Chris Solinsky Announces Retirement From Professional Running

Chris Solinsky Announces Retirement From Professional Running

After a long, illustrious career, Chris Solinsky officially hung up his spikes and decided to retire from professional running. A series of continuous injur

Apr 27, 2016 by Taylor Dutch
Chris Solinsky Announces Retirement From Professional Running
After a long, illustrious career, Chris Solinsky officially hung up his spikes and decided to retire from professional running. A series of continuous injuries prevented Solinsky from training at full capacity for the 2016 Olympic Trials, which forced him to reevaluate his place in the sport.

“This summer, I felt like I was getting rolling again,” Solinsky said in a statement. “But in the fall, I had Achilles tendonitis in my right leg that was slowing me down, and then my left calf seized up and I had a heavy limp. By the first of the year I hadn’t run regularly for six weeks. I thought, ‘I can’t even do simple stuff without falling apart. How am I going to get to the Trials, much less qualify for the Olympics?”

The IAAF World Championships finalist announced the retirement news Wednesday on the Kimbia Athletics website

The injuries began one year after breaking the then-American 10K record with a 26:59.60 performance in 2010. First, Solinsky tripped over his dog while walking down the stairs, which caused a chronic left hamstring strain. Eventually, the strain became an avulsion, where the tendons separate from the pelvis. Solinsky had to get surgery to reattach the hamstring in 2011. 

Despite putting together a solid 13:23 5K in 2013, Solinsky kept suffering from new injuries and never returned to the form he displayed prior to the hamstring strain. 

“I thought maybe I’d just keep running and compete when and where I can,” he said once realizing that the Trials were out of the picture. “But I don’t really want to do that. That would feel like I was running for a paycheck, and running has never been like that for me.”

Solinsky, now a coach at the College of William & Mary, is an athlete that continuously pushed the limits of American distance running. While attending the University of Wisconsin, he won a total of five NCAA titles, and his all-time personal bests of 12:55 in the 5K and 26:59 in the 10K are both No. 2 in U.S. history. 

Perhaps his most memorable race to date, Solinsky’s 10K debut at the 2010 Payton Jordan marked the first time an American dipped under the 27-minute barrier. Breaking the American record that day wasn’t necessarily Solinsky's plan from the beginning. 

RELATED: How the Payton Jordan 10K Changed the Game

But it was for Galen Rupp, who intended to chase it that day in Stanford, California. A film crew followed him and his coach, Alberto Salazar, as they hoped to document history in the making at Payton Jordan. Fans carried Nike posters that read “GO GALEN,” and all eyes were on the endurance wunderkind. 

But Solinsky, also a member of the Oregon Track Club at the time, had other plans. 

“I don’t really care where they run, I’m racing to win no matter what,” Solinsky remembered. “[If] they come here, I might blow up or I might go for it.”

Solinsky went for it in a big way — with one mile to go, it was Rupp, Sam Chelanga, Solinksy and Daniel Salel. No one expected 10K rookie Solinsky to even be in the lead group conversation, let alone make a sudden move with two laps remaining. In a final kick that made the audience rise to their feet, Solinsky closed in a winning time of 26:59.60, making him the first non-African to break 27:00. 

WATCH: Full FloTrack Broadcast of Payton Jordan 10K


“The 10K was the day when everything came together,” Solinsky said. “It felt relatively effortless. All three times I ran under 13:00 [for 5,000m], it was what I set out to do — that was checking off an accomplishment. All three times I was hurting two laps in and questioning whether I could do it. But the 10K was relatively effortless.”


Solinsky, who has worked as an assistant coach at William & Mary since the fall of 2014, is now focusing his efforts on guiding young student-athletes. 

But he is also not ruling out the idea of jumping in a race now and then. 

“I enjoy racing — that’s why I started running,” Solinsky said. “I really enjoy events like the Beach to Beakon 10K or Falmouth Road Race and getting out there in the running community. I definitely will always identify myself as a runner.”