in the seeded section of the girls 1500 meters.

- Go, Sophia!

- On your marks.

(starter's pistol pops) (spectators cheering) - [Michelle] At barely 18 years old, Sophia Gorriaran has had a good run so far, setting world national and state records in multiple track events.

(spectators shouting) At the recent State High School Track Championships.

She set a new meet record in the 800 meters and captured the top spot in the 1500 meters and the 4x400 relay, which she anchored.

- [Spectator] There we go Sophia!

- [Announcer] And your 2023, 1500 meter champion, from Moses Brown, Sophia Gorriaran!

(spectators applaud) - Right after you, like, you win a race, it's a really good feeling.

It's just I love to compete, whatever it is.

So yeah, like to test like how fast I am and how I compare to like other people.

I just like the challenge.

- [Announcer] Sophia Gorriaran from Road Island, she can run anything from the 200 all the way up to the 3K, and has set all-time bests every single time she pretty much steps onto the track.

- Do you remember the first time when you said to yourself, "Wow, I'm fast"?

- The first time was probably like in seventh or eighth grade when I was competing in like the national championships for outdoor track, winning in the 800 and 1500 meters indoors, and then the 800.

Outdoors in the 1500 meter, I came in second so then I was like, oh yeah, that's pretty good.

And going into high school I was pretty confident that I'd be able to do pretty well.

- [Announcer] Sophia Gorriaran makes the pass into the turn.

She gets to the rail, will she hold off Shanti Jackson?

Endurance versus speed.

It's Sophia Gorriaran to the line.

She runs 1:11.

- That's insane.

- [Announcer] 1:11:35.

- Is it something that's always felt natural to you?

- Yeah, I would say, I mean I started running since I was like three and a half, and it's always just felt like second nature pretty much.

So yeah.

- Three and a half?

- Yeah, like three and a half or four years old.

You could barely walk.

- Yeah.

- You're a toddler.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - How did that happen?

Well, my siblings were running track at Hope High School for the Providence Cobras and I was really like asking my dad if I could run with them and he'd be like, "No, not yet."

And then finally he let me run.

- [Pamela] So you were trying to keep up with your siblings?

- [Sophie] Yeah, yeah.

- You could tell she could run right from the beginning.

Like, she had pretty good speed and natural endurance where she could just keep running.

(starter's pistol pops) - [Announcer] And we're off.

- I entered her in the NCAA last chance race in BU when she was eight years old, so anybody can run in it, okay, and I said, "Oh, who knows if she'll run?"

- [Announcer] I gotta say Sophia Gorriaran on the outside lane, she was out hard.

- [Steven] So that was pretty exciting.

She raced her sister and there was another woman there.

The woman who was coming back from an injury and she was trying to win.

- [Announcer] It's starting to get heated down the back.

Well, look at that.

Sophia Gorriaran responds to the surge on the back stretch.

Are you serious right now?

This, I'm very impressed.

- And at the end of the race she actually pulled ahead of Sophia by a hair.

- Can she hold on?

(crowd cheering) - And then if you watch the race carefully, you see in the last 15 meters, all sudden Sophia goes (buzzes) really fast, and she goes boop, and just finished back in front of her by, like, a 100th.

- [Announcer] I think, I think she took it.

- It's just that competitiveness.

It is funny if you watch the people in the crowd while the race is going on, they're all laughing, you know, look at the little kid run.

- [Announcer] Wow, an 8-year-old just ran a 70-second 400.

I am incredibly impressed right now.

- [Steven] But then the BU coaches came over to me afterwards and they said, "Look, we appreciate it, it was a great race, it was fun," everything like that, but don't bring it back to the NCAA last chance qualifier when she's eight years old.

Let's wait a few years.

(Pamela laughs) - Where do you get that competitive spirit?

- I think it just like runs in my family, I guess.

- Well, I think we come from a family of athletes.

You know, my grandfather, her great-grandfather, was a big wrestler at MIT and rower, and managed to succeed at Olympic wrestling team in Mexico City and he's in the International Wrestling Hall of Fame.

- [Pamela] Steven Gorriaran played football and ran track at Brown University.

He acts as coach and manager for his daughter.

- I was gonna have you on a 200 to 35 or something, too.

- Sophia's older brother, Max, and sister, Natasha, are college athletes.

Mom, Karine, is a pediatrician who runs recreationally.

With that pedigree, it's no wonder at 16, Sophia Gorriaran qualified as the youngest female athlete in track and field to ever compete in the US Olympic trials.

- It was like a very cool, like amazing experience.

I was just like really happy to be there and happy that my family was there with me supporting me.

- [Pamela] Despite being able to run like the wind, it has hardly been a breeze.

The road to becoming an elite athlete is grueling.

And like sometimes like when you're running, it's really painful, like in practice it'll be painful, but like the reward after it is like amazing.

I usually train like six days a week.

I'll have three to four, like, hard, usually four hard days unless I have a meet.

then it'll be three.

And then in between that, I'll usually go on like easier runs, longer runs just to, like, kind of shake out my legs after a hard practice.

And then I also go to the gym like twice a week, sometimes three.

- [Pamela] In addition to her athletic success, there's academics, where Gorriaran has again taken the lead.

I think everybody would like to know what the secret sauce is on that.

- (laughs) I mean it's definitely tough.

Time management management's a big thing, and kind of like just like making sure like you also get enough sleep, which I struggle with a lot.

I tend to go to bed pretty late.

- [Pamela] Even lack of sleep has not deterred her from the next step.

Instead of going pro, as you might've already guessed, she's going to Harvard, where Gorriaran will continue to run track.

- The NCAA really helps like athletes develop, because you get like a lot more support in the NCAA, like your coaches and everything, and you have like more resources available to you sometimes than when you're a pro, so, and it helps you just like grow.

- Growing up, Gorriaran has received advice from the pros and coaches around Rhode Island, but it is her father who practices by her side.

- I always practice with her, just because I felt like she needed someone to practice with, so I would help her set the pace.

So I would start with her a lot.

Like if she was gonna run 800 meters, I might go 200 on, 200 off, 200 on, 200 off.

And then as she got faster I'm like wait a second, I used to get a 42-second rest 'cause it would take her that long, enough to do a lap.

Now, I get a 40, then I got a 38, then I got a 35.

I'm like, you're killing me, okay?

I'm getting older and you're giving me less rest.

- [Pamela] While she's now out-pacing him, he never ceases to Marvel at her speed.

- Just we'd be out there on the weekend, and just seeing her run through the turn.

I always used to think to myself that it was like watching Secretariat, the horse run, you know, just she looked so beautiful on the turn, just running, just the mechanics and just flowing and very naturally.

I trust Sophia and her knowledge of track and field, and I've told her I don't care if I'm screaming something to you, or another coach is yelling something to you for what you should be doing, or make this move or do this, if you know that's not the right thing to do, you do what you think is best.

You know, I trust you more than I trust me to tell you what to do.

- I think I'm like a pretty strong runner.

I can hold like a fast pace for a while, so I think that's like one of my strengths.

And I usually tend to stay pretty calm before races, like, not get nervous and stuff.

I know like many runners struggle with that.

So I think that's also another one of my strengths.

- [Pamela] Her Moses Brown track coach Matty Bennett says in addition to physical skill, Gorriaran has an amazing mental ability to pull away from the pack.

- That she's just continually wanting to be better, and I think that drive and that fire and that desire is really what sets her apart, of just kind of never being satisfied and always wanting to achieve the next goal.

- Do you dream of Olympic gold?

- I do, yeah.

I have since I was very young, yeah.

I've always wanted that, so I'm really hoping that I get the chance to accomplish that.

- What do you think of the '24 Olympics in Paris?

- Yeah, I would love to be there.

- [Pamela] And what will it take to get an Olympic medal?

- Ooh, luck.

(laughs) No.

What's it gonna take for anybody?

I think we're in a renaissance now of the 800 meters, okay, in the United States.

(announcer speaks faintly) - [Announcer] Ajee Wilson, the 2022 World Indoor Champion in the 800.

- I think we're gonna have four or five, six of the top eight 10 women in the world will be American.

- [Announcer] And then on the outside is Athing Mu, 2021 Olympic champion and American record holder in the 800.

- That was never like that in the past, okay?

And so I think that all of 'em could come down to separation of tenths.

We could say it's gonna take hard work, it's gonna take this, it's probably gonna take strategy brains.

Okay, people always think of it being a physical thing, but it's probably gonna take mental ability too, mental toughness and making the right decision at the right time.

- Obviously we've seen her have incredible success at the, you know, world level, so yeah, I think it's totally possible.

- [Announcer] We are off.

Gorriaran.

Trey, Henderson, Gould, Wilson, Mu, Akins and Baker.

This is what the people came to see.

(announcer continues faintly) - You have to like fight and push as hard as you can.

You can't give up.

Every time out there, I'm like, I don't really have anything to lose, 'cause I'm pretty young.

I still have like a long way to go.

Big thing about track is just sticking with it, 'cause you definitely have like your bad days, or sometimes like a whole season won't go your way, so you just have to like stick with it and keep putting in the work, and eventually it'll come around, and you'll end up running what you wanna run or better.

- [Announcer] And Sophia Gorriaran, the high schooler, runs for a fourth-place finish in this absolutely loaded field.

- So I think that's a big thing: perseverance.

(bright music) (bright music continues)