Morgan McDonald

BIOGRAPHY

Olympian, Morgan McDonald lives and trains at altitude in Boulder Colorado. In his three global meets, Morgan has just missed qualifying for the final. At the first two world championships by less than half a second on each occasion. The theme of near misses continued in Tokyo with Morgan missing the final by just one place. He was 11th in his heat in 13:37.36. Prior to Tokyo he had made very good progress over the season setting PBs at 3000m, 2 mile, 5000m and 10,000m.
Injured through the early part of 2022, he was recovered and able to race by mid-year. He travelled to Europe and at the very end of the season ran a few good races, including a 3000m PB time of 7:39.05.
Unfortunately, in early January 2023 he reported he had slipped on ice and injured his knee. He would not race until July 22 in Los Angeles. But incredibly he had accumulated sufficient World Athletics points to qualify for the World Championship in the 5000m. In August 2023 he was announced in his third Australian world championships team for Budapest where he competed in the 5000m heats. A month later he placed seventh in the 5km event at the inaugural World Road Running Championships.

Morgan was in good form in early 2024, including placing second in the National 5000m where he was out dipped on the line. In May he clocked a massive seven seconds PB time of 13:00.48, to move to number three Australian all-time and go under the Olympic standard by over four seconds.

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A member of one of Australia’s oldest clubs, Randwick Botany Harriers, Morgan McDonald was a leading Australian junior distance runner competing at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in the under-20 race, and 2014 World Junior Championships in Oregon where he placed 10th in the 5000m in 14:10.08. He remained in the US and headed to college to study Business, majoring in finance, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

He had good success setting PBs galore and in his second year in 2016 was fifth in the NCAA 5000m with a PB 13:29.79 and within seconds from the Rio Olympic standard. The next year he failed to qualify for the NCAAs, but by June was down to 13:15.83 (number six Australian all-time) for 5000m which earned his first senior Australian team singlet for the world championships. He ran very well, placing a very competitive seventh in his heat (13:30.73), missing qualification for the final by two places and half a second. But he respected that his opposition had much faster PBs. 

In 2018 his US college allowed him to compete in the Commonwealth Games trials in Australia for the 5000m where on a very humid night we witnessed one of the great 5000m races in Australian history. Morgan won and went on to placed eight at the Games, but was injured and unable to compete on the track at the NCAAs in 2018. 

In late 2018 his college hosted the NCAA Cross Country Championships which he won – one of the toughest events to claim. He compiled an incredible 2019 NCAA season, winning the indoor 3000m and 5000m on consecutive days, then the outdoors 5000m in June where in a slow tactical race he clocked a 52 second last lap to win against American rival Grant Fisher. He was selected for his second world championships in Doha in 2019, where again he was less than half a second from qualifying for the final. While he understood about missing the London final, he was disappointed to fall short again at the world championships in Doha.

After a quite 2020 in the COVID-effected world, in 2021 he set PBs across the ranges from 3000m to 10,000m, including 13:13.67 at his pet distance of 5000m. Selected for the Tokyo Olympics, it was his fourth consecutive national team senior since 2017.

Education: Business Administration, Majoring in Finance, University of Wisconsin (graduated May 2019)…..Hero:
Former training partner and Australian 10,000m record holder Ben St Lawrence…..Biggest influence on his career:
My parents have always pushed me to be better but have allowed me to always pursue whatever I wanted… Memorable sporting moment: Winning NCAA Cross Country in 2018 in front of the home crowd in Madison…..Advice to your younger self? Enjoy it! At the end of the day it's just sport, so how much it matters will depend on what you put in to it. ….When did you start Athletics: When I was about 7 at primary school. Won the school cross country race and it was on from there!...Podcast: In September 2021 he launched a very successful podcast the ‘Coffee Club’ with Olli Hoare and Kiwi George Beamish – all ON Athletics Club members…Squad: Post college Morgan initially trained with Team Boss led by Joe Bosshard. But in 2021 he moved on to the ON Athletics Club where he is coached by Dathan Ritzenhein.

@ 22 June 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au