Running is ‘Deep Action’ for Ku Stevens


Watching Ku Stevens fly over the cross-country track in Nevada was like watching a movie screening.

He is such an athlete Wolf StreetOur Sports of the Times columnist loves to write about it. A larger-than-life and reality-rooted athlete at the same time, driven to perform but motivated by more than the watch or the scoreboard.

Streeter first learned of Stevens after completing an 18-year-old Memorial Run, a 50-mile journey over the summer in honor of his great-grandfather’s repeated escapes from an Native boarding school in Nevada.

When Streeter first chatted with StevensGiven that Stevens often worked alone in the demanding cross-country sport, he was surprised by the runner’s perspective, maturity, and talent.

Earlier in November, Streeter watched Stevens win the interstate championship as the audience cheered and said, “This is Ku, the Native American boy from camp. Oh man, he’s fast!”

Not only did Stevens win 59 seconds ahead of 2nd place in his league, he was also the fastest in the state. He finished the season undefeated in Nevada.

But Stevens said he would run even if he didn’t win, Streeter said. “He would just run because it’s a deep move.”

After Stevens won the state championship, he didn’t sleep or plan to hang out with his friends the next morning. He awoke to chop wood for his family’s backyard sweat shed. He would attend a ceremony to commemorate the season, honor the moment, and stay grounded as there is still more work to be done.

I talked to Streeter about him. Article on Stevens, what the sport means to the runner and their family, and how high school cross-country is paid for are far more meaningful than miles driven.

This talk has been edited and shortened for length and clarity.

Can you tell us more about Stevens’ relationship with running?

Much of what he does is connected with a sense of honoring the Yerington Paiute tribe and Native Americans and first nations and Native peoples everywhere. he is aware brutality and hardship the challenges of the past and present. He is both spiritual and practical and aware of politics. As he runs, these are the moments when he has to meditate on all this.

It’s one thing to get to this level in such a demanding sport. You have to love him and he does. He lives for it: the feeling of being in his body claims that space on the path.

You can see it in your steps, you can see it in the way you talk about sports. It’s not boring for him. He talks about pain as something he embraces, enjoys, and wants to challenge himself.

He has all these big dreams to run. He would love to run for the University of Oregon but I think he does too, who knows if that will happen? He’s definitely getting to work—running 50 miles to 60 miles or more a week, a ton on his own.

I’ve been with many great athletes in my life: from my days as a college and professional tennis player to my current life as a sportswriter. Ku is among the most disciplined and self-motivated athletes I have ever seen.

You said everyone knew Stevens, both on his reservation and in Yerington, Nev. Tell us more about his community and family.

His family is super supportive; nice people. You can’t have a kid like Ku without great parents. But it’s not compelling. Their attitude is, ‘Well, this is what he wants to do, this is his life and we will help him achieve his dream’.

His father Delmar is a runner. The story goes, from when Ku was really a baby, he took Ku for a run on runners pushed by his parents and it went from there. Ku started walking and then running as a toddler. He would go 20 meters with this dad, then he would go further, and in this way, Ku was always running around because of his dad.

They are a family that really cares deeply about their Indigenous heritage and are truly committed to keeping traditions alive and rooting in that culture – that’s how they taught Ku to be.

The climax of the story is the state meeting. What was it like being there?

I started focusing on that state meeting – not knowing what to expect. I thought Ku would most likely win the junior school title, but I didn’t know about this awesome runner Nathan Carlin from Las Vegas. He runs in the 5A race for major schools.

They both basically ran their races alone. And then the fact that Ku finished with one second faster time? Something out of the movie.

Everyone could see how light Ku’s steps were. It has a nice fluidity to run; It’s something I can see, and I’m far from being a distance running expert. But something you can immediately sense – that it’s a little different in terms of strides and smoothness.

It’s pretty amazing to think how good he was without having a lot of expertise around him until recently.

You wrote that Stevens hoped to beat Carlin’s time before he started but was racing on his own. Did Carlin and Ku ever cross paths before or after the races, both of whom won by dominant performances?

I didn’t write about it, but Ku and Carlin met each other this very neatly after the state meeting. They had never met and apparently didn’t even know about each other.

After the race, there was a great moment of friendship and sportsmanship. Carlin came to talk to Ku and congratulate him. And there was a lot of ‘oh man, you’re awesome’ from both guys. It was a beautiful moment when the two of them respected each other’s efforts.

I was really impressed with it. It was a wonderful moment to honor the achievements of a competitor with respect and sportsmanship. You could really see how everyone honors the shared sacrifice and pain you have to go through to be good at cross country.



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