Brenda Martinez

Martinez was the school record holder in the 1600m (4:55), 800m (2:16), two mile (11:12), and three mile (17:28).

She also ran with the West Coast Gazelle Track Club.

That same year she participated at the US Olympic Trails held in Eugene, Oregon where she finished 6th in the semi-finals of the 800-meters.

With her 3rd place finish, Martinez became the first American female to medal in an outdoor World Championship 800-meters event.

Brenda Martinez (born September 8, 1987) is an American middle-distance runner and Olympian.

Martinez attended Rancho Cucamonga High School, graduating in 2005.

She was a four-year letter winner in track and cross country where she was coached by Carlton Austen.

Martinez ran collegiately for University of California at Riverside ("UCR") from 2006-2010, where she was coached by Joe Vigil.

She is a three time All-American.

She earned Big West All-Conference honors in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In 2008, Martinez was named UC Riverside Female Athlete of the Year.

She finished second at the 2009 NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 1500 meters and ninth in the 800-meters at the USA Track and Field Nationals.

Martinez was named the 2009 Big West Track Athlete of the Year and while at UCR was recognized seven-times as the Big West Athlete of the Week.

She established several outdoor UCR school records including the women's 800m (2:02.34), 1500m (4:13.58), and 5000m (16:27.51) events.

She was a member of UCR's outdoor distance medley relay team that set the record for fastest time in program history with a time of 11:13.72.

Martinez also set indoor school records in the mile (4:39.58) and 3000m (9:17.60) events and was a member of UCR's indoor distance medley relay that set the school record with a time of 11:29.34.

In 2010, Martinez signed a professional contract with New Balance.

She represented the US at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 1500 meters.

In 2012, Martinez finished second in the 1500 meters at the USA Indoor Championships in addition to winning the U.S. Open Mile indoors at Madison Square Garden.

She also won titles at the 5th Avenue Mile (4:24.2 road PR) and the Falmouth Mile (4:26.76, fastest female Miler in 2012 on the track).

Born in Upland, California, she won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow and finished first in the 800 meters at the 2014 Diamond League Final.

At the 2013 IAAF World Championships at 800-meters in Moscow, Martinez ran a spectacular final 100-meters surging from 6th place to 3rd to capture the bronze medal in 1:57.91; a personal best.

She finished one-tenth of a second behind Russia's Mariya Savinova (1:57.80), who grabbed the silver.

The race was won by Kenya's Eunice Sum in 1:57.38.

In 2013, she won the 2013 B.A.A. Invitational Mile in 4:51.4 on the streets of downtown Boston the day before the storied Boston Marathon.

She was also a member of the U.S. record setting 4x800m team at the 2013 Penn Relays; the team collectively smashed the old mark by 13 seconds with their 8:04.31.

At the inaugural IAAF World Relays 2014 hosted by the Bahamas in late May, she anchored the women's 4x800 to a gold medal and U.S. record (8:01.58) and also was a member of the 4x1500 silver medal team.

Martinez twice set the world record in the Distance Medley Relay at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston; first on February 7, 2015, and then breaking her own record on January 28, 2017.

In 2015, along with her husband, she started Big Bear Track Club, a nonprofit, working with post-collegians to help develop American distance runners into world-class athletes.

Their first recruited was Boris Berian.

In a thrilling distance race at the 2015 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix at Boston’s Reggie Lewis Center on February 7, 2015, Martinez caught Nicole Tully of the NY All-Stars in the final meters to win the distance medley relay in 10:42.57.

Tully finished in 10:42.79.

The New Balance quartet’s winning time set a world record smashing the old-world record of 10:50.98.

Besides Martinez, the American team included Sarah Brown, Mahogany Jones and former Dartmouth College track star, Megan Krumpoch.

Their times were: Brown (1200m - 3:15.54), Jones (400m - 53.59), Krumpoch (800m - 2:05.68) and Martinez (1600m - 4:27.77).

In 2016, Martinez qualified for the U.S. Olympic team competing in the 1500 meters after beating Amanda Eccleston by 0.03 seconds.

Her training is meticulously planned by veteran coach Joe Vigil and assisted by Martinez's husband and former Concordia University (California) runner, Carlos Handler.

On March 12, 2016, Martinez won the 2016 USA Indoor 1500-meters title (her first) in Portland, Oregon, clocking 4:08.37.

Later than year, Martinez qualified to run in two events at the US Olympic Trials, her specialty, the 800-meters and her secondary event, the 1500-meters.

In 2017, Martinez's bronze medal was upgraded to silver after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned Savinova and stripped her of both her World Championship medals (2011 and 2013) and her Olympic gold medal from 2012 for using a performance enhance drug.