NYRR Media Center

Dakotah Lindwurm was the top American finisher at the Paris 2024 Olympic marathon, taking 12th place in 2:26:44 before receiving a surprise proposal from her boyfriend, Montana, a few minutes later. She finished third at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando in February after entering the event as the 10th-fastest American woman on paper.

Lindwurm grew up an only child in St. Francis, Minnesota, where her parents divorced at a young age and she and her mother, Connie, were briefly homeless and spent nights sleeping in their car. She was a hockey goaltender in high school and at Northern State University, a small Division II school in South Dakota where she also walked onto the cross country and track teams and became an NCAA Division II All-American.

She joined the Minnesota Distance Elite team in 2017 and finished 36th place at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She then gained notoriety as a professional runner after claiming back-to-back victories at the Grandma’s Marathon in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, Lindwurm finished sixth at the United Airlines NYC Half and set a personal best of 2:24:40 at the Chicago Marathon, finishing in 12th place. Earlier this year, she raced the Mastercard New York Mini 10K with New York Road Runners and threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in honor of the race.

Off the roads, Lindwurm works full-time as a paralegal.