The road to Paris began – at least for Northern State alum Dakotah Popehn – with a rather unassuming freshman seminar. You know, the sort of large group setting where incoming freshmen are given tips for how to succeed as both a student and an athlete.

Buried in that seminar was an anecdotal story of another Northern State legend, Matt Muelners.

“At one of those meetings, they talked about the wrestler, Matt (Muellners), and how he went from being a walk-on to a full ride, and not just a full-ride, he was a national champion,” Popehn recounted. “I remember sitting there thinking, well, I’m a walk-on. He’s already done it. It’s already paved for me. If he can do it, I can do it.”

Popehn, who arrived on campus as Dakotah Bullen, certainly took that message to heart, going from walk-on to multiple-time All-American. Then she took it one step further – to the Olympic Games themselves.

Popehn was a member of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team, and was the top American finisher in the women’s marathon, finishing 12th overall.

That’s a sentence that still feels surreal to Popehn.

“It still hasn’t sunk in,” she said. “Every now and again I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’m an Olympian.’ Because you’re not just an Olympian for the time you’re competing, you get to be an Olympian for the rest of your life. I don’t know if it’s sunk in. It still feels like a whirlwind, a fever dream.”

Popehn was back on the NSU campus this past weekend for the annual I Hate Winter festivities, participating in a community forum, the weekly Sideliners Luncheon and also spending time with the Wolves’ track and field program, specifically.

It was a weekend stroll down memory lane for Popehn.

“In most ways, campus looks different than the last time I was here in 2017,” she said. “But what I love is that the Barnett Center is the exact same. It feels like this is a moment in history for me. I can walk downstairs right now to the exact spot that (former Northern track and field coach) Kevin Bjerke told me he thought I could make the Olympic Trials in the marathon. That was the exact moment the seed was planted for me, so it’s really nostalgic to be back here. I was doing workouts on that track trying to claw my way to an All-American. That moment down in the hallways. I have so many memories, and this is where that dream got started for me.”

Popehn, who also ran in the Olympic Trials in 2020, really gained traction as a professional runner with back-to-back victories in Grandma’s Marathon in 2021 and 2022. When she raced the Trials in 2024, she harbored a strong inner belief that she could make the team.

“It made me emotional, because you worked so hard every single day – every single hour of every single day – making decisions to get closer and closer to that goal, and at the end of the day only three people make it every four years,” Popehn said. “It’s pretty low chances. I did feel strongly that I could make that team. Every time I had a workout I could feel it, I could see myself coming down the straightaway making that team. For it all to come to fruition, it’s overwhelming to think about, even now. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. So few people get to represent America in the Olympics. We’re the hardest team to make year after year.”

Since returning from Paris, life hasn’t really settled down any. Popehn, who returned from the Games with a fiance in addition to her success in the marathon, got married, gave up her day job to become a full-time runner, ran the New York City Marathon and now is focused on the Boston Marathon coming in April.

“I’m always thinking in 4-year segments,” she said. “I want to make the Olympic Team in 2028 when it’s here in LA and 2032, it’s in Brisbane, Australia. So that’s where my sights are right now.”

Thus, it stands to reason that when Popehn spoke with the track and field programs during last weekend’s visit to campus, her message had a familiar ring to it.

“I think my message is, you know, I wasn’t a highly sought-after high school runner,” she said. “I wasn’t recruited by anybody. I was a literal no one, and I could become an Olympian. So that road has already been paved. If you can see it, you can do it. If they’re willing to dream big and really commit to the process, the sky is the limit.”