Birthday: 05/03/96 Mile PR: 4:24.11 (indoors) - 2014 (U.S. Junior record)
Metric Mile (1500m) PR: 4:04.62 - 2013
High School: Bronxville HS '14
Hometown: Bronxville, NY
College: Fordham University
Current Residence: New York, NY
Mary Cain, as of February 16, 2024, represents Ireland for athletics competitions.
After a series of setbacks, no longer competes as a professional runner. She is CEO & Founder of Atalanta NYC, a nonprofit that employs professional female runners to mentor young girls in the community.
In 2014, she produced a banner year with a near World Junior indoor Mile record, clocking 4:24.11, a personal record and Massachusetts state record, at the John Thomas Terrier Invitational in Boston on January 24. She missed the WJR by .01 seconds, but crushed her U.S. Junior Mile record by 4-plus seconds. She later put a stamp on her U.S. indoor season by winning the USA Indoor Championships 1500 meters in 4:07.05, and later that summer, the teen phenom won the World Junior Championships 3000m in Eugene, Oregon.
On May 17, 2013, Cain shattered Suzy Favor Hamilton's 1987 U.S. Junior record at 1500m as well as her own U.S. high school record clocking a world class 4:04.62 at the Occidental High Performance Meet. At the USA Outdoor Championships, Cain would finish second, claiming her first senior World Championship team berth. At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, the teenager finished 10th in the 1500 meters (4:07.19).
She capped off a stellar 2013 indoor season by winning the USA Indoor Mile title at the age of 16. Earlier in the season, she clocked 4:32.78 to break Debbie Heald’s national high school indoor Mile record of 4:38.5 set 40-plus years ago; it had been the oldest U.S. high school girls’ track & field record, indoors or outdoors, and three weeks later, Mary set the U.S. HS and Junior records at the famed Millrose Games' NYRR Wanamaker Mile crossing the line in 4:28.25, not only placing her second in the race, but also becoming the 42nd U.S. women to break 4:30 (and only female high schooler). At the 2013 Drake Relays, the teen phenom and honor student also broke her U.S. high school 1500 meter record with her 4:10.77, good for sixth place overall in the Open race.
Mary's 4:28.25, a U.S. Junior record, was the fastest Mile run by an American woman in 2013, and she joins Jim Ryun (1966-67) and Alan Webb (2001) as the only teenagers to top the U.S. Mile list for the year. In 2014, Mary's U.S. Junior record 4:24.11 was the fastest women's Mile for the year and thus Mary Cain (2013-14) and Jim Ryun (1965-66) are the only teenagers to have led the U.S. Mile list for a given year more than once.
As a sophomore in 2012, Cain also set the then U.S. high school record at 1500 meters when she clocked 4:11.01 finishing sixth at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
In November 2013, Cain, 17 at the time, who was coached by marathon great Alberto Salazar, turned professional, and in October 2016, she left the Nike Oregon Project to stay on the east coast (also a full time student at Fordham University) and be coached by John Henwood.
“Companies are responsible for the behavior of their managers, Nike’s job was to ensure that Salazar was not neglecting and abusing the athletes he coached.”
By Jeff Manning, The Oregonian / OregonLive
Mary Cain, the promising distance runner whose career fizzled after what she has described...
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“When you have these kinds of good girls, girls who are good at following directions to the point of excelling, you’ll find a system that’s happy to take them. And it’s rife with abuse.”
By Lindsay Crouse, New York Times
At 17, Mary Cain was already a record-breaking phenom: the fastest girl...
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Healthy after persistent injuries, the 23-year-old broke the tape at the Japan Run 4 Mile road race in Central Park
By Hailey Middlebrook, Runner's World
On Sunday, May 12, a familiar face in the running scene came charging through Central Park: former high school phenom Mary Cain, who broke...
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"Yeah, I think just in that I learned what I should and shouldn’t expect as a runner and I learned what I can and can’t balance as an athlete in terms of training, expectations, and experiences and all that sort of stuff."
By Jonathan Gault, LetsRun.com
On Wednesday afternoon, Mary Cain...
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"At the end of the day, she's 20-years-old and going up against three medalists in the peak of their careers."
By Nancy Haggerty, The Journal News
Mary Cain, the former Bronxville High School runner who turned pro while still in high school, will have to wait another four years for a crack at...
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Junior world champion and U.S. Mile record holder discusses in detail her earlier struggles and new found love of running.
By Chris Lotsbom, Race Results Weekly
Signing autographs and posing for pictures after placing third in the Mayor’s Cup Cross Country meet in Boston on Sunday, Mary Cain...
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A quick look at the record-setting teen phenom’s career highlights.
By Scott Douglas, Runner's World
Not since Alan Webb was a high school Miler has a teen runner garnered as much attention as Mary Cain.
Now a 19-year-old college sophomore, Cain started to become known when she set the U.S....
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Teen phenom will stay in New York to train and study, but remains a member of Nike Oregon Project
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Mary Cain, the middle distance teen track star who turned pro in 2013 while still in high school, is remaining in the New York area instead of returning to...
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A freshman year of college is a time of change and transformation in many ways. My educated guess is that Cain is in the midst of the process, and it has impacted her running.
By Ken Goe, The Oregonian
For three days last week, photographer Tom Boyd and I shadowed the Nike Oregon Project...
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“The sooner I go through these growing pains, the better off I’ll be in the long run.”
By Elizabeth Weil, The New York Times Magazine
Mary Cain stood near the starting line with 31 other high-school girls at a track in Greensboro, N.C., in June 2011, waiting to run in the national...
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"I love the Mile. I feel that practically I'm a bit smarter in it, a lot more experienced. I also know that this is going to be a really fast race, a really good race."
By Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports
NEW YORK — Like most college students, Mary Cain's class schedule as a freshman chemistry...
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108th NYRR Millrose Games, set for Saturday, Feb.14, draws stellar international fields with past champions for storied race
NEW YORK — Eight-time champion Bernard Lagat of Tucson, AZ, and New York native and defending champion, Mary Cain, 18, of Portland, OR, will star in the NYRR Wanamaker...
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"I’m welcoming the idea that people will be thinking of me as Mary Cain the professional, not Mary Cain the high schooler.”
By Marc Bloom, Running Times
Poised to run her first major race of the outdoor season in this weekend’s USA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, California, Mary Cain...
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"At this point, I just kind of roll with it. I don't really know what to expect these next few years. And I kind of like that. I kind of like it being a little bit of a mystery. For me and for everybody."
By John Jeansonne, Newsday
So not everything and everyone are in Mary Cain's rearview...
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A year later, "Cainsanity" is still very much alive and well at the Armory.
By Megan Hetzel, Runner's World
When Mary Cain stepped onto the Armory track on Saturday afternoon sporting a black Nike Oregon Project singlet, then ran a patient first half in the chase pack before unleashing her...
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What to expect when the two teens meet in the elite women’s Wanamaker Mile on Saturday.
By Marc Bloom, Running Times
Anyone who watched Mary Cain win the New Balance 1000m in Boston last Saturday has to wonder what Alexa Efraimson was thinking about that performance. Efraimson will be making...
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Three-time Olympian Nick Willis and USA champion Morgan Uceny also among top competitors
NEW YORK — Moscow World Championships silver medalist Matthew Centrowitz and teenage track sensation Mary Cain will headline the NYRR Wanamaker Mile fields at the NYRR Millrose Games on Saturday, February...
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Mary Cain, inaugural Bring Back the Mile Tour, 63% increase in Mile prize purses, U.S. high schoolers shine and more highlight banner year
By Ryan Lamppa, Bring Back the Mile
As the year draws to a close, it is time to recognize and celebrate the numerous highlights, historic achievements and...
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Q&A with teen Mile record-setter and her future plans
From Oregon Project
1: What is you best memory of this past summer in Europe?
MARY CAIN: Getting to compete in the World Championships was my best memory from this summer! I got to accomplish a huge dream of mine and had a blast doing...
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Record-setter signed by firm that represents Usain Bolt; "This is the best way for me to continue to develop as an athlete."
By Brian Heyman, The Journal News
The college recruiting chase to land Mary Cain’s fast-moving legs has ended. The 17-year-old track phenomenon from Bronxville is...
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Record-setting year for teen phenom included 10th place finish at World Championships in Moscow and fastest 2013 Mile by a U.S. woman
By Brian Heyman, The Journal News
Mary Cain’s eye-catching, record-setting work on the track this year has brought her another prestigious honor.
The...
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Mary Cain joined host Regis Philbin on "Crowd Goes Wild", a new show on Fox Sports. Cain, the teenage track phenom from New York and fresh off her first World Championship appearance, took on 'School Runnings,' which pit her on a treadmill challenge to answer high-school level questions at 12mph....
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U.S. Junior 1500 and Mile record holder writes about her experiences at first senior World Championships in Moscow
By Mary Cain
I can honestly say that the 2013 World Championships in Moscow was the greatest experience of my life. This year, I have been blessed to attend some pretty amazing...
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Teen phenom already looking forward to the 2015 world meet
By Mary Nicole Nazzaro, Runner's World
It's way too early to compare U.S. phenom Mary Cain to, say, any other famous American middle-distance runners named Mary. Her name is Cain, not Decker Slaney, and she's 17-years-old and just had...
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Teenager Mary Cain 10th in women's 1500 meter final in Moscow
By Nick Zaccardi, NBC Sports
Jenny Simpson won one of three silver medals for the U.S. at the World Track & Field Championships on Thursday in a 1500 meter final where 17-year-old Mary Cain finished a respectable 10th.
The 1500...
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"When I grow up I want to be Mary Cain." - Nick Symmonds, newly minted 800m silver medalist; women's 1500m final, Thursday, August 15
By Karen Rosen, Special for USA TODAY
MOSCOW –The future of U.S. middle-distance running is 17-years-old, uses words like "gosh" and "geez" and yet is so race...
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At 17, Cain is the youngest woman to run the 1500 meters Sunday at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
By Sara Germano, Wall Street Journal
Mary Cain's schedule on Sunday will differ from that of every other high school kid in New York or even the whole U.S.
At 17, Cain is the youngest...
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Just 17, the self-described nerd from Bronxville High, N.Y. has emerged as the fastest young female middle-distance running in U.S. history; now she'll take on the best Open runners at the World Championships this August in Moscow
By Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
In some distant, imagined...
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Teen phenom finishes USA 1500 meter runner-up to training partner Treniere Moser with sub-58 second final lap; youngest U.S. athlete to make a Worlds team
By Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
DES MOINES, Iowa -- There will soon be a powerful urge in the world of U.S. track and field to envision...
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Can 17-year-old record setter earn first Team USA senior berth for World Championships in Moscow?
From AP wire
DES MOINES, Iowa — In many ways, Mary Cain is just your typical high school kid, taking great pride in getting her yearbook signed by all her friends and asking to go to a water...
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Teenage runner on record-breaking pace competing at USA Outdoor track championships
By Philip Hersh, Chicago Tribune
DES MOINES, Iowa — Among the first words out of Mary Cain's mouth Thursday was "Moscow."
That said it all.
Here was Cain, having just run her first-ever race at the USA...
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Teen Mile phenom to run USA 1500 for ticket to World Championships in Moscow
By Jack Pfeifer, ArmoryTrack.com
All of the American stars converge on Des Moines, Iowa, this week for the USA Outdoor T&F Championships, but despite the presence of dozens of Olympians, medalists and recordholders,...
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Top 1500 meter rival Brenda Martinez will focus on 800 at USA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Yesterday, Brenda Martinez composed the tweet heard 'round the American women’s middle-distance running world: “After speaking it over with my coaches. Decided...
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The Dual is a two-person discussion about issues surrounding the world of running and track and field. This week, Jesse and Kevin topic discuss whether distance prodigy Mary Cain should run professionally or compete in college.
By Kevin Sully, Daily Relay
Kevin
Disclaimer: First, I think...
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Another high school record at 1500 meters
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Mary Cain took more than six seconds off her U.S. high school 1500 meter record on Friday night at the USATF Oxy High Performance meet in California, clocking 4:04.62 and achieving an “A” qualifying standard for...
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By Brett Hoover, Armory Track
Don't leave Mary Cain alone with your records. She is sure to shatter them.
Tonight at the Oxy High Performance meet in Los Angeles, the 17-year-old had her most stunning moment yet. And that is no easy task.
Running with a group of professionals, Cain went from...
By Jane McManus, ESPN
BRONXVILLE, N.Y. -- Mary Cain was at an impasse in 2012. At 15, she was being recognized in the running community for her speed, but her passion for the sport had stalled. The pressure of expectations had sapped some of the fun.
As she watched the London Olympics with...
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16-year-old defeats field of pros in tactical race; Leer clocks fastest indoor Mile at altitude
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Against a field of pros at the USA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque on Sunday, 16-year-old Mary Cain elected to “keep it slow and kick it out” in the women’s...
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Meet runs Friday through Sunday in Albuquerque.
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
The USA Indoor Track & Field Championships begin in Albuquerque today and extend through Sunday. In the middle-distance and distance events—the men’s and women’s 800, Mile, and 3000 meters—there are two main...
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By Ken Goe, The Oregonian
Alberto Salazar has teenage running prodigy Mary Cain slotted into the 800 meters at the USA Indoor Championships for a reason.
The three-day meet begins Friday in the Albuquerque Convention Center. The 16-year-old Cain will be mixing it up with post-collegians...
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By Joe Battaglia for the IAAF
NEW YORK, USA - As the pulsating stadium anthem reverberated through the 168th Street Armory in Upper Manhattan, Mary Cain punched the sides of her legs with clenched fists and whispered, “Come on!” to herself as she turned back toward the starting line.
While...
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She has the fastest Mile time of the year among entrants for March 2-3 indoor championships.
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Mary Cain has entered the 800-meter run and the Mile at the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, to be held March 2 and 3 in Albuquerque. The 16-year-old...
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Former prep record holder says current prep record holder will benefit from collegiate running.
By Peter Gambaccini, Runner's World
Jordan Hasay has been where 2013 indoor track sensation Mary Cain is right now.
Cain, of course, is the Bronxville, New York high school junior who is the...
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By Barbara Huebner, NYRR News Service
It didn’t take Mary Cain long to start looking ahead to the NYRR Wanamaker Mile.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of good competition,” said Cain on Saturday night, soon after obliterating the U.S. high school indoor record for two Miles at the New...
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Junior shatters long-standing mark in girls HS indoor Mile as well as absolute mark
By Brian Heyman, LoHud.com
NEW YORK — Mary Cain sat there inside Scarsdale High at 7:45 Saturday morning, Jan. 26, just another kid in the room taking the SATs until 12:30pm.
Busy day. Shortly before 4:00pm,...
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By Brett Hoover, Armory Track
Saturday's New Balance Games bring together the best of the high schoolers as well as some sensational elite fields. Yet the headliner will be a high school junior phenom who will be trying to beat the elites.
Mary Cain of Bronxville, N.Y. — who ran a...
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By John Brant, Runner's World
For Mary Cain, it began with a hero-worship photo-op at the Olympic Trials last June. For Alberto Salazar, it began later in the summer, when he watched a YouTube video on his laptop computer. From these seemingly humble seeds a potentially mighty tree has...
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Bronxville runner earns sixth place with a finish of 4:11.01
By The Journal News
Bronxville track star Mary Cain continued to shine Sunday at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, setting another United States record in the...
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By Ted Silary, Phillynews.com
PHILADELPHIA - Mary Cain has heard the story umpteen times. Oops, let's make that umpteen-and-one.
The latest retelling occurred Thursday as Cain, with her father doing the driving, rode from Bronxville, N.Y., a New York City suburb, to Franklin Field to compete...
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By Aaron Rich, MileSplit
Welcome to Track Chats 2012! We continue with distance sensation Mary Cain from Bronxville HS in New York. Mary has run 4:46.91 for One Mile and 2:06.44 for 800m. Watch out for Mary as the season rolls on!
MileSplit - When & how did you get started in track & field
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