John Carlson is a cross country and track athlete at Oakmont High School. He ranks among the top runners in the state of California, and is Oakmont’s fall athlete of the season.

John Carlson is from Roseville and has been at Oakmont since he was a freshman, and attended Creekview Elementary School, and Saint Rose for middle school.

Prior to running track and cross country, he has played flag football, and tennis, along with a couple of others. As a freshman, he played tennis instead of running track.

He was “forced” into cross country by his mother when he started high school. He had not run in middle school, and referred to himself as an “average” runner during his first season.

“We were all kind of around the same level, all the top 5 or 7 guys for the first two years” Carlson claims. “Some people just grew into their bodies and developed, maybe just got the gene pool better than other people.”

His transformation began in junior year. When he started to focus on running. Until this point, his main motivation for running was the people.

“I still do it for the people, but not just doing cross country for the people, but also for myself and to actually get good,” Carlson says.

John Carlson and all accomplished runners are somewhat of an enigma to most people. Most people do not like running, especially long distances, but these runners commit themselves fully to their sport.

When asked what he likes about running, Carlson replied, “I like that running keeps you accountable for being fit and doing your physical therapy. Cause if you’re not doing your physical therapy, if you’re not doing your strength [training], you’re gonna get injured. And sometimes you just get injured anyway.”

Another way it keeps you accountable is that you always have to be ready.

“It’s not like other sports where you could probably take a little bit of a break and then go in and still do fine, but running, you always have to be in shape all the time.” Carlson says.

Carlson sadly couldn’t race at state this year due to an injury. He was running a regular workout, when his fibula started bothering him slightly. But when he arrived home, it was hurting a lot. He was out of school for a few days because it was painful to walk. He couldn’t run at the California state championships or the Footlocker Western Regional race because of his injury.

Most of Carlson’s life is dedicated to running and homework, although he is also into robotics. He is a part of the robotics program at Oakmont. He and a group of other seniors organized a robotics summer camp last summer. It was open to middle schoolers, and was very successful.

Carlson has big plans for the track season. As of December 2024, Carlson has the second fastest 1600 meter time in Oakmont history. Dan Nevarro has held the fastest 1600 since 1977, and is now a track and cross country coach at Oakmont. He also holds the third place record for the Oakmont 800 meter race.

He is going to shoot for lower than a 4:10 minute 1600m this season, but would also be happy running a 4:10 or a 4:11. He is also trying for around a 1:53 minute 800m race.