Marco Arop's coach hails world champion runner as 'once-in-a-lifetime athlete,' marvels at fast recovery time

Years before Marco Arop ran 800 metres to a 2023 world championship gold medal and Olympic silver the next year, he was a 400-metre sprinter and could be spotted red-lining, or pushing his body to its maximum effort, during high school workouts in Edmonton.

But he had zero sense of pace.

"If coach gave me three 400m [intervals] I would go all-out in the first one and struggle through the next two," Arop recalled during a break in training while preparing to race the 800 and 1,500 at Grand Slam Track this Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia.

Arop would eventually understand his limits that enabled him to push through pain.

Most successful track and field athletes don't shy away from the pain of training, but Arop understands the pain pushes him a step closer to his ultimate goals, according to his coach.

"It means he's determined and committed to the craft, and he is not going to let anything get in his way," said Chris Woods, who has worked with Arop since becoming head track and field coach at Mississippi State University in 2019.

The 26-year-old Arop can buffer lactic acid, or hurt longer and more, than anyone Woods has seen in 12 years at MSU.

WATCH | Arop wins 800m at Grand Slam Track:

Canada's Marco Arop wins 800m at Grand Slam Track Miami

Woods, who began coaching at the U.S. collegiate level in 2009, has guided several track standouts, including four-time Canadian 800m champion Brandon McBride, but none like Arop.

"He's a once-in-a-lifetime athlete. The way Marco can recover between fast, long and hard intervals, I've never seen anything like it," Woods told CBC Sports. "My best educated guess is it's genetics and his upbringing."

To illustrate his point, Woods cited one of Arop's recent workouts at MSU.

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