Since 1996, the Road Runners Club of America has awarded 112 grants totaling $510,000 through its Roads Scholar program to assist American post-collegiate road runners who show great promise to develop into national and world class road running athletes. As of 2012, over 50% of the grantees (55 total) have gone on to run at the Olympic Trials after receiving the grant in either the Marathon or distance events for Track. Two grantees, Deena (Drossin) Kastor and Amy (Yoder) Begley earned spots on Olympic Teams.
Grants in the amount of $5,000.00 per year have been awarded to four to six athletes annually since the program’s inception. The program was created to improve the state of long distance running in the United States.
The program is directed towards runners who:
- Are U.S. citizens
- Have recently graduated from college (or whose class has graduated)
- Plan to pursue elite distance running as a career
- Expect to earn less than $35,000 from all sources during the calendar year
The deadline to apply for a 2016-17 Roads Scholar grant is September 1, 2016. Attendees to the RunPro Camp are strongly encouraged to apply, however attendance at RunPro Camp is not a requirement for receiving a Roads Scholar grant.