Schools

Sammy ‘springbock’ Goldin is a natural

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At only 8 years old, Samantha Goldin has been named the USA Track & Field’s Long Island Female Youth Athlete of 2022. Goldin has broken multiple records for her track group the Bellmore Merrick PAL club and consistently breaks her own records.

She said that her favorite event is the 200 meter and that she is best at sprinting. Goldin comes from a family of runners, as both her mother Jaclyn Goldin and her grandfather Artie Minkoff were track athletes.

Goldin is in third grade and started running a year ago, her family encouraged her to run after seeing her form and declaring her a natural, like those before her. Goldin said her favorite thing about running is “getting medals” because “it feels really good,” to receive them. She was elated when her principal at school No.9E Josh McPherson gave her a high five along with her Athlete of the Year award.

Samantha said when she’s running, “Mostly you don’t think about anything. When you’re running a race.

It’s just your breathing and your arms pumping because the faster the faster your arms go, the faster your legs go.”

She’s so fast, her family has nicknamed her ‘Sammy springbock’ after the antelope that can run up to 55 miles per hour.

She also got the nickname from her love of animals, which she hopes to pursue in some way in the future. “I have other things in my future, like being a zookeeper,” she said of her plans, adding that she loves red pandas. Her other interests include theatre dramas, she was happy to share she’ll be singing as Mrs. Potts in the school’s upcoming production of Beauty and the Beast.

Although Minkoff, who was a master runner and is in the Farmingdale State University Hall of Fame for running and ran in the biggest Israeli sport event the Maccabiah Games, doesn’t run anymore, he still gives his granddaughter pointers, drawing on 40 years of college coaching. Jaclyn said her daughter, “works really hard, she doesn’t quite know how good she is.”

Whether it’s on the track, on Broadway or as a zookeeper, Goldin’s family agrees, she’s got a bright future ahead.