OAC Assistant Coach, Kelsey Quinn: “Together, we rise.”

Words by Laura Markwardt. Photography by Colin Wong.

Even the greatest coach in the world can’t account for happenstance, but in sports you make your own luck, and Assistant Coach for the On Athletics Club [OAC], Kelsey Quinn, has mastered the art of making good things happen. 

This particular morning, Kelsey’s track side in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, wrapping up a training session ahead of  the World Athletics Championships. She squints against a vast, cloudless sky: “It’s my first time here. Can you believe it?”

Having joined the team as Assistant Coach in spring 2023, taking on responsibility for nurturing the next generation of track elites alongside Head Coach Dathan Ritzenhein, Kelsey’s life is full of firsts. 

Her move to the OAC was the culmination of a long-held ambition, belying a steely intentionality that might seem at odds with her breezy demeanor: “When the OAC formed in 2020, and they signed the first athletes in Boulder [Colorado], I said to my husband, ‘That's the job for me. That's the group.’ It was such a good feeling when the cards fell into place.” 

Kelsey’s goal-setting started early. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, and with a gift for running fast, she excelled as a sprinter and in the 400m hurdles at The University of Iowa. Kelsey majored in kinesiology (the study of human movement) and coached for over ten years at NCAA level.

Today, at 33, Kelsey has an in-depth understanding of what it takes to go from good to great: “You look at the times for NCAA programs – where athletes run with the best 24 in the country, and for ‘All-American’ athletes, who compete with the eight best in the country. Then you compare those times to the global stage of a Diamond League, a World or an Olympic final, and there’s this huge gap.”

Like many of the best coaches, many of the world’s best athletes find their feet in the US college system. Signing team contracts and running professionally, means stepping up to try and beat the best of the best. Giving athletes the confidence to target those times and show up at international level is a big part of her coaching role:

“When you take a step back to look at the times that we're talking about – instead of just ‘fast for college’ times, we're running American records and Oceania records and extremely fast, sub-3:30 min, 1500m times,” explains Kelsey. Those numbers make all the difference: “This is the next level for sure. And that's where the levels are at for the entire team.”

Kelsey’s vision of how the OAC can reach – and maintain – that level is what sets her coaching style apart. Far from the unforgiving style typical of the sports world at large – she casts a compassionate eye across the field: 

“Together, we rise. It can be easy to dismiss that dynamic in a seemingly individualistic sport like track racing, but you see the OAC at these big meets where we have a lot of them performing, and they elevate each other.”

A huge part of the OAC’s success is that supportive synergy: “It’s not just about training on your own. The team ethos is: let's all get better together.”

Within that athletic universe, each OAC track star shines bright: “The team’s looking awesome,” says Kelsey, “from Alicia [Monson] to Yared [Nuguse] and George [Beamish] setting [national] records, we have so many promising opportunities coming up – we’re out to get medals.”

Podiums aside, Kelsey also makes a case for enduring athletic brilliance as a long game. She mentions Ollie [Hoare] ending his 2023 season early because of injury, with the conviction that sometimes runners have to drop their pace. When they have the confidence to stop early, and they know they have the backing of a team, they often come back stronger:

“I – and of course Dathan – build a support and belief system alongside each athlete that says, ‘I’m gonna lift you up and get you what you need. I’m here to listen. How can we help you?’ Negating the lows with that support is what helps you get better on that trajectory coming back up.”

Case in point: Morgan [McDonald] making the World Championships team for Australia this year. Kelsey smiles: “Morgan’s had an awesome comeback from injury, which is really exciting.”

Knowing when to push, when to float and when to step off the gas is a big part of the art of coaching, and forms the basis of Kelsey’s strategy. In fact, research shows that marginal gains are most likely to be made with your feet up – and Kelsey’s coaching method prioritizes recovery to make those gains at every opportunity: 

“Recovery’s a huge thing. It sounds basic, but it’s hard to pull off as a professional athlete traveling regularly across time zones. The athletes doing well are serious about locking into recovery.” And it’s a delicate balance: “This is what it looks like on paper – getting people to run fast under pressure – versus the multifaceted reality of it. That's the finesse of coaching – and the hardest part to articulate.”

Kelsey and her husband, Riley, have two kids, Willow and Aspen, both under three. They’re all with her in Saint Moritz right now: “My family travels with me and I never try to hide that – I'm the whole package, right? This comes along with it. Dathan gets it because he lives those values too.”

Does she find it ironic that juggling a young family alongside her coaching commitments, she can never “lock into recovery” herself? Kelsey laughs: “Yeh. It’s just kind of chaos at our house right now, but that's okay.” 

The family relocated earlier this year from Portland, Oregon, to Boulder, Colorado, where the OAC is based. By all accounts, there’s a lot to coordinate: “This is the life we choose and we're living it. We give ourselves grace and stay in the moment. My role with the OAC, is absolutely a passion. It’s just about putting your best foot forward, every time.” 

That said, what works for Kelsey right now is actively choosing training over sleep – and she’s honest about what’s got to give: “Even if I'm physically tired, which just comes along with having young kids, I got over it a while back. I could sleep for an extra 45 minutes, but I always choose to run. I always feel better, mentally, for doing that.”

Sleep and freedom of choice may not be levers all mothers can pull, but Kelsey finds a way – and lives them by example: “In both athletics and beyond, balancing a goal-oriented career alongside motherhood is viewed as a negative or a disadvantageous compromise. And that's just not serving anybody. I feel strongly about this myself, and I’m grateful to have my own support network to live out my beliefs.” 

Kelsey’s family-oriented approach informs how she nurtures each OAC athlete as a “whole package” too: “If you're thinking about coaching only in an athletic realm, you miss a big chunk of the athlete and who they really are. Once I became a mother, I stepped back with a zoomed-out perspective and better recognize the things that can impact an athlete’s performance. One hundred percent, it’s helped me grow as a coach.”

Of course, the team still combines insight with data – they wear fitness trackers and run treadmill tests, but Kelsey explains: “Day-to-night getting feedback from the athlete and being able to work with them personally is about using your coaching experience and gut instinct over a singular read on the numbers.”

Kelsey stresses that every athlete is unique: “You can look at the research and the training of elites from all over the world for years, but you can't just apply the same training model directly to any athlete and get the best results. There's a case-by-case nuance to it.” 

As much as the essence of good coaching is hard to sum up in a soundbite, Kelsey’s enthusiasm motivates professionals and amateurs alike. She coached her husband, Riley, “he’s ended up being pretty decent, which is funny,” and ran alongside her father, who – inspired by Kelsey – raced his first marathon at 60-years-old in 2020.

When she’s not coaching her crew for the love of it, Kelsey is a voice for more diverse representation in coaching: “There still isn’t an equal amount of female representation for how many female athletes we have. That goes for both elites, and the college coaching world. By building a successful team with two coaches, my role for the OAC says: we have these female athletes that we want to support and there are huge benefits – for both men and women – in having a female coach.” 

If, like Kelsey, you broaden your perspective, then coaching becomes so much more than standing trackside for training sessions. It’s about mentorship and creating environments where athletes – and women – can thrive: “More female coaches can have a positive impact everywhere, and this goes beyond the professional coaching world.”