Abdi Abdirahman turns 40 on New Year’s Day and the four-time Olympian from Pima College and the UA is not planning to retire.
He earned $65,000 last week when he was the first American to finish the New York Marathon, third overall, a compelling comeback from a leg injury that kept him out of the 2016 USA Olympic Marathon trials.
“A lot of people thought Abdi was over the hill,” said his coach, Dave Murray, the UA’s former head track and field coach. “But he became the oldest runner ever to sit on the podium (the top three) at the New York Marathon.
Abdirahman got a laugh from reporters when he told them about his conversations with fellow runners before and after the race.
“I was telling those guys I was in the Olympics in 2000,” he said. “They were looking at me like, ‘Really?’”
