Who is Calli Hauger-Thackery?
Rewind a year and there’s a chance you wouldn’t have heard of Calli Hauger-Thackery. But, in October 2023, the 31-year-old Brit from Sheffield announced herself in spectacular style. On her marathon debut at the low-key McKirdy Micro Marathon in New York, Hauger-Thackery crossed the line in a lightning-fast 2:22:17 – drawing her level with Charlotte Purdue as the second-fastest British female marathoner ever, behind only Paula Radcliffe.
With her marathon PB falling well within the Olympic qualifying standard of 2:26:50, Hauger-Thackery had set her sights firmly on racing in Paris this summer – and, following her selection for Team GB's women's Olympic marathon squad, she’ll now get the chance to live out her dream.
A family affair
While it might seem like a whirlwind journey, Hauger-Thackery's rise to Olympic qualification level has been a long time in the making. Born in Yorkshire to mother Rachel, a county level sprinter, and father Carl, a professional long distance runner in the 1980s and 1990s, Hauger-Thackery's obsession with running is very much runs in the genes, and her parents' achievements have been an obvious inspiration in transforming her childhood hobby into a fully-fledged career.
She fondly recalls a school sports day at the age of 12 as her first significant running memory. ‘The teacher said, "Off your marks, go!" and we ran around the whole school premises,’ she recounts. ‘I think, even from then, I just paced myself and I won the whole thing. My teacher said, "You’re really good at this running thing – you should join a club," so I went home to my mum who said that she’d been waiting for this day for a while.’
Even though her parents were aware of her potential from a young age, Hauger-Thackery says that there was never any pressure for her to pursue a career in professional running. But, she does say that their unrelenting support has been a key a factor in helping her to get to where she is today.
Running bug
After that pinnacle school sports day, Hauger-Thackery's parents signed her up to their local Sheffield club, the Hallamshire Harriers, where she fell in love with athletics.
She then competed in a series of races through high school and, by her mid-teens, was attracting scholarships offers from a number of American colleges.
Her dream was always to train in America, and she eventually took up the offer of a place at the University of New Mexico, where she spent four years. ‘It was an amazing experience. The university was in Albuquerque, which is an altitude spot in the mountains and desert. We had a few Brits on the team like Josh Kerr and Courtney Cartwright, so I was in good company,’ she explains.
With her running going from strength to strength, once she finished university she took off for Australia where she spent three years, training at the Melbourne Track Club. When she returned to the UK, she was selected to compete in the women’s 5000m at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She finished tenth overall, before taking sixth just a few weeks later at the the European Athletics Championships in Munich.
The following year, in October 2023, Hauger-Thackery's distance-running potential shone through at the World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, where she posted an impressive time of 68:56 in the half marathon. The achievement was especially emotional for the then-30-year-old, as her father had won bronze at the World Half Marathon Championships in Brussels 30 years ago to the day, and she had been determined to follow in his footsteps.
With no intention of taking her foot off the pedal, that same month Hauger-Thackery made her marathon debut in New York, where she secured her spot at her debut Olympics in spectacular fashion. She says that she chose the low-key McKirdy Micro Marathon over any of the big Abbott World Marathon Majors because she wanted to get used to the distance – and she was shocked by her own performance.
‘At that point, I was still very much a track runner, but I thought, you know what, this is the year I'm going to try the marathon and see how it goes,’ she recalls. ‘I guess all the stars aligned on the day and everything just went right in terms of fuelling and pacing myself. I was honestly shocked. I knew I was on for a fast time, but I didn't really know what that would be, so when I saw 2:22 I was so happy.’
Tough times
Among all the highs, it hasn't always been plain sailing for Hauger-Thackery, as 2023 also came with its fair share of struggles. Let down time and time again by agents with promises that never materialised, Hauger-Thackery was desperate to secure sponsorship so that she could scale up her training.
‘Last year was a really tough year because I fully quit my job to go full-on into running,’ she says. ‘I've worked my whole whole life up until last year. I was trying to juggle both running and work, and as a runner without sponsorship, it's really tough. Plus, things didn’t work out with several coaches, so I didn’t have a great support system – but despite the setbacks, I fully backed myself on my running journey.’
Her leap of faith paid off last October when she signed a sponsorship deal with Nike. Her father was also a Nike sponsored athlete, so she is proud to be following in his footsteps. ‘My dad was sponsored by Nike as well, so that was a big part of why I wanted to be with the brand,’ she reveals.
Now coached by her husband Nick Hauger, she says that she now has a great network of support around her, too. ‘My husband is just incredible and he does all the thinking for me – I trust him wholeheartedly with the training.’
A bright future
With just two months to go until she represents Team GB in the Olympics – and competes against the greatest athletes from across the globe – Hauger-Thackery is feeling in great spot, both physically and mentally. She says that her current training sees her bank around 220 miles per week, with a focus on speed and hill work, and that she is doing everything possible to stay injury-free.
‘The only overriding feeling I have right now is excitement,’ she notes. Training is going really well – I've been racing a little bit here and there, and it’s all definitely going in the right direction. I can't wait until Paris!’
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