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Bronxville’s Mary Cain continues to find ways to lead in the running world
Bronxville native Mary Cain is now the President and CEO of Atalanta NYC, a non-profit organization that aims to help runners with career transitions and helping women in sports. (Courtesy: runmarycain/Instagram)

Bronxville’s Mary Cain continues to find ways to lead in the running world

BRONXVILLE, N.Y. (BVM) — It didn’t take long for Mary Cain to become a household name in her hometown of Bronxville, New York as she set herself apart from runners nationwide.

Cain received the title of a “child phenom” after recording a 6:15 mile in the fifth grade. She would follow that up in the seventh grade, completing a mile time of 5:03. 

As Cain gained recognition for her blazing times, the star runner would continue to find success, taking her talents to another level during her time in high school when she broke the freshman girls record at the New York State 1,500-meter championship. Cain would follow up that performance in her sophomore year, competing at the Junior World Championships in Barcelona. She ran the 1,500 in 4:11.01, setting a record for American high school girls.

After a run of finishing atop the record books, Cain’s time on the track would start to take a turn when she trained with the Nike Oregon Project. With so many accustomed to firstplace finishes, Cain would battle adversity during her time in Oregon, as the star runner would continue to battle against injuries. 

Later on, the professional runner would come out against the abuse she would receive from her Nike Project head coach Alberto Salazar. Cain struggled with low bone density issues throughout her time with the program and would share her experience of the toxic culture with the program, calling the Nike Oregon Project a, “system fraught with institutional negligence and malpractice.” Cain would break five bones during her time with the Nike program.

Following a return to her home in New York, Cain has continued to use her platform to help women in the sport she is so passionate about. Now 25, the Bronxville native returned to the track for the first time this past July as she aims to build her non-profit, Atalanta NYC. Cain is the President and CEO of Atalanta NYC, which dedicates itself to empowering the lives of professional female athletes and young girls through running. 

“For the talk of every organization that says they love to hire Olympians, the truth is most Olympians have no career experience,” Cain told NBC New York. “It’s that next step that can become really fraught and lead to a lot of anxiety, especially for women.”

Cain looks to help runners in the track world with career transitions through the aid of her organization while also helping make up for the lack of women in sports. Runners working with Atalanta NYC will be able to hold a job within the organization, with the goal that they can develop career skills that will help transition them to work, once their running careers end.

As Cain continues to grow her newest endeavor, she is hoping that her runners can find the same love for the sport that they came in with. 

“I think we’re really having this incredibly powerful moment right now where we are changing the conversation of what amateur and professional can really mean,” Cain told the Running for Real Podcast. “I think there is something really powerful about bringing [love] back into the professional world, that not only can they love the sport that they are in, but that they can also feel love from the people they are working for.”