Laura Mykytok

If there exists a Yearbook of Lost Souls, Laura Mykytok's in it, under the heading "athlete of the year." Her story is long and tangled, violent and troubling. And somehow through it all her talent keeps surfacing, like bubbles of air impelled to rush from the depths.

Shorthand, her athletic history goes something like this: emerges out of nowhere as a junior to run one of the fastest high school miles in history, fades away after a spotty career at Florida, re-emerges several years later as a road race star with a reputation for inconsistency. The real story demands book-length treatment.

As Laura Matson, she came out of Bloomfield Hills, a well-to-do suburb of Detroit. But her family background didn't fit in with the well-trimmed hedges and landscaped yards. Her parents divorced when she was 11. She and her five siblings grew up with their father. Mykytok says they were physically abused. She told Bucky McMahon, who wrote a telling piece on her for Running Times, "The emotional abuse was a lot more devastating."

Amazingly--or perhaps understandably--Mykytok ran track. The long miles of training must have been a safe refuge. When the miles punished, it was she who was in charge. Her junior year, she ran 4:39.4 for the 1600 meters at the Oakland County Championships. Suddenly she became a recruitable commodity. Colleges wanted her. The next year, as a senior, she wouldn't run nearly so fast. Always tall and thin, she looked thinner, weaker.

She accepted a scholarship to Florida, cutting her ties to her family. She told McMahon, "I just knew I wasn't going back once I left for college. I was going to be out there by myself for good."

Her running didn't blossom. She clocked a decent 4:20.56 for 1500m. She made it to a few national meets and bombed. She worked with a succession of coaches, and felt the system was far too impersonal. "There was nobody to talk to," she said. When the school finally asked her to stop competing for a year and seek counseling for her family problems, she fled to the west.

There are stories that she lived out of a car, basically homeless. To McMahon, she confirmed that. Living in the northern Arizona desert, she did the down-and-out routine in a small trailer. Mike Mykytok, a 28:50 runner for 10,000, joined her. Eventually they scraped up enough gas money to get back to Florida. One day they were engaged, the next they were married in a ceremony at Leonardo's Pizza in Gainesville.

The new husband talked his wife into running again in 1992. She took his advice to heart and soon was knocking off 140-mile weeks while delivering pizzas for a living. The next winter, she reeled off a 16:34 in her first serious road 5K. Then she opened eyes by clocking 51:52 at the Gasparilla 15K. Working with then-coach Monica O'Reilly, Mykytok described herself to Track & Field News as "the new kid on the block."

She ventured onto the track againin 1993, running 9:08.2 for 3000m. She entered the Penn Relays 5000, her first ever on the oval. She ran like a demon, whipping Sonia O'Sullivan and Gina Procaccio with her 15:44.27 debut. Looking forward to the USA Championships, she said, "I have yet to run a hard, competitive race on the track."

It didn't happen in Eugene. Mykytok foundered against names she had dominated at Penn, finishing 13th in 9:19.30. Track went back to playing second fiddle to roads, and it's not hard to understand why. For a runner at Mykytok's level, that's where the money is. In 1994 she clocked a series of tremendous times on the macadam: 15:24 for 5K, 25:50 for 8K, 32:36 for 10K. She won $10,000 at the prestigious Falmouth race.

Last year, Mykytok returned to the track in a serious fashion, winning the 3000 at both the San Jose GP (8:52.54 PR) and the Prefontaine Classic (8:51.37 PR). At the USA Championships, her brave running turned the 5000 into a true thriller. It would be the first time the race would be used to select a team for a major international, as the 5000 has replaced the 3000 as a World/Olympic championship distance. Mykytok made sure no one made the team who didn't earn it. Running against brutal winds, she forged a stiff pace, only to be outkicked at the finish by Procaccio.

In her first European tour, Mykytok started out with yet another best at 3000, an 8:51.23 in Nice. Then her lack of focus and inability to hold a peak showed. At the World Championships, she ran 15:48.95 in her heat, missing the final cut by more than 15 seconds. She returned stateside. In December she placed 5th at cross country nationals.

"Laura's scary," one of her road competitors has said. "She could be the best if she would just focus and stop racing so much." What seems obvious to some perhaps doesn't take into account that Mykytok runs for a reason. It's a reason the rest of us may never be able to grasp.

Career Stats

Born September 17, 1968 in Livonia, Mi

6-0/1.83m	132/60kg

Andover HS (Bloomfield Hills, Mi) '86

Florida '90

Nike



PRs (outdoor):

1500--4:20.56 '88

Mile--4:39.4m '85 (converts to 4:41.1)

3000--8:51.23 '95

5000--15:17.11 '95

10,000--34:22.19 '93



PRs (indoor):

1000--2:49.66 '87

1500--4:30.76 '87

Mile--4:45.45 '88



PRs (road):

5K--15:24 '94

8K--25:50 '94

10K--32:36 '94 (31:02 aided '95)

12K--39:56 '95

15K--49:54 '94

Half-Marathon--1:13:14 '93



Major Meets:

1988	5h)NCAA Indoor Mile

1988	9h)USA 1500

1993	13)USA 3000

1995	2)USA 5000

1995	10h)World Championships 5000

1995	5)USA XC