Most 27-year-old math teachers don’t have a shot at Olympic dreams — but that isn’t the case for Long Island’s Lauren Harris, whose chance at glory is a long time coming after years of reluctance.
The incredible racewalker — she’s ranked 34th worldwide and holds several American records for distances as long as a half marathon and as short as a 5K — is putting herself on the fast track as a hopeful for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles ahead of qualifiers in December.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” the educator at Center Moriches High School told The Post. “I keep saying: I’m all in for these Olympics and trying to make it.”
The Sachem East-turned-Marist track star’s attitude is a far cry from where she was post-college, with one foot out the door from ever competing again.
“I just wasn’t mature enough yet, I think, to fully commit myself to the sport,” she said.
Stumble along the way
Harris’ noncommittal streak spans back to high school, when she got busted skipping track practice to watch a basketball game with friends. The only thing that saved her from being tossed off the team was reading a letter of apology to her fellow runners and coaches aloud.
Though Harris didn’t take racewalking as seriously as she should have at times, local two-time Olympian Maria Michta-Coffey, the wife of her coach Joseph Coffey, saw the undeniable skills.
“She really had quite a bit of talent as a high schooler,” said Michta-Coffey, a physician assistant at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore.
It was still pulling teeth to get Harris to reach her full potential after college, as she would flake on Michta-Coffey, who was more than willing to train a next-generation protégé.
“The level of like, ‘I’m tired, I’m sleeping in, I’m not going to meet you for practice today,’ ” Michta-Coffey recalled. “Or, like, ‘Oops, sorry, this didn’t work out, or I’m hanging out with people tonight, so it’s not going to work out tomorrow.’ ”
Harris ended up taking about three years off from the sport in 2021 while starting up her teaching career — a financial necessity as racewalking alone can’t make ends meet.
“Things kind of just spiraled downhill,” Michta-Coffey said of Harris’ athletic career. “My husband and I would lament how she had this talent that got away. ‘Could you imagine how good she could be? She has all this potential, too bad.’ We just couldn’t get it right on track.”
Harris couldn’t truly stay away for good, though, and found herself coaching up-and-coming youth runners and walkers for a love of the game. She even volunteered with Sachem coach Daniel Schaub, who was the one ready to toss her off the team a few short years prior.
“I showed up to the meets, and it was so exciting,” Harris said of rekindling her racewalking love around 2024.
Watching the Paris Games that summer with a coulda-woulda-shoulda mindset was another factor.
“Then it’s like, I’m running every day, I’m in shape,” she said. “Why don’t I just get back into walking and feel this joy of racing again?”
Best foot forward
She pulled out the stops and went all in, intending to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo last September.
“I had one year basically to become top 50 in the world,” Harris said.
When she wasn’t teaching, she was training — hitting both the pavement and track by her Lindenhurst apartment while wowing Michta-Coffey with the suddenly unbreakable champion’s mentality.
“If anything, I have to be the one to keep her in check and hold her back,” Michta-Coffey proudly said, calling Harris’ change of heart “unparalleled.”
Making the top 50 worldwide turned into a piece of cake. Harris finished 27th in Tokyo last year and 13th in the 2026 World Championships in Brazil.
“I found some intrinsic motivation that I didn’t have prior,” she said.
Now everybody from Michta-Coffey to her school to neighbors, sponsors and local fans are all in on Harris’ success and Olympic pursuit.
Especially her mom and dad, Gina and Todd.
Gina handles the “behind-the-scenes stuff” such as having groceries available for her daughter, while Todd won’t miss a moment of training come hell or high water — literally.
Harris’ dad rides his bike alongside her while she hits the road no matter the conditions, like last winter when she braved a nine-miler during freezing rain.
“He went out and got a yellow giant rainsuit. He looked like Big Bird, and he put it on and was biking next to me,” Harris said with a laugh. “And he’s been to every country with me: China, Japan, everywhere, Finland. He does not miss anything. I know how proud he is of me.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
