Evan Jager in action at the 2017 World Championships in London (© Getty Images)
Evan Jager, the North American record-holder in the men’s steeplechase, has announced his retirement from competitive athletics.
During an international career that spanned 18 years, the 36-year-old twice reached a global championships podium in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, claiming Olympic silver in 2016 and world bronze in 2017. He also set numerous continental records in the discipline, topped by his 8:00.45 clocking in 2015, despite falling in the closing stages of the race.
Jager started out as a 1500m runner and contested that event at the 2008 World U20 Championships where he reached the final. Just one year later, at the age of 20, he represented USA in the 5000m at the World Championships in Berlin.
He moved to the steeplechase in 2012. He won the US Trials that year in what was just his third competition in that discipline. His next two outings were at the Monaco Diamond League meeting, where he broke the North American record with 8:06.81, and then at the London Olympic Games, where he placed sixth.
Jager finished fifth and sixth at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships respectively. Prior to the 2015 World Championships, he had been on course to win at the Diamond League meeting in Paris and finish well inside eight minutes, but he clipped the final barrier. He quickly got back up and sprinted to the line, but was denied the victory and the sub-eight-minute clocking, finishing in 8:00.45 – a further improvement on his own continental record.
He claimed silver at the 2016 Olympic Games and backed it up with bronze at the World Championships one year later. In 2018 he won his seventh consecutive US title in the 3000m steeplechase, but an ankle injury prevented him from competing at the Continental Cup at the end of that season, marking the beginning of a long period of various foot and calf issues that kept him out of competition for almost 18 months.
Fully recovered in 2022, Jager finished second at the US Championships, sixth at the World Championships and first at the NACAC Championships. He missed the majority of the 2023 season but returned in 2024 and finished fourth at the US Trials, narrowly missing the cut for the US Olympic team.
“Track and field has been a part of my life for two thirds of my life and now it’s time to say goodbye,” he said in an Instagram post earlier this week. “I’m thankful that I achieved close to everything I thought was possible as a young kid when I started getting really serious about the sport. I’m very proud of everything I was able to accomplish. Beyond the medals and PBs, I was able to challenge myself, push myself and learn so many things about myself that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Now it’s time for me to contribute to the sport in other ways. As one door closes, another opens.”
