Allen

One way or another, Natalia Hawthorn was going to the Olympic Games.

Inching ever so close to the Olympic standard over the past year in the women’s 5,000 metres, Hawthorn opened her 2021 season with a 15:31.27 in March in Victoria, and then in April she ran 15:18.67 at a meet in Oregon. But on May 9, with fellow Canadian Julie-Anne Staehli by her side, Hawthorn lined up for the 5,000 metres at the USATF Golden Games in California and charged to an Olympic-qualifying time (15:05.91), crushing her personal best by almost 13 seconds in the process.

Her job wasn’t done there. With only three spots available in the 5,000 metres for Canadian women, and a talented group chasing the same goal, Hawthorn knew her spot on Team Canada wasn’t a guarantee. She quickly turned her focus to the 1,500 metres, looking to also achieve the entry standard at the shorter distance.

With two solid races in the 1,500 metres under her belt, Hawthorn took to the start line at the Stumptown Twilight meet in Portland, Ore. The race came down to the wire, with not a second to spare. It was a tight race from the time the gun went off, but Hawthorn managed to pull away from the pack with 100 metres to go with an impressive finishing kick. When she crossed the finish line, the time 4:04.20 flashed across the scoreboard – she had tied the Olympic standard. As the announcer said, “the tie goes to the runner.” In that moment, Hawthorn became only the second Canadian woman to achieve the qualifying standard in the 1,500 metres, proving her time the previous week of 4:04.47 was not a fluke.

Hawthorn wouldn’t have been in the mix for the Tokyo Olympics if the Games had not been pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She opted to quit working full-time and focus on her running goals in 2019. Prior to that move, her fastest time in the 5,000 metres was 16:03.09. Her commitment to training and improving her overall fitness level certainly paid off. The 26-year-old from Bracebridge, Ont., made her way to the West Coast as a teenager to study kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. There, she ran for the Thunderbirds who, at the time, competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). She ran well throughout university, but dealt with a long string of injuries, including bone-stress injuries, that prevented her from achieving the success she was looking for.

Hawthorn is no stranger to international competition, having competed in the 2013 and 2019 World Cross Country Championships, where she finished 63rd and 86th, respectively. She was also part of the women’s NACAC Cross Country Championship team that brought home a silver medal from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in 2019.