EVAN JAGER RETIRES

36 years old! Honestly shocked this announcement came as late as it did.

Big fan of Evan's. One of the first guys I remember idolizing in the sport, and always held out hope he'd make a comeback and crack 8 minutes after his heartbreaking 8:00.45 in 2015. Also hoped to see him on the roads making a serious attempt in a half or even a marathon.

Congrats on a great career

Could sense this coming after he failed to make the final at USAs this year.

An incredible career. Mixed it up with the Kenyans (and beat many of them) in an era when the Kenyans dominated the steeple like no other event. His Olympic silver in 2016 was the first medal by an American steepler in 32 years. 8:00.45 is still the American record 10 years on, and he would have been well under 8:00 without the fall.

I was also really impressed by his comeback in 2022. The second half of Jager's career was derailed by injuries, and he missed basically all of the 2019 and 2021 seasons but came back at age 32 to make the team and finish 6th at Worlds.

And one of the nicest guys around. Always had time for an interview and very thoughtful.

No doubt one of the greatest American careers. However, I don’t know that he would have been successful at the longer stuff. I remember hearing that the 5k was his distance racing limit and that he struggled in long runs. Not sure if that’s true or not and he was so derailed by injuries that a marathon would have been nearly impossible anyway so who knows.

I suppose that's true. He was a mid distance guy at Wisconsin so that would make sense. 13:02 over 5K at his "limit" is pretty insane...

I saw him absolutely annihate my home XC course's record when he was in high school, running its extremely hilly 5k in about 15:30 and change. He looked like he was jogging.

Tremendous talent. Great career. Gave us the "discus" in-joke. He will not be forgotten.

Right and I think that was prior to the super shoes. He was just so smooth and efficient.

I think a universally-loved athlete. One of my favorite running forms of all time; a beauty to watch and also a badass who was unafraid to take it to the East Africans. In my senior year of high school, I taped a picture on the wall next to my bed of him yelling in triumph as he won USAs one year, envisioning that was how it would feel to show everyone what I was made of after coming back from injury (I did not, lol).

Thank you, Evan. The record books may say otherwise, but you’re a sub-8:00 steeplechaser in all of our hearts and minds.

Yeah he was an incredible high school talent. I think he didn’t run much mileage until like his junior year of track when he started to increase volume a little bit. Then he started to do crazy things; like run around 8:50 for two miles and run 14:07 at the state XC meet at Peoria his senior year. And he had versatility. He could split 1:50 on the 4x8. They thought he was going to be more of an 8/15 guy at first, but he proved to be even better at the 2 mile and 5k. I remember the late coach Joe Newton said at the time that he thought Jager was the greatest Illinois high school runner ever, and that list includes Virgin, Spivey, Chris Derrick, Verbzikas, Withrow, Sage, and others. That’s saying something.

Talked to him at the Wild Duck after the steeple final in 2022. He was pretty disappointed in the race but still had time to chat it up with some fans later that night.

I was standing at the finish line at the Portland track festival in 2015 when he won the race and ran 3:32.9. His smile lit up the night.

It's one of the most heartbreaking falls in track running history.

You have higher profile ones in El G 1996 and Mary Decker in '84 etc because of the stakes (potential Olympic golds), but the 8.00 barrier is still very much a threshold of excellence in the event that has existed for decades and still exists today. To this day, no athlete outside of Ethiopia, Morocco or Kenya has broken 8min and you look at even a guy like Beamish with his talent and ability - his PR is 8.09.6. He was exactly 10m ahead of Birech that day coming into the straight and finished about 10m behind him after the fall. Birech did lift markedly in the final 50 after he saw the fall but Jager was going to win that race by at least 5 meters no matter what. 5 meters up on the 7.58.41 winning time implies a time in the 7.57.5, 7.57.6 range and slots him about 12th on the all-time list.

The crazy thing is about the fall is that he clears the steeple with his front leg by about a foot and almost imperceptibly grazes the steeple with his trail - it's literally a matter of 1/4-1/2 an inch.

Just shows how fine the margins are and also career window-wise. After this race it would have seemed incomprehensible he wouldn't break 8 but despite two more big attempts in Monaco in 2017 and 2018 (both 8.01's) it wasn't to be.

Easily the most talented American steeplechaser ever with a sub 3.33 1500m and a 13.02 5000m. He had a great career as you said.

right, uh huh

sad because he is White of course

you fool

So we can't mention that IAAF anti-doping thought he was likely doping?