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During a recent podcast appearance, superstar actress and musician Jennifer Lopez made a bold claim about her high school track career. But a quick look into the claim shows that she may well have been exaggerating, or worse, outright lying.
Lopez made the claim while recording a recent episode of “The All-The-Things-Program” podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
At one point during the show, Rogers asks Lopez about her athletic prowess, as the two bonded over running track. When he asked her what her events were, she responded that she ran both the 800 and the 1,500.
Rogers then said that he ran the mile (1,600), to which Lopez enthusiastically responded, “Me, too!”
She then asks for his best time, which he states was 4:36 (an impressive time for a high schooler!). But when answering what her best time was, Lopez said “I think my best one ever was 4:49.”
Now, if true, that would be genuinely incredible. A high school female running 4:49, especially in the 1980s, was borderline unheard of.
Jennifer Lopez Probably Misspoke When Discussing Her Incredible Mile Time
A quick look into the history books shows that Lopez definitely did not run a 4:49 mile in high school. One fan discovered that the top time in the country in 1987, Lopez’s senior year, was 4:47. In fact, only three girls in the country broke 4:50, and Lopez was not anywhere on the national list.
The most likely answer is that Lopez conflated the 1,500, which they run in New York state, and the mile, which is 1,600 meters and run in most other states. A 4:49 in the 1,500 is still wildly impressive, but it translates to somewhere around 5:11 for the mile.
JLo Was Still An Incredible Runner
Despite the mix-up, Lopez still had an extremely impressive youth track career. In fact, she was part of a national record-setting 4-by-800-meter team in the 13-14 age group. The team reportedly ran a time of 9:43.6, Lopez ran a reported split of 2:27.9, which is wildly fast for that age.
Here’s NYRR chair Nnenna Lynch sharing a bit more evidence of J. Lo running in high school. https://t.co/PHBNobv7wR pic.twitter.com/soblqZjPbt
— Chris Chavez (@ChrisChavez) October 8, 2025
While many won’t, we’re going to give JLo the benefit of the doubt here and say that she did not mean to exaggerate her times, but rather mixed up the events, which is an easy mistake to make.
Either way, her actual, recorded accolades on the track are wildly impressive.