Victory Laps #16/American Record Holder Karissa Schweizer on a Different Kind of 2020 and Looking Ahead

If 2020 went the way Karissa Schweizer had anticipated it may go, the 24-year-old may be an Olympian by now. After all, the professional runner and member of the Bowerman Track Club was primed to dominate the outdoor track scene after setting an American Record in the 3,000m on the indoor track in February just weeks before the pandemic shut everything down and completely altered the sports world. Undeterred, Karissa and her teammates pivoted and managed to pull of some phenomenal racing despite not having actual races. Over the summer, the Bowerman Track Club put on a series of time trial events where teammates raced one another in key distance events, smashing PRs in the process. In one of those time trials, Karissa and her teammate Shelby Houlihan both dipped under the 5,000-meter American Record mark, with Shelby untimately taking the win--and the record--in 14:23. Karissa's 14:26 was a resounding statement of her fitness level and her potential to be one of the world's best in the distance events on the track.  In this conversation, we talk about how 2020 went from the season that wasn't to the season that surprised Karissa the most, as well as how her life has changed since stepping into the shoes of a professional athlete including her approach to nutrition. And, she shares one big thing she did recently that even her coach doesn't know about. Thanks to Karissa for joining me on Victory Laps!