Athing Mu: “Last Year Was Pretty Tough”

In 2021, Athing Mu put together arguably the greatest season for an American 800-meter runner—at just 19 years old.

But after bursting into the spotlight at the Tokyo Olympics, Mu has struggled to find a balance between intense training, racing, and carving out time for herself.

Now, with her first race of 2024 approaching, she’s feeling more adjusted to being a full-time professional athlete. She’s entered in the 400 meters at the LA Grand Prix on Saturday and will run her first 800 meters of the season on May 25 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, against a stacked field.

Mu spoke to Runner’s World ahead of the race about her unconventional 2023 season, current training progress, and ambitions outside of being an athlete.

“[Last year] was pretty tough,” Mu said. “Coming into a new area being basically a full-time professional, versus in college being a student-athlete, is way different. I just had a whole bunch of changes going on, so I didn’t really know how to balance it out. But I think that kind of taught me what I need to do this year.”

After a dominant freshman year at Texas A&M University, where she set six collegiate records and won three national championships, Mu continued her tear to the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, winning gold medals in the 800 meters and 4x400-meter relay.

In late 2022, Mu moved to Los Angeles from Texas to be trained by Bobby Kersee, whose athletes have won dozens of Olympic medals. He also coaches Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who holds the world record in the 400-meter hurdles.

But the transition to pro life and training wasn’t completely smooth, and Mu, now 21, has alluded to the struggles that come along with media attention and pressure.

Last year, she raced sparingly, competing in the 800 meters at just three meets. At one point, it was unclear if she would even race the World Championships in Budapest; Kersee told the Los Angeles Times that she might skip the event and focus on preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

And at the U.S. Championships last year, Mu focused on the 1500 meters. She placed second, running a PR of 4:03.44, although she ultimately turned down her spot on the U.S. team in the event. (She automatically qualified for Worlds in the 800 as the reigning world champion.)

“I’m always training for the 800, but being able to do the 1500 to test myself, to see how far we could get after not doing it for about two years was really exciting,” she said. “And of course, it just helped me in the 800 in the long run.”

Mu ultimately toed the line at Worlds and earned bronze in the 800 meters—the first loss of her career in an event final since her senior year of high school. Three weeks later, she rebounded and broke her own American record at the Prefontaine Classic, running 1:54.97.

But it was clear that 2023 was a transition period, which Mu said wasn’t seamless. She stopped taking classes to concentrate more on running, and she felt at times that she missed the structure of college.

This year, with the Paris Olympics approaching in August, Mu has a new perspective. While she viewed the Tokyo Olympics as “introducing herself to the world,” this time, she knows what to expect.

Mu said her training has been going well recently, and that it’s similar to last year’s, but she and Kersee are starting to increase the intensity of some of her sessions, because they have a good grasp on how she responds to his training. She’s the only pro in the “Formula Kersee” training group who primarily races the 800, but she hops in workouts with other athletes that train for the 400 meters, like McLaughlin-Levrone.

Mu doesn’t know whether she’ll race the 1500 at all this year, but she hasn’t ruled it out. Regardless, she said the 800 is her focus for Paris.

“I’ve always been a diverse athlete,” Mu said. “So being able to go down and go back up has always been part of what I do. Being able to have both speed and strength I think is perfect for the 800.”

The women’s 800 meters on the world stage is as competitive as it was in 2021, if not stronger. Keely Hodgkinson, the 22-year-old British star who took silver in Tokyo and beat Mu last year at Worlds, is a gold medal threat. And Mary Moraa of Kenya—last year’s world champion—has stormed onto the scene after not making the Tokyo final.

Mu will face the duo at the Prefontaine Classic later this month. She doesn’t know yet if she will race between Prefontaine and the U.S. Olympic Trials, which begin on June 21. (To qualify for the Olympics in the 800, she will need to place in the top three.)

But, at times, Paris isn’t even at the top of Mu’s mind.

Since her historic 2021 season, Mu has branched off into new ventures. Fashion and modeling, especially, have piqued Mu’s interest. In September 2022, she walked the runway at New York Fashion Week. In addition to her athletic sponsor, Nike, she’s recently partnered with brands like Coca-Cola and Neiman Marcus.

Mu covets time away from track. She’s been involved in the sport since she was 6 years old. She admits training can be intense and time consuming, and the non-athletic projects allow her to explore new sides of herself, away from the cut-and-dried click of a stopwatch.

“I think whenever I’m interested in something, it’s because I have no idea what it’s about,” she said. “That makes it a bit more fun for me because it’s like I’m discovering something new, and I’m testing new waters, and I don’t know what’s going to come out of it.

“I feel like when you dig into something too much, it takes the joy and the genuine interest out of it,” she continued. “And so I try to, for the most part, go full throttle on some stuff, not really knowing what’s gonna come out, and then make decisions of whether I enjoy it or not from there.”