Anne Marie Letko (married name Lauck; born March 7, 1969 in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
) is an American long-distance runner who competed in the Summer Olympics in 1996 (10th place in marathon) and
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
(5000m).
Anne Marie Letko is the daughter of Jim and Sandy Letko. She started running at the age of 14 when she accompanied her father on jogs around the block. Letko claims that she became hooked on running after winner her age division in the Hampton Classic 7-miler. Lynne Lauck, her future mother-in-law, was the overall female winner in the same race. In high school, Letko finished 18th at the 1986 Kinney Cross Country Championships. She was two-time New Jersey State Champion in the indoor 3200 meter run and her mark of 10:39.6 was a state record from 1986 to 2001.
In 1991, Letko won the
10,000 metres
The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...
Sheffield, England
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire an ...
in what was a personal best for her at the time of 32:26.87. Her 31:37.26 at the 1993 World Championships in
Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgart (; Swabian German, Swabian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fe ...
was the fourth fastest 10,000 by an American woman. In 1994, Letko won USA 15K Championships at the newly named Gate River Run in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
.
Dehydration
In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...
forced Letko to drop out of her debut marathon - the
New York City Marathon
The New York City Marathon (currently branded TCS New York City Marathon after its headline sponsor (commercial), sponsor) is an annual Marathon (sport), marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest mar ...
- in 1993. She returned the following year, coached by for two-time NYC marathon champion Tom Fleming, to finish third with a time of 2:30:19. Letko qualified for the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...
with a third-place finish of 2:31:18 at the United States Olympic women's marathon trials the preceding February in
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Cana ...
's
Lilac Bloomsday Run
The Lilac Bloomsday Run, also known as Bloomsday, is an annual timed road race in the northwest United States, held on the first Sunday of May since 1977 in The course length is 12 km (7.456 mi).
The run has had over 38,000 participants every ...
in 1993, Atlanta's historic
Peachtree Road Race
The Peachtree Road Race (branded AJC Peachtree Road Race for sponsorship reasons) is an American 10-kilometer run held annually in Atlanta. After being held on Independence Day from 1970 to 2019, the race was cancelled because of the COVID pand ...
in 1994, and has competed in San Francisco'sBay to Breakers multiple times, finishing third in 1994, second in 1996, and third in 1998. She is the last American to win the Crim 10 mile race in Flint, Michigan (1994).
A native of
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', November 6, 1994. Accessed July 20, 2011. "Two leading American runners, Kim Jones, 36, of Spokane, Wash., and Anne Marie Letko, 25, of Glen Gardner, N.J., said they have learned how to overcome the problems that knocked them out of last year's New York City Marathon, Jones by running with a medicated atomizer to combat her chronic asthma and Letko by controlling her pace and drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration." Letko graduated from
North Hunterdon High School
North Hunterdon High School is a four-year regional public high school serving students from six municipalities in northern Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States, as one of two high schools in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High Sch ...
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
. She competed under the name Anne Marie Lauck after she married Jim Lauck in 1995. Jim Lauck later became a
chiropractor
Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the spine. It has esoteric origins and is based on several pseudoscien ...
. She was previously coached by
Alberto Salazar
Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958) is an American former track coach and long-distance runner. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where ...
USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...