Olympian Shannon Rowbury ’06, A.M.’08 seems to have a knack for taking things to the top – whether it’s running, championing sport or promoting women’s health.
When she was 5, she started Irish dancing and within the next decade of her young life, she rose to 7th in the nation. In high school, the San Francisco native started running and found out she was fast. She married speed with her driven work ethic, and by the time she was a junior, she was a national champion in Track & Field – and also an academic standout.
“I didn’t know then that professional running was an option, so I wanted to go to the best school I could to get the best education,” said the Olympic bronze-medalist runner and Duke alum.
“There were really only a couple programs in the country that had that combination of academics and athletics and included a full athletic scholarship. And Duke just provided everything I could have wished for when it came to picking a school.”
Once in Durham, a place far different from the California of her upbringing but one she came to love, her trajectory of excellence continued. She scored ACC titles and won the NCAA indoor mile, with her Duke team also placing second at the cross-country nationals. She was an academic all-American, earning magna cum laude honors as an undergrad and later graduating cum laude with her master’s degree.
She signed a pro contract in 2007 with Nike when her collegiate eligibility ended and while still in grad school. She quickly pivoted to her first Olympic team and games in 2008.
“It was a lot to juggle,” Rowbury, 41, recalled, but it was only the beginning of a track career that would see her through three Olympics – earning bronze in 2012 in the women’s 1500 meters – and becoming the first American woman to do it. She ran her last professional race in 2021.
“I was Top 10 in the world for a decade,” she said of her success. She held three American records and a world record in the relay. She was named by the U.S. State Department as a sports envoy to Morocco on the topic of “Women’s Empowerment Through Sport.” She founded a nonprofit called “Imagining More,” and most recently, earned an Emmy for her work as a track and field analyst for NBC Sports covering the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
During her ascension to the top of the running ranks and while navigating a super busy life, she nurtured her desire to fight for women’s health and equity in sports. She married and became a mother for the first time while still a competitive athlete and worked to author USA Track and Field’s groundbreaking maternity policy that ensured athlete mothers could retain health insurance for themselves and their children.
“What we created was basically ensuring that our female athletes would keep their health insurance … during pregnancy and for 12 months postpartum,” Rowbury said. In professional sports, “We have to earn our health insurance through performance, and we wanted to make sure that moms weren't risking losing it simply because they went through the very human act of becoming a parent. That policy became the framework that the shoe companies later adopted and other sports [national governing bodies] adopted when that conversation in 2018 and 2019 about maternity and sports became more at the forefront.”
She adds: “It's been this sort of undercurrent of my career. For it to be the main talking point now is really cool in some ways. It might seem like it's a bit of a pivot, but really, it's been something that I've been working on for two decades.”
Rowbury said that while she was a professional athlete, finding solid information about what she should be doing for her body, her training and the health of her child during and after pregnancy was challenging. She consulted with pelvic health expert Jessica Dorrington for guidance. Their co-authored book, “Strong As a Mother,” hit bookstores on Feb. 17, offering athletes and non-athletes alike Olympic-level athletic experience alongside specialized medical knowledge on how women can approach fitness during pregnancy and postpartum.
Notes the book: “Doctors frequently warn women to slow down and rest during pregnancy. But years of scientific research – and the personal experiences of Rowbury and Dorrington – show that pregnant women's bodies are capable of so much more.”
Rowbury will moderate a panel titled “Living Aligned: A Conversation About Ambition, Awareness and Authenticity” during this year’s Women’s Weekend Feb. 19-21 on campus.
Learn more about her work at https://www.shannonrowbury.com/.