A love of his sport and a motivational training set-up took the fast-finishing New Zealander to a world indoor 1500m title
George Beamish isn’t afraid of re-writing the history books. Ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics, the New Zealander will attempt to become the first athlete outside of Africa to claim gold in the men’s 3000m steeplechase since Bronisław Malinowski at Moscow 1980.
The 27-year-old, who finished fifth over the distance at last year’s World Championships and broke the Oceania record with 8:13.26 at the Monaco Diamond League, only switched to the event last season. He is the first to admit it’s been a quick learning curve but doesn’t want to put any limitations on himself, especially after a hugely successful indoor season.
Beamish set an outright national 5000m record of 13:04.33 in Boston back in January, before becoming the fastest New Zealander in history over 3000m indoors, clocking 7:34.88 in New York a month later.
Perhaps the most notable performance, however, came at the World Indoor Championships. Running his first 1500m for over a year, Beamish was up against a field that included reigning champion Samuel Tefera, world 1500m bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordås and the strong American duo of Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler. With less than 50m to go, Beamish was fifth but, with a last 200m of 26.11 that included a closing 100m surge of 12.78, the 27-year-old came through to win.
“[The kick has] got the tagline now of ‘Textbook George’,” he jokes, on a video call with AW, sat
in the green screen studio of his renowned Coffee Club Podcast.
Geordie Beamish (left) (Getty)
“I don’t intend running any differently. It stresses mum and dad out but people quite literally get a kick out of it. At this point running in that style is the only way I know, really! It’s fun and what I’m the best at so it makes sense to utilise that as much as I can.
“I honestly don’t think I ever pictured myself having that moment [as world champion] but I didn’t need the dream of being one to get me out to train every day. It’s not the only reason I’m in the sport. It’s incredible to have achieved that and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life but it hasn’t changed my approach.”
That approach involves a holistic view that is all about the bigger picture and not necessarily just focusing on medals and times.
“There’s so much more to the sport than being Olympic champions and breaking world records,” he adds. “I enjoy being in the sport so much and in a lot of ways sport is a huge part of life growing up.
“The professional level of sport is supposed to be entertaining and inspire the younger generation. I love being a part of something that people get a huge amount of joy from and that’s running the way I do.”
National pride is another part of the equation. New Zealand won two golds at Glasgow 2024, with Beamish and high jumper Hamish Kerr helping their nation to a record high of third in the medal table. Beamish also became the first athlete from his country, indoors or out, to become a 1500m world champion.
George Mills, Josh Kerr, Geordie Beamish (NYRR)
He hopes that a nation more renowned for rugby and cricketing achievements can also embrace track and field. It can be a challenge, given how far New Zealand sits from some of the traditional athletics hotbeds, but inspiration isn’t too far away.
“Australia have shown in the past couple of years that there’s really good potential for some good meets,” Beamish tells AW. “It was really cool to see Jake Wightman and Fred Kerley compete at the Maurie Plant Meet over the past couple of years.
“It’s so hard to visualise [a World Championships] being possible in New Zealand but a short track championships would be way more realistic. It’d be crazy to see and engage a lot of fans. I think people in New Zealand takes a whole lot of pride in any sport.”
Beamish didn’t actually get into track and field until the last few years of high school, having initially played rugby, hockey and cricket. The youngest of four siblings, he followed in the footsteps of his brother Hugo to compete in America’s NCAA system. While Hugo represented Villanova University, George chose Northern Arizona University (NAU) due to its cross country prowess.
He did have a number of injuries to overcome during that time but, under the stewardship of Mike Smith – current director of cross country and track and field at NAU – Beamish still managed to become a two-time NCAA All-American in cross country (2017 & 2018) and also won the NCAA indoor mile (2019).
It was in 2020 that Beamish took the “leap of faith” to turn professional and join the On Athletics Club (OAC) as one of its eight original members, coached by Dathan Ritzenhein.
OAC has now grown to over a dozen athletes with the main training base in Boulder, Colorado. Training with the likes of Yared Nuguse, Mario Romo and Joe Klecker has helped enormously.
“The results don’t lie and we’re growing as a group,” adds Beamish. “Dathan deserves a lot of credit for that. Having a supportive team structure is so important and that’s what I wanted out of college. I didn’t want to do stuff on my own in a professional setting.
“We meet six days a week which I think is a lot for a professional team. Dathan has stated that’s super important to keep the culture of the team intact and [make sure] we’re all on the same page.
“I love to train with others and I’ve never had a session where I’m the fittest on the team. I mean, Yared has run a 3:43 mile and you’ve got 12:50 guys for 5km. That’s a huge part of our success as we can push each other.”
That competitiveness is a huge driving force for Beamish ahead of Paris this summer. He is also inspired by Evan Jager, the American who claimed Olympic 3000m steeplechase silver at Rio 2016.
“History might be against me but it’s got to be possible, I don’t put any limitations on what it takes to label a successful season,” Beamish says. “I enjoyed the sport more than I ever have last season. I just want to show anything is possible.”
» This article first appeared in the May 2024 issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here