COMMONALITY #1
An Early Glimpse of Talent Followed by a Slow, Patient Start and Multiple Sports
Despite all three having glimpses of their talent at relatively early ages, all three were multi-sport athletes through elementary and most, if not all, of middle school.
None ran any club track or cross country at any point, either before or during high school.
Born didn't even run track, nor Venters cross country, until their freshman years of high school.
Even though she was known as "the runner" in elementary school because of her speed on the playground Logue, as is typical in small towns like Girard, Kansas (pop: 2,763) where she grew up, participated in the most sports for the longest period of time in addition to running. Those included volleyball, basketball, and soccer, with basketball getting most of her attention outside of running. She didn't focus exclusively on running until her freshman year of high school. She did run the 400 in some Hershey track meets prior to high school which consisted of just a two-meet series, a local qualifying meet and then the state meet.
Venters played "most rec sports like soccer and volleyball" at an early age but she was ambitious, and by middle school, she already had aspirations of competing in college...as a swimmer. She was a serious swimmer and began swimming in third grade. She tried track for the first time in middle school but didn't run cross country until her freshman year of high school. She didn't give up swimming until halfway through her freshman year.
Born spent her youth as a soccer player ("mainly as a mid-fielder because they have to run a lot") and tried cross country for the first time in middle school and was hooked. By 8th grade, she was only running, but even then it was only cross country and only during the school season. She ran track for the first time her freshman year of high school.
L-R: Logue, Venters and Born discuss their youth sports backgrounds.