Quick Facts
Biography
Sasha Gollish (born December 27, 1981) is a Canadian competitive runner. She won a gold medal in the half-marathon at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, a bronze medal in the 1500 m at the 2015 Pan American Games, and gold medals at the 2017 Maccabiah Games in the 800m, 1,500m, and 5,000m events.
Early and personal life
Gollish was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Dr. Jeffrey Gollish and Dr. Patricia Houston. She has younger siblings Tara and Joey.
For high school she attended York Mills Collegiate Institute. She has a B.A. in Economics (University of Toronto), a Bachelor of Engineering (University of Western Ontario), and a Masters of Engineering (U of T), and is a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering Education (U of T) where she is researching the best way to teach engineering students to use math.
She works as an engineering consultant. Gollish is a civil engineer, with a focus on road safety. She is also a competitive cyclist, duathlete, triathlete, and ultimate frisbee player.
Running career
Gollish began running seriously at 33 years of age. She has run for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
She won the half-marathon at the 2013 Maccabiah Games. Gollish won the Sporting Life 10K in Toronto with a time of 35:58.
Gollish finished fifth in the 1500m at the 2014 Canadian Track and Field Championships. She won the Sporting Life 10K in Toronto with a time of 34:19.
At the 2015 Pan American Games, competing for Team Canada, Gollish won a bronze medal in the Women's 1500m with a time of 4:10.11. She was named 2015 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Female Athlete of the Year (track events) for her performance at the CIS Championships, winning three gold medals in the 1000m, 3000m, and 4x800m relay events and two silver medals in the 600m and 1500m events, the most individual medals ever won by a distance athlete. In November 2015 she was named one of the Top 8 Academic All-Canadians by Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
In November 2016 she won the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Half-Marathon with a time of 1:11:07, setting a new course record. Later that month Gollish won the senior women’s 10K at the Canadian Cross Country Championships in Kingston, Ontario, at Fort Henry.
In March 2017, Gollish won the senior women’s 8K with a time of 26:48 at the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Cross-Country Championships in Boca Raton, Florida. In June 2017 she won the women's 5000m in 15:24.12 at the Stumptown Twilight track meet at Lewis & Clark College.
Gollish won gold medals in the 800m, 1,500m, and 5,000m events at the 2017 Maccabiah Games, and received the Female Athlete of the Games award from Israeli supermodel closing event host Bar Refaeli.