Where the Streets Have Olympians’ Names

Although Shelby Houlihan doesn’t often have a chance to visit her hometown of Sioux City, Iowa, anymore, when she does, she enjoys her old stomping grounds, including a running route near her high school she frequently covered as a kid with her mom, Connie Houlihan.

Soon that route may include a street named in her honor. Bob Scott, mayor of Sioux City, has proposed that a stretch of road be renamed “Houlihan Run,” in recognition of her achievement of being the city’s first female Olympic track runner. The proposal is under consideration by the Sioux City Planning and Zoning Commission.

Houlihan, 24, who now lives and trains in Portland, Oregon, with the Bowerman Track Club, competed in the 5,000 meters at the 2016 Games in Rio. She was the sole American to make the final round of the event and place 11^th. She said she was “shocked and flattered” when she heard the community wanted to bestow the honor.

“There have always been people that have supported me and believed in me,” Houlihan said, in an email to Runner’s World. (She’s currently training in Switzerland for the world championships.) “As I’ve become more successful in running, that support has grown tremendously, and it’s really cool to see people taking an interest in what I’m doing and the sport itself.”

Houlihan comes from a family of gifted runners. Connie Houlihan qualified for the 1987 world championships and world cup in the marathon. Older sister Shayla Houlihan was a professional steeplechaser for the Brooks Beasts and is now head cross-country coach at Cal. Her family, seven siblings among them (who have dubbed themselves #Houlifans and #TeamHoulihan), travels all over the world to cheer her on, and several of them plan to go to London in August to support her in the 5,000 meters.

“I’m feeling very good and the most fit I’ve ever been,” Houlihan said. “I always set big goals for myself but I would mostly like to place higher than I did in Rio and run a fast time. I believe I’m in shape to break that 15-minute barrier, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to do that in London.”

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Other modern-day Olympians have felt the love from their hometowns, too. After the 2012 Olympics, La Pine, Oregon, named a highway “Ashton Eaton Boulevard,” after their native son who is a double gold medalist and world record holder in the decathlon and indoor heptathlon.

“It’s a great way to honor a hometown person that has shown even coming from a town like La Pine, you can still be anything you want to be if you apply yourself,” Ken Mulenex, then-mayor of La Pine told the Associated Press. “And we’re proud of that.”