Matt Wilkinson takes improbable journey from Carleton to the Gophers to Olympic doorstep

Matt Wilkinson’s mother would watch him play Little League Baseball and marvel at how his running stride resembled a gazelle. She’d tell people that maybe her son would become a distance runner someday.

The track coach at Minnetonka High had one nitpick with his pupil: Wilkinson would constantly jump over fences during training runs. Stop doing that, his coach would say, before concluding that maybe Wilkinson should try steeplechase someday.

Both mom and coach proved prophetic. Wilkinson did, too, based on a statement he made a few days before lining up to race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. track and field Olympic trials in Oregon last weekend.

“I really feel like I belong with this group of athletes,” he told his parents, Amy and Todd.

His second-place finish confirmed that, and now the guy who didn’t even qualify for the state track meet once in high school is headed to Paris to compete in the Olympics.

Technically, Wilkinson hasn’t earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team just yet, but he said it’s “99.9 percent” certain that his spot will be confirmed on July 7 when the team is announced, based on his world ranking. Two other clues: Wilkinson is leaving for Europe on Sunday to train with his Olympic teammates, and he’s already been measured for the Ralph Lauren outfits that U.S. athletes will wear at the opening ceremony.

Wilkinson’s rise in steeplechase is a quintessential Olympic tale of an athlete turning ordinary beginnings into a pinnacle achievement.

The oldest of three boys, Wilkinson tried various sports growing up, but he wasn’t a standout athlete.

“My husband and I used to joke, ‘Well, at least he’s smart, so that will carry him,’ ” Amy said.

Jeff Renlund was Wilkinson’s P.E. teacher at Excelsior Elementary starting in third grade. Renlund still remembers Wilkinson finishing middle of the pack in the mile run as a fifth-grader. Nothing eye-opening, but “I could tell he liked to run,” Renlund said.

Wilkinson made the freshman B team in basketball at Minnetonka primarily because he was strong in sprints at tryouts and brought a lot of positive energy.

“He was a light bulb,” his mom said.

His athletic light bulb illuminated on the track. Renlund also serves as Minnetonka High’s track and cross-country coach. He saw something special in Wilkinson as a freshman when he kept pace with seniors in training.

Renlund and his assistant, the legendary Steve Hoag, who died in 2017, used to stand alongside the track with their stopwatches, amazed by Wilkinson’s strength as a runner.

“He did some workouts that made it look a lot easier than it was supposed to be,” Renlund said.

Even so, Wilkinson never qualified for the state track meet as a distance runner, though he earned a spot in the state cross-country meet multiple times. He drew little attention from Division I programs and enrolled at Carleton College primarily because of academics and his interest in pre-med curriculum.

It was in Northfield at Division III that Wilkinson found his true love for running. Carleton coach Dave Ricks came to the same conclusion as Renlund about trying Wilkinson in the steeplechase after watching him jump over fences and snowbanks on runs.

Steeplechase is a distance event that features 28 barriers and seven water pit jumps. Ricks describes Wilkinson as a “bouncy kid” but also credits his “visual acuity” in being able to properly judge the barriers.

Wilkinson calls himself a classic late bloomer who experienced “linear growth” as a runner. He shaved 10 seconds off his time year after year.

“If you keep doing that,” he said, “you’ll end up getting pretty good.”

He got good.

He became a two-time Division III national champion at Carleton and both the indoor and outdoor national track athlete of the year.

His success allowed him to continue his postgraduate career with the Gophers. He won multiple Big Ten titles and was named the 2023 Big Ten Athlete of the Championships.

He turned pro and moved to Arizona to train last September. Now he’s headed to his first Olympic Games.

Wilkinson’s expression as he crossed the finish line at the Olympic trials became a viral image: His eyes and mouth opened as wide as humanly possible, a frozen look of astonishment.

He spotted his brother, girlfriend and former coach standing near the line in tears. His cheering section in Oregon was too large to count, including family members, strangers and “every athlete that had ran at a Division III institution ever,” said Ricks, the Carleton coach.

A local running store held a watch party for his races. His mother received congratulatory messages from his former pediatrician and his fourth-grade teacher.

“I’m just overwhelmed with how sweet people are,” Amy said.

Wilkinson hopes to run a warmup race in Paris on July 7 and then plans to train with Olympic teammates in the Swiss Alps after that until the opening ceremony.

That is a long way from home and an even longer way from the time a kid in fifth grade finished middle of his class in the mile run but discovered joy in the activity and just kept running.

“The times where I really feel that I’m in the right place and at home is when I’m at a track meet,” he said. “I can’t ever really see giving that up fully.”