Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Though he missed going to the 2024 Olympics by a fraction of a second, the progress Vincent Ciattei has made point toward a promising future in middle-distance running.
After years of grueling training and long-harbored dreams, falling just short of making the U.S. Olympic team can deal a devastating blow to any athlete.
While it certainly was a blow for Vincent Ciattei, it also spelled a qualitative leap in performance that has opened the door to exciting new opportunities for his track-and-field career.
The 29-year-old suburban Baltimore native finished fourth in the 1,500-meter race at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June with a time of 3:31, three seconds faster than his previous personal best and only .25 second behind the third-place finisher.
Over the summer, Ciattei planned to spend about a month in Europe to run at least one — and hopefully more — prestigious Diamond League pro races, the first of his career. He was to come back to the United States during the Olympics, always a dead period for racing, in hopes of going back to Europe this month to take part in more events.
“I am trying to channel my motivation that I truly belong at this level and take advantage of these opportunities that have not been available to me before in my career,” Ciattei says. “Hopefully, I will keep lowering my personal best.”
Ciattei got into running like many other athletes: to get in shape for another sport, in his case, basketball at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore. By his sophomore year, he’d set aside basketball, never to look back.
“When you first start, every race is a big personal best, and I liked that,” he explains. “I also liked my teammates, and I caught the bug more and more.”
Ciattei took home seven state high school championship titles in a variety of distances and then went on to Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the NCAA national champion distance medley race team — an especially prestigious achievement and memorable experience, he says — and a three-time national silver medalist in the 1,500.
After graduating from college, Ciattei joined the Nike Oregon Track Club Elite team in Eugene, Oregon, in 2018, but soon after suffered a stress fracture that sidelined him for several months. After weathering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, he made it to the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials 1,500 final while suffering from an acute shin inflammation. “I was limping around in between rounds,” he says. “Adrenaline kept me going during the races, but I ended up 10th.”
The following year, Nike’s Elite team disbanded when the sportswear giant pulled its sponsorship. “It was a very stressful summer,” Ciattei recalls. “The next year of my career was spent deciding what to do next and how to transition.”
Finally, everything fell into place in March 2023, when Ciattei moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, to train at high altitude in the hopes of joining Under Armour’s Mission Run Dark Sky Distance team. “I did join, and this year has gone amazing,” he says.
Ciattei won his first major competition, the USATF National Road Mile Championship, in April 2023, and scored a multitude of personal bests by the time he arrived in Oregon for the U.S. Olympic Trials. His performance there was the product of a year of consistent training and improvement, and a healthy dose of confidence in the process and in himself, Ciattei says. He also gives props to his current coach and agent, Stephen Haas.
“I am proud of it,” he says of his 4th-place finish. “I executed the way I wanted, and I had faith that I could. At the same time, that’s what’s so bittersweet about it. I made the jump almost to the level of these top guys — but it just wasn’t enough.”
Still, his result has undoubtedly propelled his career forward and he is looking forward to what lies ahead, he says.
So is it too early to ask about the 2028 Olympics? “Believe me, I already had that thought,” he replies. “But I think what is going to be healthiest for me is probably to take it one year at a time.”
The above appears in the September 2024 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.
