at the World Championships for a brief history on how Eugene, Oregon landed the 2022 World Athletics Championships, why we need to carry the momentum beyond those 10 days, the importance of activating the younger generation and the road map for the sport leading into the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Before serving as USATF President and currently the director of track and field/cross country at Virginia, Lananna was president of TrackTown USA and a crucial member is organizing the bid for the global championship.  You can watch the interview and full episode of CITIUS MAG Live on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/6Tg_lStTKe4?t=305 SUPPORT TH