Marla Runyan

Marla Runyan

Personal information
Born	January 4, 1969 (1969-01-04) (age 48) Santa Maria, California, U.S.
Medal record Women's athletics (track and field) Representing the  United States Paralympic Games 1992 Barcelona 100 m B3 1992 Barcelona 200 m B3 1992 Barcelona 400 m B3 1992 Barcelona Long Jump B3 1996 Atlanta Pentathlon P10-12 1996 Atlanta Shot Put F12 Pan American Games 1999 Winnipeg 1500 m

Marla Lee Runyan (married name Lonergan, born January 4, 1969) is an American track and field athlete, road runner and marathon runner who is legally blind. She is a three-time national champion in the women's 5000 metres.

Runyan was born in Santa Maria, California. After graduating from Camarillo High School in 1987, she went on to study at San Diego State University, where she began competing in several sporting events: the heptathlon, 200-meter dash, high jump, shot put, 100-meter hurdles, long jump, javelin throw and the 800-meter run. In 1994 she received her master's degree in Education of Deafblind Children.

Runyan won four gold medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in the long jump and the 100, 200, and 400 meter races. She also competed in cycling at those games. She attempted to qualify for the "Able Bodied" Olympics at the 1996 U. S. Olympic Trials, finishing 10th in the Heptathlon. While failing to qualify, she ran the 800 meters in 2:04.60, a heptathlon-800m American record. This success convinced her to try distance running. At the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, she took silver in the shot put and gold in the pentathlon.

Her career as a world-class runner in able-bodied events began in 1999 at the Pan American Games, where she won Gold in the 1,500-meter race and was ranked second in the United States in that event in 1999 by Track and Field News. . The next year, she placed eighth in the 1,500-meter in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, making Runyan the first legally blind athlete to compete in the Olympics and the highest finish by an American woman in that event.

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