Nickname(s) Gen Role Athlete National team Australia Height 1.64 m | Sport Athletics Weight 53 kg Name Genevieve LaCaze Education University of Florida | |
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Born 4 August 1989 (age 34) ( 1989-08-04 ) Residence Gainesville, Florida, United States
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, United States Event(s) 3000 metres steeplechase
1500 metres College team Florida Gators track and field Profiles | ||
Genevieve LaCaze | My Life as a Steeplechaser
Genevieve LaCaze (born 4 August 1989) is an Australian athletics competitor who specialises in the 3000 metre steeplechase. She held an athletics scholarship at the University of Florida. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. LaCaze is of French, Italian and Spanish descent.
Contents
- Genevieve LaCaze My Life as a Steeplechaser
- Personal
- Athletics
- University
- 2012 London Olympics
- Commonwealth Games
- Commonwealth Games Stage Invasion
- 2016 Rio Olympics
- References
Personal
LaCaze, nicknamed Gen, was born on 4 August 1989. She spent her childhood in Brisbane, where she attended Tamborine Mountain State School before going to high school at the John Paul College in Daisy Hill. She is from Queensland. She attended the University of Florida, where she majored in Social and Behavioral Sciences from 2009 to 2012. As of 2012, she lives in the United States.
As of 2012, LaCaze is 164 centimetres (65 in) tall and weighs 53 kilograms (117 lb).
Athletics
LaCaze competes in the 3000 metres steeplechase event and the 1500 metres. She started running when she was nine years old. In the United States, she is coached by Paul Spangler. In Australia, she was coached by David Howells. She has also been coached by Todd Morgan.
LaCaze finished second in the 2012 Melbourne Track Classic in the 3000 metres steeple chase. LaCaze finished first at the 2012 Indianapolis American Milers Club in the 3000 metres steeple chase and first in the 1500 metres race.
University
LaCaze accepted an athletics scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where she competed for the Florida Gators cross country and Florida Gators track and field teams in National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) competition from 2009 to 2012. She competed in the university-hosted Mountain Dew Invitational held at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville. She finished fifth at the 2011 NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in the 3000 metres steeple chase, and second in the 2012 NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in the same event, both held in Des Moines, Iowa.
2012 London Olympics
LaCaze set an Olympic A-Qualifying time of 9:41, two days after the deadline set by Athletics Australia. She set the time at a race in Indianapolis. She claimed her inability to set an Olympic A-Qualifying time earlier was a result of the university athletics schedule making it difficult to set a qualifying time. After news of her too-late qualification time broke, she became a trending topic on Twitter under the hashtags #letlacazerun and #genlacaze as people indicated their support for her to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Following the story, she was contacted by Nike and New Balance about potential sponsorship. No other Australian athlete had qualified for the 3000m distance.
LaCaze was eventually chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics after having initially been left off the squad. Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates intervened asking Athletics Australia to include her on the squad. Prior to Coates' support, Athletics Australia high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth had said that LaCaze did not deserve to go because she had not complied with Athletics Australia's nomination deadline.
LaCaze was Australia's only female runner in the 3000 metre steeplechase event as no other Australian woman set an Olympic A-Qualifying time. The Games was her first. Her family planned to travel to London to watch her compete. She did not qualify for the final but improved her personal best up to 9:37:90.
Commonwealth Games
LaCaze had a disappointing 2013 after breaking her ankle at the Birmingham Diamond League event in the buildup to the Moscow World Championships, for which she had qualified. This injury made LaCaze call time on life in Florida where she had carried on living and training since graduating college in 2012 after the Olympics. LaCaze returned home and based herself in Melbourne training with Melbourne Track Club giving her the opportunity to train with Australia's best distance athletes and Coach Nic Bideau. Since moving to Melbourne LaCaze has begun a relationship with fellow distance runner Ryan Gregson, whom she first met in 2007 under rather amusing circumstances.
LaCaze recovered well and set a qualifying time for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games. At the games LaCaze raced well in a lead group of five, but succumbed to the last lap pace and finished 5th in a personal best time of 9:37:04.
Commonwealth Games Stage Invasion
During the closing ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games LaCaze got on stage during Kylie Minogue's performance of 'Locomotion'. The athlete claimed this was to celebrate her 25th birthday with the pop star whom she describes as a "legend".
2016 Rio Olympics
LaCaze set an Olympic Qualifying time of 9:45, in June 2015 at the New York Diamond League well before deadline set by Athletics Australia. Australian Olympic Committee selected LaCaze to make her third team. LaCaze was paired with Australia female runner in the 3000 metre steeplechase event who set an Olympic Qualifying time: Madeline Heiner Hills and Victoria Mitchell.
LaCaze placed ninth in the final in a personal best time of 9:21.21 in the women's 3000 metres steeplechase in a race where Ruth Jebet set an Asian area record and Emma Coburn set North American Area record.