Rochester Hills Runners Compete at Rio 2016 Olympic Games

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — Two Rochester Hills residents are running in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, one for Team USA and the other for Libya.

Desiree Davil Linden, a California native who now lives in Rochester Hills, will run for Team USA in women’s marathon at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She also made an appearance at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Linden competes Sunday, Aug. 14.

Mohamad Herizi, a 24-year-old who will enroll at Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University this fall, is one of seven members of the Libyan team, and the only one running in every track and field events for the team. He competes Aug. 21.

Both train with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project in Rochester Hills.

Herizi was born in Connecticut and lives in Michigan, but has dual citizenship. His family resides in their homeland, Libya, after raising Heizi and his brother in the United States.

He told The Oakland Press that he’s been running since an eighth grader, when the only sport available to him was cross country, but wasn’t particularly good at it.

“I was the slowest one on the team, but didn’t care and just kept running,” he said. “I was always the last one to cross the finish line.”

Everything had changed by the time he was a sophomore, when he consistently outdistanced the team’s fastest sprinters. He earned a scholarship to run cross country for Iowa State University, where he was named to the NCAA Division 1 first team All-American, as well as a two-time First Team Academic All-American.

Linden, 33, suffered a setback in London when, two miles into her race, she had to drop out due to excruciating pain due to what was later diagnosed as a femoral stress fracture. The timing was especially tough, according to Runners World, because she was just coming off a breakthrough year during which she ran the third-fastest marathon ever by an American woman, with a time of 2:22.38 and a time of 15:08 in the 5,000-meter race.

“There was probably some degree of relief when she found out why it hurt,” chiropractic sports physician John Ball told Runners World after she visited his practice in Phoenix. “And for the rest of us, it was like, Holy s--- she’s tough. For her to be swallowing it back, going to the line, determined to run? Wow.”

See Also

• Rochester Hills Runner Wins Rio 2016 Olympics Marathon Berth

She’s determined and ready for Rio, she told the The San Diego Union-Tribune

“I’ve had a chance to run the Olympic course in Rio. I got to enjoy the scenery, and it’s really beautiful. I don’t expect to be looking around on race day so I thought it would be good. Plus I learned the course, and while it’s fairly flat, it will be challenging.

“And while I want to win, this time I might not be too disappointed with a second,” she said, referencing the runner-up finishes that have marked her career, including her second-place finish to her college roommate, Amy Cragg, in the U.S. Olympics marathon trials in Los Angeles.
Running has taken her around the world.

“I tell everyone I have the best job in the world,” she told the San Diego newspaper. “I get to run for a living. I can run down to the store or run around the world. Running takes you places and allows you to meet wonderful people.

“I’d love to put a stamp on my career in Rio but who knows, maybe I’ll still be around for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.”

Image credits: Team USA via Flickr and, above, Getty Images