Fans of U.S. marathoning know the story: In 2000, when the U.S. only put one man and woman into the Olympic marathon, it sparked a distance revolution of sorts, with groups, individuals and, to some extent, shoe companies, trying to develop solutions to America’s lack of distance stars. Alberto Salazar created the Nike Oregon Project, Kevin and Keith Hanson founded the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project and Pete Palmer and Zika Janes started ZAP Fitness, among others. But while that year was a low point in American marathoning, it was also a low point for Canadian marathoning. They, too, only put one man into the Olympics, Bruce Deacon, who would finish 44th in 2:21:38. 

Since then, 12 years and two more Olympics have passed, but only now are the Canadians finally making their own resurgence. That’s what makes University of Guelph and Speed River TFC coach Dave Scott-Thomas so unique: while many have attempted, the only two runners under Athletics Canada’s rigorous Olympic team standard of 2:11:29 — Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis — are coached by Scott-Thomas. Unless three runners miraculously run faster than those two in the coming months, they’ll both be on the starting line on Aug. 12 in London. Coolsaet has run under the standard twice now, most recently in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last October, where he set his PR of 2:10:54. Teammate Gillis qualified in the same race with a 2:11:27. However, Scott-Thomas doesn’t think it’s quite safe to call the current situation a revolution in Canadian distance running. (Another of Scott-Thomas’ runners, Taylor Milne, took second in the mile at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on Saturday in Boston with a 3:56.40 effort.)