Michigan student runner goes viral after competition
'Why would I try so hard and not try to win?' Holman said
University of Michigan freshman Ziyah Holman has gone viral for a stunning comeback during a 4×400 relay during a Saturday competition that happened to be her first track meet.
During the final race of the Simmons-Harvey Invitational in Ann Arbor, Holman made up for her team’s four-second deficit leading them to victory in the final leg of the relay with a 51.79-second split, according to the New York Post.
According to The Michigan Daily, Holman ran a 600-meter race an hour and a half prior to the competition where she won by four seconds with a time of 1:29.27, surpassing Ohio State seniors.
“It was a stadium record, a meet record and an NCAA lead [for the season],” Holman told the outlet.
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Holman, a native of Washington D.C., said that during the viral moment, as she was narrowing in on the competition, she remembered what she was taught.
“Just go test them, honestly. Just go get them, see how far you can get. As the race keeps going, you see yourself getting closer,” Holman said. “Like, ‘oh my god, I’m actually getting closer.’ Why would I try so hard and not try to win?”
Anthony Belber, Holman’s high school coach at Georgetown Day School in Washington D.C., said to his daughter, “If this were high school, she would’ve caught those girls, but this is too big of a gap for college.”
He continued after witnessing the viral moment, “I know how strong she is, but it even blew away my expectations for what kind of a time she would be running this time of year. She made the college athletes around here look like they were just high schoolers.”
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Notable figures such as tennis legend Billie Jean King shared the video from Sports Center on Twitter, writing, “This is why you never give up.”
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