Julie A. Brown
For Julie Brown, moving up to the marathon was not much of a choice. At the time, the 5000m and 10000m were not offered for women, preventing Julie from pursuing her forte. Wary of the use of steroids among middle-distance women and wanting the best chance to win a medal internationally, she opted not to continue to compete in the 800m and 1500m. Banned substance use never felt like an option although a coach had approached her with the possibility. Thus, the addition of the women’s marathon to the 1984 Olympics presented a promising path for Julie to pursue.
Growing up in Billings, Montana as one of five, Julie began her running career when she followed in her sister’s footsteps and joined the high school cross-country team. Before long she was paving her own path. Her self-described “raw talent” and “intensity” carried her to early success. She began training by herself with the guidance of Neil Eliason, the Flathead Valley Community College coach in Kalispell, MT who prescribed her workouts via phone call. By the time she was a senior in high school, she was winning state championships and set the national high school record in the 880 yard run in a time of 2:11. This catapulted her into the “very eye-opening” world of running and travel beyond Montana.
Julie traveled out of state for the first time to compete on the national stage. There, she placed second in the 800 meter run in the junior division and fourth in the senior division with a time of 2:07. Julie capped off her 1973 track season traveling with the United States national team, many of whom she is still close friends with today, for the Junior Tour. Competing on the international stage in Germany, Russia, and Poland, Julie had an idea that she might be onto something.
With the concurrent passage of Title IX, “women’s sports were just taking off,” Julie explained. She accepted the first women’s athletic scholarship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Olympic pentathlete Pat Bank (Billie Pat Daniels Connolly) recruited Julie to train and compete under her tutelage. Shortly after Julie began her tenure at UCLA, Bank resigned to handle interpersonal issues.
A new [unnamed] coach took over and proved to be quite the “scoundrel,” taking advantage of his athletes in more ways than one. Julie explained, “my mentality was, I would run off a cliff if someone told me to, basically, if I trusted my coach. And he was kinda the same way. It was kinda a crash-and-burn situation as far as the coaching type…I didn’t know when to quit and I don’t think he knew when to quit.”
Not knowing any better and trusting in his expertise, Julie and many of her teammates transferred when he was fired from UCLA, following the coach to California State University, Northridge. However, Julie’s successes are not to be overshadowed by this dark side of the sport. She reflected that “you can’t look back in your life and have regrets because you learn from them and you grow from them.”
Julie is glad to see increased awareness surrounding the power that coaches have in an athlete’s development. She advocates that athletes who experience coaching challenges or abuse no longer take on “shame” and “denial” in their situation. Providing words of caution and encouragement to younger athletes, Julie stated that “I had some bad influence in my early career but it didn’t kill me…I think young athletes need to be more aware of their coaches and need to not be quite as naive as I was. But, explore their talents and go for it: it takes time.”
Julie found healthy coach-athlete relationships in the many U.S. national teams she made during and after college. She showcased an impressive range of events from the 4x400, to the marathon, to cross-country. Notably, she was the first U.S. woman to win the IAAF Cross Country championships which she achieved in 1975 in what felt like an “out of body experience.” She noted that in Japan and Europe particularly, people were “very passionate about their women athletes,” joking that “we were kinda big stars, at least in our heads maybe.” Eventually, with the help of her sponsor, adidas, she was able to “drop-kick” her college coach and find a positive mentor and expert coach in the esteemed Bill Dellinger.
After qualifying as an alternate for the 1976 Olympics, Julie made the Olympic team in the 800 and 1500 heading into the 1980 games. However, the U.S. boycott further delayed her Olympic dreams. Around the same time, the use of banned substances was becoming apparent to Julie and it was announced that the women’s marathon would be a new installment in the 1984 Olympics.
Julie’s previous marathon experience consisted of a training race in 1978. She went into that race with no plan other than a winning mentality. Not only did she win the race, but she set an American record with a time of 2:36:23. Then, in 1983, she upped her middle-distance focused training from around 60-70 miles a week to 120 and was rewarded with an impressive 2:26:26 marathon PR and finally at the trials, an Olympic berth. Once in L.A. for the 1984 Olympics, she struggled during the race with over-training and mono that was not diagnosed until after the race.
Continuing with her running career did not present a sustainable pathway, something Julie hopes is changing for female runners – so she returned to school to pursue law. A torn plantar fasciitis sidelined Julie from the 1988 Olympic Trials thus ending her running career.
Today, Julie remains on the west coast residing in San Diego, California where she has worked as a lawyer for 31 years. Julie is excited by the improved opportunities for female athletes to make a career of the sport while getting equal opportunities to compete in an array of events. She hopes the sport will only continue to carry greater sponsorship and leadership. Ultimately, Julie wants to see the momentum of attention and excitement around track and field that comes with the Olympics to grow beyond a once every four-year affair.
Note about the author: Haley Markos currently resides in Portland, ME where she coaches track and field, cross-country, and swimming. She will begin pursuing a Master’s in Exercise Science and Sports Studies at Smith College while serving as an assistant cross-country and track and field coach in the fall of 2022.
