Sitting in the Bowerman Building, wearing a Chicago Cubs T-shirt, Duck Olympic hopeful Galen Rupp reaffirmed a loyalty to Oregon similar to that of long-time Cubs fans to their team.
“I have every intention of coming back next fall,” he said. “I want to be a Duck … and I’m gonna finish my degree here.”
One of the most decorated Ducks in recent years, the junior will toe the line in an Oregon singlet one last time Monday at the NCAA Championships before taking a break to prepare for a push for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team next summer in Beijing.
Rupp, who has never been to China, got a taste for the highest levels of international competition last summer when he competed at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, last August. After a second-place finish at the U.S. Championships in June when he beat 2004 Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, Rupp, a Portland native, finished 11th in the sweltering Osaka heat, behind only Africans and the two other Americans, Abdi Abdirahman and Ritzenhein.
Even with the biggest races of his career in the future, Rupp isn’t looking past the NCAA meet.
“Right now what we’ve been focusing on is this cross country season,” he said. “I’d never look past a big meet like the NCAAs.”
Especially when he is, by all accounts, one of the favorites to win the individual title in Monday’s men’s 10K race. The title would be his first in any event at Oregon.
“Galen’s run 27:33 for 10,000 meters on the track, I mean that’s a pretty fast performance,” Oregon head coach Vin Lananna said, referring to the American collegiate record Rupp ran last spring. “I’d give him a good shot.”
Rupp himself knows that he has as good a chance as anyone, but isn’t taking anything for granted.
“I’m right up there, I’m one of the contenders,” he said. “Nothing’s a given at that level, but I really like my chances going in.
“The big three are going to be myself, Josh McDougal (Liberty) and Lopez Lomong (Northern Arizona), … but you never really know in cross country. Last year there were a lot of unexpected high finishers so you’ve really gotta be ready for anything.”
If Rupp were to claim the NCAA individual title, he would be the first Duck to win that since his personal coach and mentor Alberto Salazar did in 1978. The only other Duck to win the title is Steve Prefontaine, who won it three times, in 1970, 1971 and 1973.
“It’d definitely be something special,” he said. “It’s been a while since Oregon’s had an individual champion in cross country and hopefully I’ll be able to bring it back.”
As it is, only two Ducks have placed higher at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the past 20 years than Rupp’s sixth-place finish as a sophomore at last year’s meet – Steve Fein finished third in 1999 and Matthew Davis was fifth in 1996, but both were upperclassmen, Fein a senior and Davis a junior. The last Oregon underclassman to finish sixth or better at the NCAA meet was Terry Williams in 1974.

Whether or not he crosses the finish line in first place, Rupp plans on taking a little time off before building his fitness back up.
“I’m definitely gonna take a little bit of a break, no running at all,” he said. “I will probably run indoor, a real short indoor season.”
Once the fall term is over, Rupp will move back to Portland where he anticipates doing most of his training with Salazar.
Rupp said he and Salazar haven’t talked much about specifics for his training during the cross country season, but he did say he anticipates doing more of what has worked for him in the past, including training at altitude.
“We really haven’t talked much about that yet,” he said. “I’m sure that that’s something that will come up because I’ve done it in the past and it’s worked out really well, but right now we’ve got no definite plan.”
Working with Salazar, a two-time Olympian and former American record-holder in the marathon and the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, has helped Rupp immensely as he prepares to try and achieve the same heights.
“He obviously knows everything that I’m going through because he’s been there himself,” Rupp said. “He’s been to levels that I still haven’t … So having a guy like that in your corner is really incredible. If you get advice from him you really take it to be true, or I have.”
In the past, Rupp has trained with other elite athletes, including Josh Rohatinsky, the 2006 NCAA cross country champion, and Adam and Kara Goucher, both World Championships qualifiers.
“I’m gonna do what’s in my best interest,” he said. “A lot of those other guys, they run different events, but I’m sure that sort of training will get mixed in.”
The men’s 10,000-meter final at the Olympic Trials is tentatively scheduled for the evening of Friday, July 4, 2008. If Rupp finishes in the top three, in front of the fans at Hayward Field, he will earn a chance to compete on the world’s biggest stage.
“It’d be a big honor to represent your country,” Rupp said. “I got a little taste of that at the World Championships, but the Olympics is something that every runner aspires to be in.”
The Olympic final is set for August 17.
Regardless of how he does, whether he makes the Olympic team or not, he then plans on returning to Eugene for one last go-around as a Duck.
“Last year I was able to run the World Championships and that went fine, so I don’t think that, no matter how I place there I want to be a Duck … so that shouldn’t be an issue,” he said.
“That’s what I want to do.”
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