Tri-Cities graduate is living her Olympic dream. Just not how she first envisioned it

Pasco High School graduate Marisa Howard always knew she could be an Olympic athlete.

Turns out she is one. But it wasn’t her original vision.

“Honestly, I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast when I was a young child,” said Howard, whose maiden name is Vander Malle.

But after 6 to 8 years of long practices, missing numerous dinners with her family, the whole thing soured her on gymnastics.

One thing Howard is is driven.

After dropping gymnastics, she instead turned to running. Last month in Eugene, Howard finished third in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final in the USA Olympic Track and Field Trials — earning her a spot on the United States team roster for the first time.

She’ll head to Paris with the rest of the team for the Summer Olympics, which runs from July 26-Aug. 11.

The first round of the women’s 3000 meters steeplechase begins at 1 a.m. Pacific time on Aug. 4. The final is at 12:10 p.m. Pacific on Aug. 6.

She’s missing the Opening Ceremonies — not leaving until July 28 — but “we’ll spend five or six days there after my event.”

“We” includes her husband, Jeff Howard, a runner she met and married while at school at Boise State University; and their 2-year-old son, Kai; as well as numerous family members and friends — anywhere from 15 to 20 people in the contingent.

For the 31-year-old Howard, being an Olympic athlete — and being ranked 26th in the world in her event — is a dream come true.

Sparking that dream

The 5-foot-2 Howard said growing up in the Tri-Cities was ideal.

“I had an amazing childhood living in Pasco,” she said. “We had 30 kids in our neighborhood, and we were all out there playing games like kick-the-can.”

After the change in sports, Howard continued to develop the drive in everything she did.

“I remember my brother and I got paper routes for the Tri-City Herald,” said Howard. “My brother quit not long after we started, and I lasted three years.”

That meant getting up, every day, before sunrise to deliver those papers.

Athletically, Howard took to cross country and running in track and field.

Gymnastics may have been a grind for her, she said, “but I morphed into a runner.”

There was an enjoyment she found in running, whether it was going in circles around a track, running over hills, or along the Pasco side of the Columbia River.

The 2010 Pasco High School graduate is still the school record holder in the 3 miles distance for cross country (18 minutes, 27 seconds), and the 1600 meters (4:58.44) and 3200 meters (10:40.98) in outdoor track.

Her talent attracted the attention of the Boise State University track and field coaches, and she accepted their offer to become a Bronco.

It was there that Howard’s coach sat her down freshman year and talked to her about her goals.

“He felt I could make a good steeplechaser,” she said. “I was a good 2-miler. I did a little hurdling in middle school (McLaughlin). So my redshirt freshman year I started working on it.”

It wasn’t easy starting out.

Running the 3,000 steeplechase is not easy. Concentration is needed in the event, which has a tall hurdle on one side of the track.

Runners, competing at a very fast pace (5-minute miles or better), must time their steps to jump up on top the wide hurdle.

Later in the lap, runners then jump on top of a barrier and then down into a pool of ankle-high water, before trying to pick up the pace again. The race is 7.5 laps.

“My first race ever was at Northwest Nazarene (in Nampa, Idaho), and I tripped in the first lap over a hurdle. My next race was at Spokane Community College, and I fell in the water jump,” said Howard.

But things got better after that.

“I went from a best time that year of 11 minutes and 13 seconds to 9:07 now (at the Trials), she said.

In between those times, Howard (Vander Malle at the time) became a four-time Mountain West Conference individual champion. She earned 11 MWC championship honors, and she was a three-time NCAA Division I All-American.

“I ran in college (at Boise State), competed in the NCAA Championships, and it was always in the back of my mind about going to the Olympics,” she said. “In 2014 I qualified for my first US Championships.”

Her career after Boise State

Howard has had some success internationally.

She was good enough running for the United States in two Pan American Games, in both 2019 and 2023.

That included winning a silver medal in the 2019 Games in Peru.

And while she appreciates those opportunities, they weren’t the same as competing in an Olympics.

“I’ve been knocking at the (Olympics) door since 2019,” Howard said.

Off the track, Howard and her husband settled into a nice lifestyle in Boise.

He became a teacher after school was completed; she a nurse.

And she kept running and cross-training with cycling and swimming, working with her coach, Pat McCurry (who just recently was named BSU’s head track and field coach).

Together, the Howards are also assistant coaches for the Rocky Mountain High School track and field team.

But they’re not getting rich.

“We live a very frugal lifestyle,” she said. “We refinanced our house in 2020. And we made some lifestyle choices. We love being in Boise.”

They’ve lived there for 14 years.

Her running can help bring in some money here and there, but it’s not much.

“Last year I made $10,000 in either prize money or pacing races,” she said. “We were able to write off $17,000.”

Pacing races is where either the race organizer or competitors pay Howard a few thousand dollars to set the pace fast at the start of the road race.

Howard isn’t expected to win, “and they’re great training practices.”

For her, the professional sponsorships just never came.

“I haven’t been offered a sponsorship since 2017,” Howard admitted. “But the Lord has provided, and I’ve never felt poor.”

Howard’s agent is currently working on a big sponsorship deal that could come through in the next few weeks.

But even without the sponsor deal, she has continued with that incredible drive.

In Eugene at the Trials, she looked at who was in the steeplechase finals with her, and every runner that wasn’t a current college athlete had a sponsor.

It didn’t matter.

On the final lap of the race, Howard made a move to take the lead. She held the lead to the very end and she came in third to qualify for the Olympics.

Her time of 9 minutes, 7.14 seconds was a personal best time that was over 15 seconds faster than anything she had ever run.

“Complete disbelief,” Howard told the media after the race. “The Lord is good. I knew I had a big (race) in me. It was just a matter of putting it together.”

Valerie Constien won the race in 9:03.22, and Courtney Wayment finished second at 9:06.50.

Training is the key

Howard credits the training that McCurry puts her through as a big key to her success.

“At Eugene, we knew the physical side was there. We just had to address the mental side,” Howard said.

That training includes one track workout and one hills workout a week.

There is not many hurdles training.

“Maybe two or three times a year. Usually before the first race of the season just a few hurdles drills.”

Then there is cross-training in both swimming and cycling.

It sets a base for her if she ever wants to become a triathlete.

“I saw that Pasco was hosting an Ironman competition in late September and thought about entering. But I’m not sure my coach would want me too,” she said.

That cross-training helped to keep her healthy.

“Some of the past standouts have torn their ACLs in the water jump. Almost every year I was in college, I was injured,” she said. “Somehow, I feel great these past few years, like I’m getting those years back.”

Even the year she was pregnant with Kai in 2022, it took less of a toll on her body — although she wasn’t idle for some of it.

“When I was pregnant, I was running 30-40 miles a week through 25 weeks,” said Howard. “At 30 weeks, I stopped running and started hiking, because you’ve got to keep moving. My midwife told me ‘Don’t stop moving. Your body is used to it.’”

After this Olympics

Howard notes that many women runners can continue to compete late into their 30s and some even in their 40s.

“My best days are ahead of me. My potential is there,” she said.

She sees herself running in two more Olympics.

“The 2028 race could still be in the steeplechase,” she said. “By 2032, it might be a flat track race because the steeplechase can cause so much damage to the body.”

One thing is for sure, though. She’s confident heading into Paris.

“I know,” she said, “that I can compete at this level.”