Park Tudor High School

Abby Farley (now Abby Talmage) was born in Indianapolis to parents Tim and Diane Farley.  Abby grew up enjoying all sports including soccer, basketball, cross country and swimming, but found a special joy in track and field.  In high school, she was a three-sport athlete and three-time state champion in the 800-meter run.  She broke the then state record twice, running 2:09.5 in 2010 and lowering her own record to 2:08.91 in 2011.  In the State Finals, she was also part of Park Tudor’s 4x400 relay team, which was third in 2009 and sixth in 2011.  Abby was part of a stunning third-place team finish in 2009.  She went on to place third in the 800 at the New Balance Outdoor Championships in 2011.

Abby attended Duke University, where she was part of the varsity cross country and track teams.  While at Duke, she lowered her personal best in the 800 to 2:06.02 and qualified for the NCAA regional championships in 2012 and 2014.  She earned All-East outdoor and All-ACC honors in the 4x400 relay and distance medley relay and was on the ACC-champion DMR in 2014.

Though her college career was hindered by an iliotibial band injury at the end of her junior year, she opted to finish her education at Duke University and train post-collegiately for a year to attempt to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials.  Her final year of racing took her across the country, running in fall road miles, pacing future Olympic finalists, running at the U.S. Indoor Championships and culminated in lowering four seconds off her all-time personal best. Her Olympic Trials qualifying time of 2:02.00 in the 800 sent her out to Eugene for one final race.