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Emma Coburn

I am going to try my hardest not to cry, but I’m so overwhelmed you guys, this is, you should be so proud of yourselves right now. This is such an incredible moment and I just really wanna congratulate you on the hard work you’ve done to get here. And from our perspective, it really puts into, it’s hard to put into words how monumental the day this is and to get to be a small, small, small part of it is incredibly special. So thank you for having me. So also, I wanna thank the faculty, staff, all the parents and families, every proud buff alumni here today. Let’s just have a round of applause for everyone who helped these graduates get here today.

Today isn’t just the end of a chapter. It’s the end of one race—and the beginning of another. You’ve crossed this finish line and now, you’re standing at the starting line of everything that comes next. Before we go further, I want to thank Chancellor Schwartz and the Senior Class Council for inviting me to speak today. I actually didn’t walk my own graduation here at Folsom because I was competing in a track meet, the PAC 12 Championships. So, I am just going to pretend this is also my graduation. This feels really cool, just 12 years later, you know, a few more miles in the legs and wrinkles on the face. But you know, we’re gonna pretend this is back in 2013 for me.                                                                         

This university has shaped so much of who I am and again, why I said I’ll try really hard not to cry. This is an incredible honor for me. I was born right here in Boulder to two Buffs, who met on campus. Chancellor Schwartz told you all my family that have attended CU, we’re incredibly proud Buffs. I knew the fight song before I knew my ABCs and I went to my first Colorado football game when I was just three weeks old. My family still has season tickets right over there. So that’s where I sat, or was held. I’m sure my daughter Betty will get to go to her first game this fall as well. Years later, I had the honor of wearing the Buffs jersey as a member of the cross country and track teams, competing across the country with Colorado across my chest. I can’t tell you the amount of pride I had looking down and seeing Colorado on my jersey and the pride and confidence that gave me. I also wore that jersey when I qualified for my first Olympic team while still a student here. So, my journey started here. I’ve lived here in Boulder for 17 years, I’ve trained here. I cheered here. And today, I’m proud to celebrate here with you.

There’s something I want to talk about today, something I think about often, both as an athlete and just as a person trying to grow. It’s something I call “the gap.” The gap is the space between where you are now and where you want to go, between who you are today and who you are working to become. It’s not a flaw. It’s not a sign you’re behind. It’s proof that you have a vision for your life. The gap only exists because you’re aiming for something greater. And it can feel uncomfortable, sometimes even painful to sit inside that space. But here’s the truth, and I’m sure you already know this, but pressure, discomfort, the unknown. That’s where the growth happens.

This happened to me at 17, I stood on the starting line of the Colorado high school state meet, crying. Not because I was hurt, not because I wasn’t fit. But because I didn’t believe in myself. I was scared of failing. And sometimes, when things got hard, I would quit. I would drop out of races. That was my starting point. But at 21, I stood on the starting line of the Olympics. Same sport, bigger pressure, but a completely different person. I was calm, relaxed, and focused.

So, what filled the gap? It wasn’t magic, it wasn’t just talent, but it was work. Thousands of small, unremarkable steps. It was showing up to practice as a freshman, eager to push and grow. Even thought I had the slowest high school times on the team. It was finishing workouts when I wanted to quit. It was listening to feedback that stung. It was celebrating the little wins. A personal best, a hard workout. It was running a 4:54 mile in my first college mile race. Oh, well thanks. A goal that my coach set for me that I thought was way out of reach. And then I kept going again and again. I kept showing up and pushing for more, and by senior year, I won the NCAA championship mile running 4:29. That didn’t happen by accident. That happened because the space between 17 and 21 was filled with effort, humility, and belief. In my years as a Buff, I won 3 NCAA Championships titles and became an Olympian. But I didn’t come to this campus dreaming of being an Olympian. I was never the dreamer, I was always the doer. That is how I closed the gap, by doing. Not with one giant leap, but with a million small steps. That is how you will close the gap. Often you don’t even realize you’re moving forward, even when you don’t really know where the finish line is.

You might not realize it yet, but you’ve already closed a gap. Some of you started college on Zoom, from your childhood bedrooms, muted mics and frozen screens, uncertainty about what college would even be. And yet, look at you now. Think back to the person when you arrived on campus, like actually humor me and close your eyes and picture the person you were then, think about what your dreams were, what your hopes were, who your friends were, what you thought was fun, what music you liked. Maybe you were, you can open your eyes now. I just wanted to really, you know, get that image going. Maybe you were confident, maybe you were overwhelmed. Maybe you got lost looking for Macky Auditorium and called your mom from the stairwell. Maybe you got lost more than once. You showed up with questions. You wondered how you were gonna make friends or balance your schedule or show up to that 8 a.m. lecture. Often, you know, trudging through the snow. You didn’t know how to write a college paper or apply for an internship or function in a kitchen. Maybe you still don’t know the kitchen part.

But over these last few years, step by step, you built new skills, new habits, and a new version of yourself. You figured out how to manage your time. You learned how to advocate for yourself, finish what you started, and ask for help when you needed it. You got stronger, smarter, braver, more resilient. That’s what filling the gap looks like. Not overnight, not all at once, but consistently through late-night study sessions, difficult conversations, tiny victories, and all those invisible moments where you could have backed down but you didn’t. The person who walked onto this campus and the person sitting here today, not the same. And that change wasn’t an accident, it was earned. And that’s the power of the work you’ve done here. Not loud, not flashy, but real.

Now, closing gaps in college is, in some ways, straightforward. College is designed to help you do that. There are guardrails, you are nudged forward. But when you leave here today, those guardrails are down, the bumpers are down, and now it’s all up to you. You’re on your own, kid. I know you’ve picked up some lessons in college already, but I wanna leave you with two more. These are two principles that helped me grow and helped me close the gap. And I believe they’ll serve you too. Hopefully your last two lessons in college, right, okay.

Lesson One: Win at the things that don’t require talent. You don’t need talent to show up early, to be kind, to take feedback, to stay consistent. Those are choices, not gifts. I’ve won races not because I was the most gifted, but because I made choices and was consistent with the small stuff. I didn’t cut runs short, I didn’t skip the unglamorous parts. I listened, I prepared. I trained hard and I built discipline. And because of that discipline, not just talent, I won an Olympic medal in 2016 and a World Championship gold in 2017.

Lesson Two: Control what you can, let go of what you can’t. In sport, I can’t control if someone cheats or if someone else is better than me or if it rains on race day. But I can control how I respond. I can control my effort, my mindset, my resilience. Life is full of variables. But your preparation, that’s yours. When you focus on what you can control, you get stronger. When you obsess over what you can’t, you get stuck. Know the difference. Choose what brings you forward.

I’m not going to stand here and tell you that by taking steps forward, you’ll always make progress. You will fail, you’ll fail at things you thought you would conquer, and that's okay. It happens to all of us. At the Tokyo Olympics, I failed. I fell on the final lap, I was disqualified. The race I had trained years for, the race I thought was going to be my Olympic moment was over and it was a very public failure too. I was crushed. But because I had spent my career building a deep capacity for hardship, I didn’t stay down. I got up, I processed the pain, and the next summer, I came back and won my 10th U.S. National Championship, becoming the first American runner to win the same event 10 times.

So, you will fall too. At work, in love, in life. It’s not a matter of if, but when. So build your resilience now, stack your capacity now, learn how to rise. Victory isn’t the absence of failure, it’s the ability to move through it.

So when the next scary starting line comes, when you begin a new life, a new job, a new dream, you might feel like that kid I was at 17. Scared and unsure, wanting to call your mom and go home and that’s okay. Do it scared. You don’t need to feel ready to begin, you just need to begin. And when it gets hard, move forward anyway.

In the movie Finding Nemo, which came out in 2003, so a lot of you were just babies, but it’s a great movie. In the movie Finding Nemo, there’s a fish named Dory who has to swim into the deep unknown. She sings “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” It helps her keep going. I say the same thing to myself all the time, but obviously for me it’s “just keep running.” Because forward is always an option. Moving forward doesn’t require talent. Moving forward is always in your control. You’ve done it already and you will do it again. Just keep swimming, just keep moving forward.

To send you off today, I wanna remind you that you’re capable of building the life you want. You have already started, I mean seriously, look at you now. Think again of that kid when I made you close your eyes. Think of that kid and look at you now. You’ve already started. You are accountable for this life. You are the one who will close the gap between who you are and who you want to be. So when fear shows up, when doubt creeps in, just keep moving. Small steps with bravery and discipline. You’ve already closed one gap, step by step, choice by choice, and the next one will be harder, but you’re ready. Not because you know exactly where it leads, but because you know how to keep going. Just keep swimming and just keep moving forward.

Congratulations again to the Class of 2025. Sko Buffs!