Somebody at some point is going to make a move in the U.S. Olympic Trials 1,500-meters finals on June 24. Moves made. Moves answered. Counter moves. Faux moves, and decisive ones. All before the closing kicks kick in.
Vince Ciattei will be ready for whatever is thrown at him.
In fact, so confident is Ciattei in his fitness level, his training volume, his health and happiness, that the Under Armour Dark Sky middle distance runner may even be the instigator of a move or two. After two years of struggle and uncertainly, of battling back to get to this point, of taking chances based on limited options, Ciattei seems primed to take his best shot at qualifying for the Olympic Games.
You never know what’s going to play out in national-caliber 1,500-meter races – that’s the beauty of the event, its unpredictability – especially in this year’s Olympic Trials, with a field as deep as the Mariana Trench, including the likes of Yared Nuguse, Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler.
But Ciattei is right there in the mix, coming in with the sixth fastest qualifying time behind Nuguse, Hocker, Cooper Teare, NAU’s Colin Sahlman and Eric Holt. And in a race with so many variables, so much tactical maneuvering, there are perhaps 10 runners capable of finishing in the top three and gaining a coveted Paris Olympic spot.
Granted, Ciattei doesn’t have the high profile and garner the media coverage of others surrounding him on the start list, but consider him the dark horse in the field.
And consider this, too: The Trials are coming at just the right time for Ciattei, the former 2018 NCAA runner-up in the 1,500 behind Ollie Hoare and ahead of Josh Kerr. Everything seems to be falling in place, after a series of injuries and the dissolution by Nike of his former pro team, the Oregon Track Club.
“Now I’m healthy, I’m robust, I’ve had a lot of volume in the past year to lean into across three rounds of racing,” he said in an interview last week, after finishing fourth in 3:34.62 in a high-caliber 1,500 at the New York Grand Prix. “So if I can get the tactics as right as I can, if that’s enough on the day, I think I am capable.
“Virginia Tech, my last year (2018), was the last time I had the fitness and the physical robustness to be confident in tactics. In college, I liked putting myself in front of races and controlling them from the front. I mean, I got an NCAA silver medal that way against some really good competition.
“But as a pro, it’s been quite a journey, building some of that confidence back. A lot of it had to do with me being a very realistic person. If the fitness isn’t there, it’s hard for me to cultivate the confidence to make a hard move or commit to the move when I need to when, like, I know realistically my body’s not going to be able to do it. This year, I know if I take a risk or make a move, there’s going to be enough in the tank to sustain it. That’s a good feeling. I’m not going to be people’s top three pick going I not this, so I’m going to have to take a risk or make a move.”
His confidence comes not only from his results – he’s dropped more than a second in each of his three 1,500s this spring, as well as winning the USATF Road Mile in Iowa – but from the support of having a team behind him and the security of a multi-year contract.
After a fall and winter of 2022 and early ’23 wandering the East Coast in unattached limbo, without team support and steady income, Ciattei has found a home in Flagstaff with Dark Sky. And lest you think Ciattei doesn’t have the fortitude to take a risk and make a move in the 1,500, consider the big risk – and ultimate reward — he took in March of 2023.
No pro group was offering him a contract. He considered going back to Blacksburg, Va., where his college coach, Ben Thomas, was guiding Hocker and Teare in addition to his duties at Virginia Tech. But Hocker and Teare still had their Nike contracts; Ciattei did not. He didn’t have the resources to join that group without sponsorship.
Fortunately for Ciattei, his agent, Stephen Haas, also is the head coach of the Dark Sky group, which includes many middle-distance elites, such as Neil Gourley (Ciattei’s old VT teammate), Australian Jack Anstey, Kasey Knevelbaard, Mexican recordholder Lalo Herrera and Matt Wilkinson.
Under Armour, however, wasn’t offering a contract. Instead, Ciattei came aboard temporarily as a “brand ambassador” who would race under the Dark Sky name and train like the others but not receive a salary.
Risky, but at that point, what choice to Ciattei have? He was 28 at the time, not old for a miler, but not young either, considering that Kessler and Sahlman are barely 21. The 2024 Trials, he felt, would be his best shot at his Olympic dream, and getting there without team and corporate support would be neigh impossible.
It didn’t take long, though, for Ciattei’s status to change. By January of 2024, he had signed a two-year contract with Under Armour and officially became a Dark Sky team member. And since then – with resources such as physio-therapists, massage therapists, three coaches and Dark Sky’s strength-training gym at his disposal – Ciattei times have fell as his national status has risen.
“For Under Armour to do that for me at the age 28 when I signed, I feel really grateful for that,” he said. “Them investing in me like that has been a feeling of security. And now I’m running better than I ever have.”
Ciattei is grateful but not surprised that he’s resurrected his career with Dark Sky. He’s no lone wolf; he likes the communal nature where, though he’s competing against other milers on the team, they all push each other toward the common goal.
“I went to Flag with no guarantees. There was no salary (initially), but for where I was at, it was a really good situation. There was something to strive for with the time bonuses and getting competitive in races again.”
Vince Ciattei
Plus, Ciattei is just a happier guy right now. The injuries, he said, are behind him – he knocks on wood at the café table and laughs – he’s dating Dark Sky and Canadian Olympian steeplechaser Regan Yee, and he likes the vibe of Flagstaff — “after I survived the winter,” he added.
He recalls a phone conversation he had with New Balance Boston coach Mark Coogan during his time in running limbo, casting about for a lifeline.
“(Coogan) said, ‘You can’t run 3:30 in a bad mood,’” Ciattei recalled. “It’s so simple, but it’s so true. If you can be in a good environment, teamwise, coaching-wise, personal-wise…I still have stresses. I still have doubts, as everyone does, but overall the results have shown this environment has been working for me pretty well.”
Dark Sky arguably is the less high-profile pro team in Flagstaff, but it has qualified eight athletes for the U.S. Trials, in addition to Olympians from neighboring countries and elite Kenyans Edwin Kurgat, Susan Ejore and marathoner Sharon Lokedi.
The situation Ciattei stepped into last March as a kind of “visiting scholar” without much compensation could have been awkward. But he said the team and staff – Haas, Pat Casey, Noble Boutin – embraced and supported him from the start.
“I went to Flag with no guarantee,” he said. “There was no salary (initially), but for where I was at, it was a really good situation. There was something to strive for with the time bonuses and getting competitive in races again.”
What Ciattei said he learned in his time training back home in Baltimore, where he went to high school, and briefly in Atlanta, was that it’s hard for a pro runner to make it without sponsorship. It’s not just paying the bills and expenses; it’s having doctors and therapists available to help in rehab, and it’s coaches writing your workouts with the big picture in mind.
Holt, another 1,500 dark-horse contender, went viral last week after finishing second in the same race Ciattei placed fourth, saying in an interview that running unsponsored “costs me money,” that he essentially earns nothing and crashes with his family.
It didn’t get quite that desperate for Ciattei, but he did feel disconnected going solo.
“It’s not like I had years of this, but even that short period – that fall and winter – having no training partners, trying to figure out injuries on my own, it makes you appreciate important training partners and coaching and support system is,” Ciattei said. “Not that I ever took that for granted at OTC; I was just realizing then that I’d rather be in Flagstaff and start to have those things again, even if I’m not on a contract and strive toward it rather than be by myself.”
Now, Ciattei has team physiotherapist A.J. Beach and massage therapist Lindsay Colley just short drives away, and Dark Sky’s new strength-training building in East Flagstaff to do lifting “without feeling rushed.” Haas writes his workouts, and Casey – who formerly competed against Ciattei – oversees many workouts and travels to meets.
Then there are his teammates.
“We have enough guys where you’d have someone who at any given workout, someone will have a good day and they can do a little extra work and bring everyone else along,” he said. “There have been hill workouts where Lalo has been dragging me along. There’s been hill workouts where I’ve been dragging other people along. We’ve got Edwin, who doesn’t get tired from anything.”
Casey, in addition to his coaching duties, adds some levity.
“I raced Pat in 2018 USA outdoors and missed the final by two hundredths of a second and was furious,” Ciattei recalled, laughing. “And Pat now brings that up every couple of months. It’s good because he’s not that far removed from the racing world. It’s not like the atmosphere of middle-distance running has changed that much since he was competing.
“He’s good, too, because Haas travels all the time (in his dual role as a sports agent). Pat will have input and travel to races, and Noble helps there, too. Pat is always going to crack a joke or something. Around competition if you’re tense, he never takes it too seriously.”
Ciattei, though, takes his career seriously. Sometimes too seriously. Dating Yee and seeing the sights of Northern Arizona – his little brother and he hiked in Sedona recently – has kept Ciattei from concentrating too much, too soon, on the Trials.
“I’ve had more variety in the past few months, going to different places, doing different things outside of training,” he said. “On my own, I wouldn’t be as motivated to do it. If I’d been too locked in for too long, I would’ve fried myself, if I was like, thinking of the Trials final every night for eight months, that would’ve been too much for me.”
He’s certainly thinking about it now, though. Ciattei said he’s preparing mentally and physically for three rounds of races in four days against stacked fields.
The key to running well in Eugene, he said, is to be more proactive, more responsive. And that means taking chances, not being passive.
Looking ahead to the final, assuming he moves on from the two prelims: “I think I’ll do well in a race where Yared or someone with a really fast time drags it out, because I think I’m strong enough. But at the same time, I have to be confident I can kick with those guys if it doesn’t play out like that. That means making sure no matter how it plays out, I’m at least giving myself a chance to win. I have a good kick but everyone at this level has a good kick. I’ve got to be farther up in the field.”
Ciattei possesses a quiet confidence in his ability. He’s not one to boast, unlike big talkers like Jacob Ingebrigtsen and Kerr.
In fact, Ciattei said his innate “realism” about his ability sometimes can hold him back.
But …
“Yeah, that can work against me, except at times like this,” he said. “Believe me, I’ve wrestled with this before. I probably have a harder time than some other athletes manufacturing confidence. I really draw it from the training and racing, knowing I really am ready. When it comes together and I know I am ready, it almost doubles that effect because I really feel confident about what I’m capable of doing.”
He paused, then summed up.
“I’m 29. I’ve had plenty of setbacks. But to be the fittest now, I can draw a lot of confidence. I’ve had to wait for this moment until now because something special could happen.”
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