Athlete of the Month – Charlotte Turesson commits to Notre Dame
Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Turesson
Charlotte Turesson (right) was selected onto the All Decade XC team for MCPS in just her junior year.
March 5, 2021
Earlier this school year, Richard Montgomery senior Charlotte Turesson officially committed to Notre Dame to run for their track and field and cross country teams. The road to this feat, however, wasn’t always guaranteed.
Prior to running track and cross country, Turesson played both basketball and lacrosse. “Playing those other sports helped me realize what it means to work hard and never give up,” she said. “They helped me gain a solid mentality focused on the growth mindset.”
She also credits these sports for giving her a reason to join cross country. “I started [cross country] my freshman year of high school honestly to stay in shape for basketball and lacrosse. Once I found out I was pretty good at it, I . . . began taking it seriously to the point where it was more enjoyable than basketball and lacrosse,” Turesson explained.
Despite being a novice runner, she quickly made up for it with her dedication and tenacity to the sport. “Charlotte is an amazing athlete and person,” cross country and track coach Davy Rogers said. Turesson’s teammates concur with this sentiment.
“[Turesson] is the hardest working individual I have ever met,” junior Henry Kaye said, “She is incredibly determined and will succeed at any cost.”
Turesson has an impressive array of achievements to cement her reputation, including her junior year Great American performance and her defeat of a long-time rival to nab first at the Maryland State Championships. “I kept training and getting beat by her, but eventually was able to pull away in one of the most important races,” she said. “It felt amazing to finally accomplish what I had wanted for so long.” It’s a marathon, not a sprint. — Charlotte Turesson
Despite her incredible physical feats, Turesson credits the growth mindset and how she’s incorporated it in her own life. “With this mindset I can see setbacks and bad workouts or races as learning points, instead of failures,” she said. “Mindset is almost everything in sport because believing you can do something and having that drive is much more powerful than the actual talent.”
For Turesson, another important factor in sport is the team itself. “I love our spaghetti dinners and times when the whole team is together making jokes and having fun,” she reminisced. “I love seeing people grow and learning about others to help them become who they want to be because that’s how I see this sport. It’s an opportunity to put forth effort and get the results from it.”
After her sophomore season, Turesson was diagnosed with a stress fracture. “I didn’t think I would ever be the same runner again,” she recalled. Because of the diagnosis, Turesson wasn’t able to run during her recovery period. Instead, she relied on lifting weights and cross-training to stay in shape. “It was tough to have the motivation,” she said. “But I learned to control the controllable and do the best that I could with what I had.”
In the end Turesson’s resilience paid off, and she will now be taking her talents to the next level at the University of Notre Dame. On top of its rigorous academic record, Notre Dame has one of the top Division 1 athletic programs in the country. “I knew this school would give me the opportunity to excel academically and athletically while staying true to who I was and what I aspired to accomplish,” she said.
Her commitment to joining the ‘Fighting Irish’ was sealed during a campus visit. “I loved the atmosphere and sense of community within the students,” Turesson said. “The coaches also were incredibly welcoming and our values and philosophies around running matched up perfectly.”
Turesson has undoubtedly been a role model for many athletes both on cross country and at RM. “The little things that you do . . . will help you even more [to] become the best athlete you can be,” she advises any other runners hoping to succeed or move on to the college level. Turesson also believes that consistency and diligence will bring results for any athlete. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
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