Lynn Jennings

{{Infobox sportsperson

| image =

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| full_name = Lynn Alice Jennings

| birth_date = {{birth-date and age|July 1, 1960}}

| birth_place = Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

| headercolor = lightsteelblue

| show-medals = yes

| medaltemplates =

{{Medal|Country | {{flagu|United States}} }}

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Lynn Alice Jennings (born July 1, 1960) is a retired American long-distance runner. She is one of the best female American runners of all time, with a range from 1500 meters to the marathon. She excelled at all three of the sport's major disciplines: track, road, and cross country. She won the bronze in the Women's 10,000 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She set a world indoor record in the 5000 meter run in 1990.

She is a nine-time champion of the USA Cross Country Championships and won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships three times consecutively from 1990 to 1992. Only two other women (Norway's Grete Waitz and Kenya's Edith Masai) have achieved this feat.

Career

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Jennings attended the Bromfield school in Harvard, Massachusetts. She ran on the boys' cross country team, as there was no girls' team at the time. Jennings won the U.S. National Cross Country Championship nine times. She ran the Boston Marathon unofficially in 1978 and finished in 2:46, a time which would have placed third in the open women's division and a record for her age group {{cite web |url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2006/12/06/16873/ |title=The Top 20 Greatest Athletes – No. 6: Lynn Jennings '83 |author=Peter Tucci |date=6 December 2006 |work=The Daily Princetonian |publisher=Princeton University |access-date=21 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315115244/http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2006/12/06/16873/ |archive-date=15 March 2009 |url-status=dead }}'. Graduating in Harvard, MA, in 1978, she left behind countless records, including the national high school indoor 1500-meters run.

Jennings attended Princeton University and graduated with an A.B. in history in 1983 after completing a 93-page long senior thesis titled "The Harvard Shakers: A Study of the Rise and Decline of a Community."{{Cite thesis|last=Jennings|first=Lynn Alice|editor-last=Princeton University. Department of History|title=The Harvard Shakers: A Study of the Rise and Decline of a Community|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/dsp01rx913r15v}} Despite numerous college running titles, she left the university "unsatisified" with her performance. She failed to qualify for the 1984 Olympics, but was the bronze medalist at 10,000 meters in the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in Barcelona, Spain. Her time of 31:19.89 was a new American record, and it lasted until May 3, 2002, when it was broken by Deena Kastor in Palo Alto, California.

She won the World Cross Country Championships in 1990, 1991, and 1992. The 1992 race was held at Franklin Park in Boston, on some of the same trails where she had won several Massachusetts state high school championships. She won consecutive 3000 m medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, taking bronze in 1993 then silver in 1995. Outdoors she had fifth-place finishes over 10,000 metres in both the 1991 and 1993 World Championships. She was also a nine-time U.S. Outdoor champion.

In 1999, approaching age 39, she ran officially in the Boston Marathon in 2:38.

Jennings currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She has become an accomplished masters rower (sculler), winning a gold medal in 2012{{cite web | title=Past Winners | url=http://www.hocr.org/past-regattas/past-winners/ | website=hocr.org | access-date=October 25, 2016}} and bronze medal in 2011,{{cite news |last=Powers |first=John |date=October 23, 2011 |title=Washington ready for old college try |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2011/10/23/washington-ready-for-old-college-try/8wJRvJf1zRp2bPCL1YFAzN/story.html |newspaper=Boston Globe |location=Boston |access-date=October 25, 2016}} in the women's grand master single scull event at the Head of the Charles Regatta, one of the most competitive and prestigious long-distance rowing races in the world.

In 2023, Jennings revealed that she had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her longtime coach John Babington starting from when she was 15 years old. Babington, who was accused of abusing two other girls, confessed to the majority of accusations when questioned by The Boston Globe but cannot be charged due to the statute of limitations.{{cite web |last1=Lorge Butler |first1=Sarah |title=John Babington, Who Coached Bronze Medalist Lynn Jennings, Banned by SafeSport |url=https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a42328989/john-babington-banned-by-safesport/ |website=Runner's World |access-date=March 16, 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Hohler |first1=Bob |author-link1=Bob Hohler |title=A reckoning, decades in the making: Famed Olympic runner Lynn Jennings chases down the renowned coach who abused her as a teen |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/17/sports/lynn-jennings-john-babington/ |access-date=March 16, 2024 |work=The Boston Globe |date=February 17, 2023}}

Achievements

{{AchievementTable\|width=auto\|Event=yes}}
colspan="6" \| Representing the {{flagu\|United States}}
1986 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Neuchâtel, Switzerland \| bgcolor="silver" \| 2nd \| \|
rowspan=2 \| 1987 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Warsaw, Poland \| 4th \| \|
World Championships \| Rome, Italy \| 6th \| 10,000 m \| 31:45.43
rowspan=2 \| 1988 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Auckland, New Zealand \| 4th \| \|
Olympic Games \| Seoul, South Korea \| 6th \| 10,000 m \| 31:39.93
1989 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Stavanger, Norway \| 6th \| \|
rowspan=2 \| 1990 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Aix-les-Bains, France \| bgcolor="gold" \| 1st \| \|
Goodwill Games \| Seattle, United States \| bgcolor="cc9966" \| 3rd \| 3000 m \| 8:52.34
rowspan=2 \| 1991 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Antwerp, Belgium \| bgcolor="gold" \| 1st \| \|
World Championships \| Tokyo, Japan \| 5th \| 10,000 m \| 31:54.44
rowspan=2 \| 1992 \| World Cross Country Championships \| Boston, United States \| bgcolor="gold" \| 1st \| \|
Olympic Games \| Barcelona, Spain \| bgcolor="cc9966" \| 3rd \| 10,000 m \| 31:19.89
rowspan=3 \| 1993 \| World Indoor Championships \| Toronto, Canada \| bgcolor="cc9966" \| 3rd \| 3000 m \| 9:03.78
World Cross Country Championships \| Amorebieta-Etxano, Spain \| bgcolor="cc9966" \| 3rd \| \|
World Championships \| Stuttgart, Germany \| 5th \| 10,000 m \| 31:30.53
rowspan=2 \| 1995 \| World Indoor Championships \| Barcelona, Spain \| bgcolor="silver" \| 2nd \| 3000 m \| 8:55.23
World Championships \| Gothenburg, Sweden \| 12th \| 10,000 m \| 32:12.82
1996 \| Olympic Games \| Atlanta, United States \| 9th \| 5000 m \| 15:17.50

colspan="6" | Representing the {{flagu|United States}}

1986

| World Cross Country Championships

| Neuchâtel, Switzerland

| bgcolor="silver" | 2nd

rowspan=2 | 1987

| World Cross Country Championships

| Warsaw, Poland

| 4th

World Championships

| Rome, Italy

| 6th