THE DAUGHTER OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNER ELLERY LINCOLN FOUND HER OWN RUNNING PATH
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 race results weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission
EUGENIO, PRAY. (03-July) — Given that his parents competed in World Track and Field Championships and won multiple NCAA and USATF titles, it’s no surprise that Ellery Lincoln He would become an elite runner. You would probably think that his parents, obstacle racers Daniel Lincoln and miler Sara Schwald, He pushed his 17-year-old from Portland, Oregon, to play the sport and train hard from a young age.
But you would be wrong. Instead, Lincoln and Schwald wanted Ellery to find his own path to happiness, no matter the direction.
“I joined this sport when I was seven or eight years old,” Schwald told Race Results Weekly in an interview yesterday ahead of this weekend’s Prefontaine Classic, the ninth stop of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League. “Few people make it when they’re successful at younger ages. I’ve seen that for decades. I think the data is pretty clear.”
Instead, Ellery, her only daughter, found herself running alone.
“We encouraged her to be active, to do what she liked and found interesting,” Schwald continued. “And he finally found it. He tried a lot of different things. He tried a little bit of dance, a little bit of soccer, he tried a little bit of Taekwondo. He tried a lot of different things. It was only in high school that he discovered running because that’s what his friends did. He decided to join them.”
Lincoln quickly became a force in Oregon high schools. As a ninth-grader at Portland’s Lincoln High School, named after the former president, he ran the state’s leading 1500m time of 4:20.89 in 2024. This year, after finishing 11th grade, he ran a very adult time of 4:07.99 to place second at the U20 U.S. Championships here last month and qualify for the upcoming World U20 Track and Field Championships. here in August. Along the way, she ran 4:27.65 per mile, beating her mother’s personal best of 4:33.43 by nearly six seconds. Her parents supported her 100%, but Lincoln struggled.
“The best thing they’ve ever done for me is stop me,” Lincoln said. “Keep me doing things that are developmentally appropriate, like training, and help me keep the big picture in mind and not seek validation or short-term success in a long, healthy career.”
Lincoln’s accomplishments earned her a spot in tonight’s 1,500m, where she will be the youngest competitor in a 16-woman field mostly made up of up-and-coming professionals (like Juliette Whittaker, Gracie Morris and Wilma Nielsen) and top college girls (like NC State’s Sadie Engelhardt and South Carolina’s Salma Elbadra). It’s an impressive card for Saturday’s women’s mile, which will feature three-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon.
“I wouldn’t say it was on my Bingo card coming into the season, but the opportunity arose and it’s something I’m very excited about,” Lincoln said at a news conference yesterday. She continued, “A really important part of being successful in a career like this being the youngest in the field is believing that I’m supposed to be here, talking myself out of it before the gun even rings. So, just being confident, putting myself into it. I can make some amazing women bring out the best in me.”
Tonight’s competition is a bit of a bonus race for Lincoln. With so many high school end-of-season invitations available to high-level athletes like her, Lincoln decided to focus on the US U20 Championships to give her a chance to make the world team. With that accomplishment under his belt, and those championships not scheduled to begin until August 5, Lincoln feels free to attack tonight’s race and let the cards fall where they may.
“I’ve really been soaking it up this weekend,” Lincoln explained. She continued, “I really learned that I can do big things, like breaking 4:30 in the mile. It seemed really huge, and I didn’t know if I could do it. You know, you just like the work accumulated over time and you realize that splits are just numbers. You set yourself up to do bigger things. It becomes less complicated when you just work your way.”
Schwald’s personal best in the 1,500 meters is 4:04.43, set in 2001 in Brussels. That was the year he reached the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championships and competed at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in the 4 kilometer “short cross” race. Lincoln didn’t say if he was spending time with his mother, but he might be thinking about it. Schwald’s mile time was a little softer, he admitted.
“I think she was running before Bring Back the Mile, so she probably didn’t run a ton of full miles,” Lincoln said. “But I’m definitely very proud and I bragged a little to her that night. Next time I’ll go for her 1,500, which is a little bit higher of a bar.”
Lincoln has one more year of high school competition before beginning his college career here in Eugene at the University of Oregon under the guidance of coaches. Jerry Schumacher and Shalane Flanagan. Schwald explained that attending Oregon was purely his daughter’s choice, but he did say that his family was very close to Schumacher.
“He was the first person (not family) to hold her as a baby when I brought her home from the hospital,” Schwald said.
PHOTOS: Ellery Lincoln with her mother, Sarah Schwald, at a downtown Eugene hotel ahead of the 2026 Prefontaine Classic (photos by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
