Shelby Houlihan ready to live out dream running in Rio Games

Published by Juff Budlong/siouxcityjournal.com on August 11th, 2016

The message on the mirror has changed, the drive to achieve it has not.

United States Olympian Shelby Houlihan is set to run in the 5,000 meters Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro representing her country and fulfilling a dream that began burning within her at the age of 5. It has been a whirlwind last few months, but the reminder of why she was putting in the work now – and why she has for basically her whole life – was always staring right back at her.

“The last two months I had that ‘I will be an Olympian’ written on my mirror so when I wake up every day I would see that and I would tell that to myself multiple times a day during the workouts,” Houlihan said. “By the time I did toe the line (at the U.S. Trials) it was in my head that I could do it and I didn’t really have any doubts or make the race more than it was.”