Race to Rio

As a kid, Landria Buckley MBA ’15 was fast but clumsy, so while she played tennis, soccer, floor hockey, softball and just about any sport requiring speed, her mother fervently forbade hurdling.

When the track coach at her Michigan high school had the sprinter fill an empty spot in the 100-meter hurdles, her mother marched straight over and demanded he take her daughter out. Instead, he convinced her to give Buckley one shot to prove she’d outgrown her tendency to trip.

She didn’t just win the event—she shattered the school record.

Now Buckley’s hurdling, lifting and sprinting six days a week at an elite training center in grueling preparation for the U.S. Olympic track and field trials July 1-10 in Eugene, Ore. Only the top three competitors in the 400-meter hurdles who finish under the Olympic standard of 56.2 seconds will race in Rio de Janeiro this summer.

“On that day it doesn’t matter if you’ve never lost or never tripped over a hurdle,” Buckley says. “The only thing that counts is that one race, and it’s all over in less than a minute.”

At Altis in Phoenix, she’s spent the past nine months pushing the limits of her body with 100 of the greatest track and field stars from more than 30 countries, including world record hurdler Aries Merritt and Canadian medalist Justyn Warner. The environment at the renowned facility radiates camaraderie, she says, despite being packed with athletes bred for competition.

The mornings of her meets start with gospel music and private prayer, to connect spiritually and stay mentally fresh. Afterward, Buckley warms up to songs like “Run This Town” by Jay Z, Rihanna and Kanye West, Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Nicki Minaj’s “Moment for Life.”

“You have to get into game mode like you’re going to war,” she says. “Then just run as if it’s the last race of your life.”

She’s always been athletic with an admittedly competitive streak. At age 6, her older brother placed bets that she could beat his friends in races—which she always won, despite being three years younger.

In middle school, she played basketball, volleyball and track, and in high school earned eight varsity letters and was captain of the track and basketball teams. She went on to place second in the state championships, seventh at the USA Track & Field (USATF) national championships and third at the Amateur Athletic Union national championships.

While studying political science at Howard University, where she received a full scholarship, she qualified for the NCAA nationals three years in a row and was a six-time conference champion and MVP and a Division I All-American athlete.

She graduated in 2010 and ran the 400-meter hurdles professionally for USATF at meets in Austria, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Senegal, Trinidad and Russia. But embarrassed by her inconsistent times, she says, she “fell out of love with track.”

“I was racing on the world stage with the times of a college freshman,” she says.

Soon after, she quit track to pursue a career at Allstate. But while earning her MBA, she gave running another chance; she trained with the UMD track team and served as a volunteer coach. An Achilles injury in 2014 limited her training to just a few days a week for a year. She was accepted into hyper-exclusive Altis only a few months after her full recovery.

“Her physiological engine is solid, but she’s also psychologically strong,” says Kevin Tyler, former Olympian and Buckley’s coach at Altis. “In this game you can’t be passive or give up after a few setbacks, and she’s constantly committed and engaged in her own training.”